2. PHPRunner General questions
  3. Should (and can I) use PHPRunner?
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Should (and can I) use PHPRunner?

 		12/2/2006 7:16:36 PM
PHPRunner General questions
J
 Jkelleyus author

Hello everyone....
I decided to post here because the forum does seem fairly active... as opposed the the one for the Codecharge product.
Here's my project: I'm retired and doing some volunteer work for a charity organization that helps mentally challenged folks. They operate a small factory doing simple jobs for local bigger outfits.
I've done some things with forum software in the past (mostly mods), know and understand servers, apache, MySql (to some extent), and relational database design (I'm a very old dBase character!)
I thought a software system that would allow he charity to collect information on bad parts (scrap), shipping, production and so forth would help a lot... I rolled up my sleeves and got started...
They had a lot of the info already in things like Excel spreadsheets, Access databases... on-and-on. I have migrated all that over into a MySql setup that seems to make sense.
So... I needed something that would talk to MySql... generate forms that I could customize, do quite a bit of relating between tables in one form.... and make it as easy as possible for 'challenged' people to use. Things like drop-down menus and perhaps even context-sensitive search boxes might be the key here.
I don't know a darn thing about php really... and I can putz around MySql a little.
Will PHPRunner help me? I have already CodeCharge and have not been very impressed at this point.
Here's an example... I have a db with three tables.
Scrap

Parts

Customers
Scrap relates to parts on a key field that I want the form to pull a description from.

Scrap relates to customers on a key field I want to pull the customer info from.
This seemed difficult and slow to do with Codecharge. The databases are not large by Mysql standards... the scrap database has abot 5000 records, the customer and part db's about 100 each.
Sorry for the long first post. I'm just curious what others have done at my experience level with PHPRunner.
Thanks for any advice.
Jake
L
 		lawfour 12/2/2006

Hi and welcome,
I believe phprunner will do what you want, I have used it for almost a month and if you get stuck the great people on this form will help you. I have created a DVD database for friends and families and so for I have over 800 records, not the 5000 you are talking about but I am sure i will get their.
The program itself is a easy program to use when it comes to creating tables and it does drop down menu, but not using enum as with phpMyadmin which is a good thing. I use a table to create my dropdown menu and if I need to add something to the dropdown all I have to do is add it to the table. They have a tutorial on dropdown menus that is very good.
I have to admit this is the only program that keeps me up 2-3 in the morning and not because it is hard but it is so much fun to use, it makes you want to finish your project and move on to the next.
As for knowing PHP it's always good to know a little, that is my skill level but if you don't the program creates everything for you. And if you want to do something that you are not sure how to, just post your question, during the weekdays you get a fast reply.
But of course you should download the demo to make sure it's right for you.
L

Hello everyone....

I decided to post here because the forum does seem fairly active... as opposed the the one for the Codecharge product.
Here's my project: I'm retired and doing some volunteer work for a charity organization that helps mentally challenged folks. They operate a small factory doing simple jobs for local bigger outfits.
I've done some things with forum software in the past (mostly mods), know and understand servers, apache, MySql (to some extent), and relational database design (I'm a very old dBase character!)
I thought a software system that would allow he charity to collect information on bad parts (scrap), shipping, production and so forth would help a lot... I rolled up my sleeves and got started...
They had a lot of the info already in things like Excel spreadsheets, Access databases... on-and-on. I have migrated all that over into a MySql setup that seems to make sense.
So... I needed something that would talk to MySql... generate forms that I could customize, do quite a bit of relating between tables in one form.... and make it as easy as possible for 'challenged' people to use. Things like drop-down menus and perhaps even context-sensitive search boxes might be the key here.
I don't know a darn thing about php really... and I can putz around MySql a little.
Will PHPRunner help me? I have already CodeCharge and have not been very impressed at this point.
Here's an example... I have a db with three tables.
Scrap

Parts

Customers
Scrap relates to parts on a key field that I want the form to pull a description from.

