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What do you do with PHP?


fusionpixel

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[!--quoteo(post=345863:date=Feb 14 2006, 10:44 PM:name=fusionpixel)--][div class=\'quotetop\']QUOTE(fusionpixel @ Feb 14 2006, 10:44 PM) [snapback]345863[/snapback][/div][div class=\'quotemain\'][!--quotec--]
Hummm, but some of those appls area already developed... do people request to make new applications similar to those from scratch?
[/quote]
It's quite common yes, people like bits from one system and bits from another system combined to make their own system. For example, I do a lot of bespoke systems for people that are similar to stuff already out there, but missing some key parts...
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Well, I know from my experience, many projects that are "paying" projects turn out to be modifying apps that ARE already out there. For instance, I've had a couple big projects at work that were basically modding OSCommerce to fit the needs we had at the time. On the other hand, the need often arises for a solution that is not easily approached by modding existing software. I've been in the development of a commerce system for the last six months here at work that is custom for our Snack Shop on campus. It integrates directly with their POS system allowing them to pull orders from online into their queue to have ready by the time designated by the user. Nothing we could find already coded was close enough to what we needed to merit the time involved to modify it, so we ended up writing it all from scratch. There are definitely pros and cons to writing things from scratch to fit your needs, though:

PROS:
1) [i]Exact[/i] fits to your needs.
2) MUCH easier to modify later since the code originated with you
3) No licensing issues to deal with

CONS:
1) Mainly, development time skyrockets when you're writing from scratch
2) Can cost more because of time.

That's in the work environment. On the personal level, I've used PHP for my homepage, but I have my address book, blog, calendar, and other applications online that I've written from scratch using PHP. Partially just as an exercise in learning, but mostly because I like my apps to fit [i]exactly[/i] what I need them to do without all the extras floating around bogging down processing time.

Just my 2 cents ;-).
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i'm a student/freelance web developer and most of my work involves creating CMS systems from scratch. VERY little of my work involves adding to an existing system.

right now, i'm working on 2 CMS's and a website. the website and one of the CMS's have to be created from scratch but the other CMS just needs some features added to it. one thing i hate creating is websites because it's so monotonous :/

i don't mind creating CMS's if it's an unusual one...i enjoy data mining which is something i look for when it comes to clients.

so yeah, as a PHP developer, there is almost always a lot of work...the problem is finding the time to do all that work and maintain a social life. one has to go :)
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PHP is for any application to store, display, modify, send, create, combine, or otherwise manipulate data. It is not limit to the Internet. Don't fool yourself into thinking it is just for E-Commerce. It is for Databases, Email System, Catalogues, Graphic manipulation, data type conversions, and a zillion other things that are mostly limited by your imagination.

It is VERY MUCH a tool of choice for many IT Professionals and hobbists as well.

What do you want to do?
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Thanks for everyone's reply. I have hit a spot where I want to move forward developing PHP apps but I got stomped for a second not know what else there was out there besides web development with PHP. Also I was wondering why would some one would become a full time php developer when there are so many good apps already created.

I have a feeling this confusion comes from being a graphic designer/ developer in my current job. So i guess sometimes we wonder what we do in reallity since some of us spend 50% of the time coding and 50% time designing. Although i believe it has shifted more to 75% coding and 25% designing and the coding is not only PHP its mostly a combination of CSS/HTML/PHP.

I would love to make the move and do 100% PHP/HTML/CSS but I guess that is just because I have spent so much coding lately (almost the past 3 months or so) and i really enjoy it. In the other hand my designing skills have beeing fading out slowly. If I get asked to design a layout for a website I would pop 2-4 a day, now it takes me almost the whole day to come up with an ok idea.

Anyways, thanks all for your comments and if some one is in the same boat.. what have you done? have you switched completely?

Oh no to add that now the company that I work for is moving to .NET, so its like WTH?
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I only really use PHP for websites.

At work I've created a data entry site for entering our QC and test information for the product we manufacture. We also use PHP in the R & D department for keeping track of things. I guess pretty much all I use PHP is for dynamic stuff and accessing MySQL Databases

*shrug*
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I work for a large international company, so I build websites to share our internal data. We run detailed tests on the products we build and that data has to be compared to the data run in our 3 other labs world-wide. So I take the data, put it in report format and build graphs off of that data. Some of my databases require user authentication, some do not. All of them require database interaction and some pretty hefty math.

While I think the web is the future for data interaction, I don't think it can do it all. While some of my graphs are pretty impressive, it takes time to build them even on a LAN (4-5 seconds, sometimes a little more depending on complexity).

So we're still developing a variety of system based programming tools that can do more intensive analysis. The web has it's place, but so do a lot of other tools. I know a lot of people talk about how web 2.0 could transform the way we compute, but I don't think we'll EVER go 100% in that direction.
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Thank you everyone for taking the time to post things that you do with your PHP knowledge. Although it might not seem like it, but I have been following every reply and reading each one of them carefully.

It is amazing the diversity of jobs out there and no need to just think that PHP is for only one thing. It has defenately opened my eyes and ecouraged me to continue in my PHP carrer (as short as it might be :) )

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