KevinM1

If you don't know how to explain your problem, what makes you think we'll be able to solve it? A screenshot tells us nothing.

I understand that kind of situation all too well. In fact, my career to date has largely revolved around fixing the messes poorly skilled and/or unmotivated developers, interns, and students have made. It's kept me pretty busy. Unfortunately, you're discovering that even though you didn't pay the student any money, you're still paying with wasted time and a damaged brand. That said, I hope the experience doesn't make you gun shy about hiring students in the future. There are many out there who would love to have a real project they could add to their portfolio. The key in finding them is to do your due dilligence. Ask for references. Ask to see examples of what they can do (completed homework assignments are great if this is what they're studying). Just because you're not paying cash doesn't mean it's not a business arrangement. Maybe you did do all those things and you got a dud. It happens. But in my experience, it's usually a case of a lack of communication and no clear cut boundaries or responsibilities that lead to these kinds of problems. I'm not trying to chastise or kick you while you're down. Just trying to share my experience so you don't get screwed over again. I tell my clients much the same so when I move on from them they can make good technical business decisions without me.

Is there a reason why the data is being extracted from the DB and put into XML? From a business POV, please tell me you fired the student. Delays are common in this field (although, a quality developer can ballpark how long a project will take and add in a buffer for unforeseen consequences), but a 7-8 month delay? Inexcusable. Especially with modern tools and frameworks.

Locking this because we have 6 pages of host suggestions/discussion in our Miscellaneous section: http://forums.phpfreaks.com/topic/29572-web-host-list/

Forget you know anything about $GLOBALS or the 'global' keyword. Using them is the path to madness, then death.

Salathe, man... he wounded me deep.

I'm still annoyed that they haven't implemented object properties yet: https://wiki.php.net/rfc/propertygetsetsyntax-v1.2 How many 'yes' votes does an RFC need in order to proceed?

C++ is still the go-to language for the vast majority of desktop apps. And, again, you thinking that OOP is the bestest evar is wearing incredibly thin. Frankly, you'd be laughed out of most interviews if you did that kind of thing in person.

This kind of headache illustrates exactly why it's better to store files in the file system than the database.

iOS != OSX.

I agree fully with trq. Singletons are usually bad news because they blow apart encapsulation and scope, which are two of the underpinnings of OOP. I'm generally weary about database wrappers anyway as many are just a layer of unneeded abstraction. In any event, instead of using a Singleton, look into Dependency Injection (DI, also known as Inversion of Control (IoC)). It's a much cleaner way to introduce external dependencies to an object, and it does it without knocking down the walls that define an object's boundaries.

There are no stupid questions, only stupid people... like the kind of person who has a question about something, but neglects to ask it.

You have started multiple threads on the same topic, which is a violation of our rules. I'm locking this one. Do NOT start a new thread on this again. If no one has helped you, post in one and ONLY one of your other threads to bump it back up to the top of the first page.

Like Barand said, your problem isn't exactly clear. We're not in the room with you. So, ask a better question, which includes what you're trying to do, what the expected results should be, what the actual results are (including all errors and warnings), and the relevant code (including database schema).

Well-designed apps/sites are RESTful, which is a fancy way of saying that GET should only be used to retrieve information and POST should only be used to modify information. Those methods are HTTP verbs. They have meaning, and should be used according to those meanings. If you have a list of items that a user should be able to delete one-by-one, just make each entry its own form that uses POST. There's no rule saying you can only have one form on a page.

What about functional programming? What about environments where the overhead of creating and tracking objects make OOP unsuited to the task? Why can't procedural code work as well? OOP is certainly not ideal from a computing POV, with its overhead.

What constitutes a perfect script? When you can answer that intelligently, you might begin to understand why people continue to take issue with your blind fanboy rambling.

Exactly. Every client's needs are different. Some might need extensive graphics work. Some might need a lot of JS. Others may want a responsive design with elements from the previous two scenarios. Short of going the "I have 5-10 templates that fit most needs" route, you're going to have to build a fair amount from scratch. A hard price cap will inevitably cut into your margins at that point. So, if you want to market yourself as a discount developer that can provide quality while undercutting the competition, go for it! That's exactly what you should be doing at this point in your development. But pricing should be determined after conferring with your client. A hard cap is just too limiting for all involved.

An estimated quote is normal, but only after the developer and client figure discuss what the site should be. Estimates should always be 25%-75% higher than what a developer thinks it will cost in order to take into account bugs, testing, unforeseen consequences, etc. That way, the developer doesn't run the risk of going over and pissing off the client. If, for some reason, the developer gets close to the upper limit of the estimate, they should talk to the client. This is all common sense, business 101 kind of stuff. If you want to have clients and keep them happy, you need to communicate with them. Status updates, with screen shots if possible, that sort of thing. There is never a legitimate reason to quote a client a certain fee, not communicate with them, and then charge them more when the project is completed. People who do that make it that much harder for qualified, responsible freelancers to get work. So, with that said, I don't think I've ever seen a reasonably qualified developer have price plans. Each site should be tailor made to the client, even if it uses frameworks or templates you already have. Price plans make me think someone's going to install WordPress and one of 5-10 themes they have access to, and simply change the name at the top of the index page. There's nothing wrong with that per se, but I wouldn't consider such a person a developer.

PHP runs on a server, not in the browser. So, no, you wouldn't be able to do it with PHP.

I think that such an app is fraught with privacy and ethical concerns. Many Facebook and Twitter users use pictures of their children as their avatar, So now you just gave pedophiles a tool to scout victims, where they could potentially (and likely) learn where the child lives, what school they go to, etc. through their parents' social media accounts. To say nothing of other forms of more mundane stalking and harassment.

Given that the mysql_* functions are soft deprecated, your company really should take the time to modernize, if they want to keep up-to-date with PHP releases and the bug fixes and security patches they have. Have you (or your company) considered looking into something like Doctrine? Why roll your own and go through the growing pains associated with it when you can grab an enterprise solution off the shelf and integrate it?

Yup. A column of CSVs in a row is probably the #1 sign of doing it wrong. Here's a link to a good introduction to normalization: http://mikehillyer.com/articles/an-introduction-to-database-normalization/

Sounds like you need to normalize your data to me.

Eh, it's pretty cheap if you're actually coding for a living. It costs maybe an hour or two of work.