how much would a simple webpage in php/mysql cost?

[mcveigh]

A friend wants to do a database for his office that would do job tracking.
like... customer comes in to get something done. someone enters in the name, maybe a few checkboxes a comments field.
as the job progresses other people could check off that they are done.

the main thing is he needs to have a good search feature so customers don't fall through the cracks.

I have seen and used this typre of application in MS access before but he wants to have some people start working from home. So I thought why not php/mysql/apache.

are we talking thousands of dollars here? or just a couple hundred?

 

[rh71]

You may be aware that this is not as simple as a single webpage. Such a job requiring interactivity would be costed at a per-hour rate. But I wouldn't expect the total cost to be over $1k. I don't know PHP/MySQL too well, but doing it through CF/Access (all you need) would be a quickie, but the skill required (and software) to do so would be the cost factors. With PHP/MySQL, at least those are free.

 

[Jugernot]

That would be pretty easy to do for someone who knows what they are doing. I could do it, but I just don't have time these days.

Anyway, I'd expect to pay over $1k as any type of programming is expensive.

 

[rh71]

Originally posted by: Jugernot
That would be pretty easy to do for someone who knows what they are doing. I could do it, but I just don't have time these days.

Anyway, I'd expect to pay over $1k as any type of programming is expensive.

Just curious, how would you tackle the search feature ?

 

[StageLeft]

Including testing I'm gonna guess around 4 days. Perhaps $1500 or something.

 

[Jugernot]

Originally posted by: rh71

Originally posted by: Jugernot
That would be pretty easy to do for someone who knows what they are doing. I could do it, but I just don't have time these days.

Anyway, I'd expect to pay over $1k as any type of programming is expensive.

Just curious, how would you tackle the search feature ?

Without knowing what type of data I was searching for I'd just use the LIKE command in MySQL. Such as:

$db = mysql_connect("localhost", "database", "pass") or die("Error " . mysql_errno() . ": " . mysql_error());
$select = mysql_select_db("table") or die("Error " . mysql_errno() . ": " . mysql_error());
$query = "select table.name, table.data LIKE '%$q%' order by table.name";

With $q being the variable introduced by the user's search. You could also doing something like with in a predefined setup of times/conditions such as when a job was done.

Or something to that effect. Very simple really, if you needed to search for something more specific, just setup a join between the two tables and perform a selective query each time you run a search.

Anyway, like I said without knowing exactly what he would be searching for, I couldn't say exactly what I'd use.

Jugs

 

[777php]

Do you need a GUI client? (PHP + GTK) If so, that will take longer and cost more.

 

[Balthazar]

Originally posted by: 777php
Do you need a GUI client? (PHP + GTK) If so, that will take longer and cost more.

He reffered to it as PHP/Apache/MySQL so I would assume it's web-based and no GUI would be used (well, no stand-alone GUI like a GTK+ style).

As for the overall cost, I know people who would probably do it for much less than a thousand, but the big variable is, how much functionality does he want?

If he wants it to make toast and walk the dog it is going to get expensive, if he just wants something he can stick up on a webserver and let people access to append notes to or check tasks off as completed then probably not an arm and a leg.

 

[Christoph]

Before you go to the trouble of rolling your own, you may want to see if something like Willow or phpHelpdesk or some other existing groupware tool would fit your needs.

 

[mcveigh]

Originally posted by: Balthazar

Originally posted by: 777php
Do you need a GUI client? (PHP + GTK) If so, that will take longer and cost more.

He reffered to it as PHP/Apache/MySQL so I would assume it's web-based and no GUI would be used (well, no stand-alone GUI like a GTK+ style).

As for the overall cost, I know people who would probably do it for much less than a thousand, but the big variable is, how much functionality does he want?

If he wants it to make toast and walk the dog it is going to get expensive, if he just wants something he can stick up on a webserver and let people access to append notes to or check tasks off as completed then probably not an arm and a leg.

I think he would to be able to build upon it for the future, but for right now he wants to track projects coming in and be able to search by name/othercontact info and progress.

 

[GagHalfrunt]

If it's something simple like described, I'd do it for less than $1000. It's probably under 10 hours work in total for what he's asking for, but I've also learned that the original requirements and the features the client actually expects in the end are mutually exclusive. On the surface right now it sounds pretty simple, a table for customers, one for jobs, one for authorized users and passwords so they can log in from home. Of course by the time whoever is buying gets done with the "Can you add in a ..." and "Wouldn't it be nice if we could also do..." phase the project would grow to 40 tables and have more lines of code than Windows.

 

[Balthazar]

I might be wrong here but unless he does a HIGH level of traffice I really don't see why he would need MySQL, easier for the developer sure, but his webhosting is going to be more expensive (if even just by a little) that way.

And yeah, IF it stays as simple as described, then it wouldn't take too long and wouldn't be too expensive.

 

[mcveigh]

Originally posted by: Balthazar
I might be wrong here but unless he does a HIGH level of traffice I really don't see why he would need MySQL, easier for the developer sure, but his webhosting is going to be more expensive (if even just by a little) that way.

And yeah, IF it stays as simple as described, then it wouldn't take too long and wouldn't be too expensive.

why not mysql? what would be easier to use?
I was planning on hosting it in house for now then moving to an outside host when external access is needed

 

[GagHalfrunt]

Originally posted by: mcveigh

Originally posted by: Balthazar
I might be wrong here but unless he does a HIGH level of traffice I really don't see why he would need MySQL, easier for the developer sure, but his webhosting is going to be more expensive (if even just by a little) that way.

And yeah, IF it stays as simple as described, then it wouldn't take too long and wouldn't be too expensive.

why not mysql? what would be easier to use?
I was planning on hosting it in house for now then moving to an outside host when external access is needed

I believe Balthazar was referring to the fact that for most web hosts having MySQL is slightly more expensive than not having it. For some it's a couple of extra dollars a month while for others it only comes in the more expensive packages. That's not true of all hosts though and some freebie hosts even offer limited PHP/MySQL access. Technically it would be possible to do a fairly simple thing like this without a database of any kind. You could just store the info in flat files and read and modify them through normal HTML forms. That's not the best way to go though, that's the low-rent way out and would only be useful if there was absolutely no way to use a database. To make things faster, easier, more efficient and most importantly, scalable in the future, MySQL or some other relational db is definitely the way to go. It's fairly easy to set up Apache/PHP/MySQL/Perl (if needed) on a Windows box for hosting in house and done properly it migrates to external access on a Unix box seamlessly when the time comes.

 

[Balthazar]

Originally posted by: mcveigh

Originally posted by: Balthazar
I might be wrong here but unless he does a HIGH level of traffice I really don't see why he would need MySQL, easier for the developer sure, but his webhosting is going to be more expensive (if even just by a little) that way.

And yeah, IF it stays as simple as described, then it wouldn't take too long and wouldn't be too expensive.

why not mysql? what would be easier to use?
I was planning on hosting it in house for now then moving to an outside host when external access is needed

Well, it's not a matter of which is easier to use, from the user standpoint nothing changes, from the developer standpoint it changes a good bit.

And if you plan on hosting it in-house then it's no biggie for you to slap up MySQL.