Starting a PHP project

[chai]

Hi all PHP gurus,

I am to develop a CRM-like software for a company in PHP.

I have no prior experience in PHP. I worked with ASP all the while.

I've been going through some PHP tutorial, e-book etc..



My questions are:

1) What are the things that I need to know/sort out before starting to code besides designing on the data model.
For eg, is there any particular structure that is recommended for a CRM s/w??(don't know whether this makes sense?)

2) I've read about OOP programming in PHP. Do you guys recommend in coding based on it.
As I am really new to PHP and the timeline is quite short, is it better if I just code it
"normally"? (writing often-used functions and calling them etc ..etc)

3) Any good PHP web resources that are recommended?

4) Any specified programming structure that I should keep to?


I hope to have all the important "structure" well defined/designed to make enhancement easier in the future.


Thanks in advance.

[448191]

1) The structure will hardly differ by choice of the scripting language. You may encounter limitations or possibilities compared to asp, but you'll have to adapt as you go.

2) I can recommend to use OOP for PHP, especially if you'll be able to use php5. Procedural scripting can get messy if your creating an app the size of an CRM system.. Since you've already got experience with asp, it won't take long to master.

3) Pffff... Too many. I can recommend you do a couple of CMS tutorials, that'll give you a point to start. Secondly, share your codedrafts on forums, let people tackle the problems you encounter. I probably shouldn't be saying this, but since you don't have much time, I think it's best to use multiple communities...

4) PHP is really flexible, can't think of anything specific.

Good luck.

[chai]

[!--quoteo(post=375472:date=May 20 2006, 04:26 AM:name=448191)--][div class=\'quotetop\']QUOTE(448191 @ May 20 2006, 04:26 AM) [snapback]375472[/snapback][/div][div class=\'quotemain\'][!--quotec--]
1) The structure will hardly differ by choice of the scripting language. You may encounter limitations or possibilities compared to asp, but you'll have to adapt as you go.

2) I can recommend to use OOP for PHP, especially if you'll be able to use php5. Procedural scripting can get messy if your creating an app the size of an CRM system.. Since you've already got experience with asp, it won't take long to master.

3) Pffff... Too many. I can recommend you do a couple of CMS tutorials, that'll give you a point to start. Secondly, share your codedrafts on forums, let people tackle the problems you encounter. I probably shouldn't be saying this, but since you don't have much time, I think it's best to use multiple communities...

4) PHP is really flexible, can't think of anything specific.

Good luck.
[/quote]

Thanks for the advice.
Off with my new project then :)