On Wed, 2011-09-14 at 19:17 -0700, Craig White wrote:
... snip interesting posting ....
WebApps are clearly the future - it's hard to justify specialized server/client applications (installation, limited choice of clients, maintenance, licensing) and it seems that the future will offer 2 choices... SAAS or run your own.
That is the way I see things. Web runs anywhere. Otherwise specific application software (usually costing money), licensing involvement, software dependency etc. Grab a reasonable browser and start using the application!
My own take on it... 'plain html' accounting is just fine.
Mine are a bit more than 'plain'. I use CSS. However accounting is basically entering or capturing the data; then doing basic tasks like orders, invoices, statements etc. Add some complicated things like credit control and specific discount structures for individual customers. Branch-out in to name, address and other contract details, add the mailing list facility. Add stock control, automatic re-ordering etc.
The best bits that make the directors happy is when they can sit in front of the screen and see the sales figures and trends. Everything summarised on a single page with more detailed analyse with a simple click. Think Gmagic, or perhaps Imagic, may be able to plot on a HTML screen.
Have headings in a language file, so international customisation becomes easier. Add an access control system allowing users to access different modules and menus.
OK one can't (yet?) plug-in a bar code reader to a web application but an interface box can transmit the data using TCP.
To keep the PHP reasonably secure, it requires HTTPS and access authorization is done by LDAP authz so if you don't have a username and password on his system, you can't get the login screen. Of course the server is kept up to date.
Agreed. Security with HTTPS and non-standard ports not 443, 8000, 8080 etc. Currently use static IPs to prevent unauthorised access.
As for Paul's expressed notions... It would take a fairly massive amount of man hours to produce a fully functional dual entry accounting package for widespread business use.
I think the essential thing is sheer inspirational brain work carefully thinking about everything before stating to code. Get the structure and the objectives correct and the rest is a piece of cake. And be prepared to modify.
Before you decide on an environment, you would probably want to commit to test driven development and MVC which almost invites the use of a framework (Cake/Django/RoR). Personally I am biased towards RoR but starting a large scale project in ruby, php or python without using one of the frameworks at this point would be a really poor choice. There are a number of PHP based accounting systems out there which you could probably fork but why? They all missed the boat somewhere, somehow.
Unsure what you mean by 'framework'.
Simple to write, harder to ensure everything integrates well. Probably 3 to 4 months part-time. Easy and intuitive to use and delivering what the users want plus scope for customisation.