chronister Posted January 7, 2008 Share Posted January 7, 2008 I have 2 family members thinking of purchasing a video store. I was thinking of building a PHP/mySQL based store management solution. Customer db, movie db that auto populates info from the net, rental tracking, Sales reporting, Sales Tracking, Marketing based on customer trends, etc. Basically I am wondering a web based solution would be the way to go for all aspects of running a video store. I am thinking of running the web server locally at the store and blocking it off with firewall and such with backups of data and all that. I also thought that it would give me the ability to allow a public website interface where as people rent things in the store I can implement a function that updates a pub web with what is available in the store in real time. What do you folks think of a project like this? Does this seem like a doable project and does the web app system seem like a good way of managing a video store? As an aside, I am going to try and use a barcode scanner to feed data and really make it automated to track inventory. Anyone had any luck scanning data into a web page app using a barcode scanner with keyboard wedge, usb , serial or other connections? Thanks, Nate Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DyslexicDog Posted January 7, 2008 Share Posted January 7, 2008 Yes all the things you are asking about are doable. On a side note... Why wouldn't you make the site publicly available? You could allow customers to check stock and also recommend other titles if the one they want isn't in stock. The barcode stuff is pretty easy, the scanners just read characters from the barcode into what ever text area you have selected. Also you can create barcodes with PHP check around I've seen classes that support multiple types of barcodes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chronister Posted January 7, 2008 Author Share Posted January 7, 2008 Well actually I am thinking of a public one and a private one. The private one is the internal rental, timeclock, inventory, sales and such management. I am thinking of creating an interface between this private one and a public one so that the internal info is not on a public accessible server but the internal system updates the public system with inventory information so as to keep a real time on-hand public viewable system with the possibility of an online rental system so a person can rent and pay from home and pick it up. Email notification or even an api between the public one and private one that sends it directly to the system so it prints out the receipt and the clerk knows to go grab it off the shelf and hold it. I am just thinking what kind of cool things I might be able to do with this kind of project. I already have an IMDB class that will get movie info by entering the title and clicking a link to "add to db". I use this for my personal collection and it could be ported and given a little more horsepower to be a really cool movie inventory management system. Thanks for the input D Nate Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chronister Posted January 7, 2008 Author Share Posted January 7, 2008 *bump* Anyone else have an opinion on this? Thanks, Nate Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
revraz Posted January 7, 2008 Share Posted January 7, 2008 I personally would use a client server solution instead of server scripting, but that's my preference. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chronister Posted January 7, 2008 Author Share Posted January 7, 2008 I personally would use a client server solution instead of server scripting, but that's my preference. Would you mind elaborating on this? Do you mean using a javascript/ajax type system? Thanks, Nate Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
revraz Posted January 7, 2008 Share Posted January 7, 2008 No, VB.NET or VB6 I personally would use a client server solution instead of server scripting, but that's my preference. Would you mind elaborating on this? Do you mean using a javascript/ajax type system? Thanks, Nate Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ken2k7 Posted January 7, 2008 Share Posted January 7, 2008 I personally would use a client server solution instead of server scripting, but that's my preference. Would you mind elaborating on this? Do you mean using a javascript/ajax type system? Thanks, Nate AJAX is JavaScript language. o.O Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chronister Posted January 7, 2008 Author Share Posted January 7, 2008 I know that javascript and ajax are the same... I just spelled it out that way for no apparent reason You think it should be written in a desktop programming language? This is what I wanted to find out. I am not sure if a web based solution like this would be the best way to do it or if it should be done in a desktop programming language. What do others think? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DyslexicDog Posted January 9, 2008 Share Posted January 9, 2008 The only thing I don't like about a fat client is you're restricted to a single OS unless you code using something like C++ with a GTK front end. The nice part of using a web based application is you can pretty much access the applications from any terminal with web access. If you have a in house server you can even deliver a different application depending on what IP address the client accesses your program from. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chronister Posted January 9, 2008 Author Share Posted January 9, 2008 DD, that was the kind of thinking I was going with, plus the fact that outside of html, php, css, and a tiny bit of js I can't program at all. I am not sure what kind of system is in the joint now, but I am thinking that a web based system run on a web server in house could deliver more for the money seeing as how it is either this or they would have to buy software if what's in place needed upgrading which could get expensive. Plus I can make it so I can run an extranet with all in-store functions disabled and create an employee area for things like paycheck stubs or to change tax info. So we have 1 for web based and 1 for desktop language based. Who else wants to chime in here? Thanks for the opinions folks. Nate Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DyslexicDog Posted January 9, 2008 Share Posted January 9, 2008 Don't forget you can setup your terminal machines with a bootable cd kiosk with minimal hardware you can stop those pesky employees from installing garbage! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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