Scrap relates to customers on a key field I want to pull the customer info from.
This seemed difficult and slow to do with Codecharge. The databases are not large by Mysql standards... the scrap database has abot 5000 records, the customer and part db's about 100 each.
Sorry for the long first post. I'm just curious what others have done at my experience level with PHPRunner.
Thanks for any advice.
Jake
T
 		thesofa 12/3/2006

Hi

Yes, PHPRunner is exactly what you want, it will allow you to make good-looking web pages for ease of use, without any knowledge of PHP at all.

If you then want to mess around and do fancier bits, the problem is not knowing how to code it, the real problem is knowing the right wuestion to ask. Once you get the question right, the answer will probably lie in this forum somewhere.

Give it a good go, I too came from coldcharge. Not easy.

this one is esay, there are good tutorial, some of the forum members are very knowledgeable and very helpful, and i have yet tio see anuone flamed.

Good luck and welcome to the madhouse!

HTH
J
 		Jane 12/4/2006

Jake,
I see what you're saying.

You can link your three tables using master-detail relationships.

Here is a "How to setup master-details relationships" flash tutorial:

http://www.xlinesoft.com/phprunner/php-database.htm
Also you can see or download PHPRunner live demo here:

http://www.xlinesoft.com/phprunner/livedemo4.htm
J
 		Jkelleyus author 12/4/2006

Thanks for everyone's comments so far...
I had some time this afternoon so I downloaded the trial and got started...
Everything worked as advertised. I did have to make the change to php.ini as indicated in the FAQ.
A couple of questions, though...
The date serach functions don't seem to work. This may be related to the SQL date format which is MM-DD-YYYY. I'm not sure how to fix that...
Everyone keeps talking about the 'visual editor' but I don't find references to it in the on-line manual. How do you get to it and work with it?
The installation is on a server the charity uses every day, so I don't have access to it at home presently. I'll look into setting up a tunnel so that I can work on it from home as well. I think this will be a quite fun and rewarding project... thanks to your help here.
I imagine we'll be licensing the product soon.. from what I've seen so far.
Thanks again.... be gentle with the 'learner'.....
Jake
J
 		Jane 12/5/2006

Jake,
all info about Visual Editor you can find in the PHPRunner HELP (C:/Program Files/PHPRunner3.1/help). We'll update online help in the near future.
I'm not sure that I understand you correctly.

Please give me more detailed description of what options you use for your date field on the "Edit as" settings dialog on the Visual Editor tab or what expression you use on the SEARCH page.
J
 		Jkelleyus author 12/5/2006

Jake,

all info about Visual Editor you can find in the PHPRunner HELP (C:/Program Files/PHPRunner3.1/help). We'll update online help in the near future.
I'm not sure that I understand you correctly.

Please give me more detailed description of what options you use for your date field on the "Edit as" settings dialog on the Visual Editor tab or what expression you use on the SEARCH page.


Jane,
Found the info in the help that came with the package. Updating it online would be great help to me.
I worked this about 3 hours this afternoon and am very happy so far. This product will allow you to go farther, faster, and less complicated than Codecharge ever thought about. I will license our copy tomorrow. I love the lookup table wizard. After coding this kind of thing in dBase and even VB I know it can be time consuming... but it's a flash with phpRunner!
The date search thing still does not work correctly. As other posters have said, if you type in the SQL date... say as 2006-12-05 for today... it works. If you use the datepicker and the 'Between' dates option it does not.
Where is the "Edit as" setting dialog on the Visual Editor? I couldn't find it. The MySQL datatype is set to DATE, and the phpRunner properties for the date are set to SHORT DATE. I've updated the php.ini for our regional settings.
If I'm looking for today's tranactions as a search term... and I type in 12/05/2006 (or 12/05/06) the records are not returned. If I type in 2006-12-05 they are.
Help me fix this and I'm hooked on phpRunner for sure....
Thanks,
Jake