Urgent help needed please

[Plummerdan]

Hi guys,

I am a well established plumber with a large business and employees, therefore i am looking to develop an multi platform app for clients to use on there android, blackberry, windows and i-phones.

What im wanting is an app that will constantly update with available appointments that i have (time slots if you like) through the day, however if i take a booking over the phone i wish to be able to amend the system so that it will automatically take out the timeslot that someone else has booked. Is this possible? if so how could i look at starting this off ? any feedback would be much appreciated Thank you in advance

 

[smakme7757]

It's definitely possible.

It could be quite expensive though if you want the app to be cross platform. But it's a fantastic idea, so if you can afford it then you should definitely do it!

If you let people know where you're located they might be able to help with finding an established developer in your area.

 

[smackababy]

It should be fairly easy. I haven't actually done any app development, but it sounds simple enough to build. A decent looking UI that connects to a database that shows the available times. Depending on how involved you want to get, you could probably get it to interface with Outlook on the business end so you don't even have to update it after you set an appointment in Outlook.

 

[Train]

It should be fairly easy. I haven't actually done any app development, but it sounds simple enough to build.

Quote of the century.

 

[uclabachelor]

Hi guys,

I am a well established plumber with a large business and employees, therefore i am looking to develop an multi platform app for clients to use on there android, blackberry, windows and i-phones.

What im wanting is an app that will constantly update with available appointments that i have (time slots if you like) through the day, however if i take a booking over the phone i wish to be able to amend the system so that it will automatically take out the timeslot that someone else has booked. Is this possible? if so how could i look at starting this off ? any feedback would be much appreciated Thank you in advance

How much are you looking to spend on this?

<$100 - go buy an existing solution.

$100 - $1000 - go buy an existing solution and have them customize it for you.
$1000 - $10,000 - just the bare minimum for you to fully specify out and have programmers from outside the US implement the specifications.
$10,000 - $100,000 - anyway you want it buddy.

 

[DaveSimmons]

Why not have this appointment calendar be a web page instead?

Then there are no apps to manage, they just navigate to you.com/schedule with any device at all.

Otherwise you need to mess with 3+ development toolkits, 4+ app stores, and costs like paying Apple $100/year for your application signing certificate.

 

[smackababy]

Quote of the century.

From a development standpoint it shouldn't be hard. And while I do lack app development experience, I highly doubt it is that much different from native Java app development. Which I have experience with.

 

[Markbnj]

From a development standpoint it shouldn't be hard. And while I do lack app development experience, I highly doubt it is that much different from native Java app development. Which I have experience with.

Well mobile development does have its peculiarities across devices, like any platform, but if you approach it as a web page, as Dave suggested, it shouldn't be too difficult.

 

[Red Squirrel]

Why not have this appointment calendar be a web page instead?

Then there are no apps to manage, they just navigate to you.com/schedule with any device at all.

Otherwise you need to mess with 3+ development toolkits, 4+ app stores, and costs like paying Apple $100/year for your application signing certificate.

This is what I'd do, make it a web page that is mobile friendly instead of making an app. That way you're not stuck having to update so many different apps. Blackberry, IOS, Android... then there are perhaps oddball phones using a proprietary OS where it wont work, etc... Since a calendar app like that requires internet access anyway, may as well just make it a web page.

 

[Plummerdan]

Hi thanks so much for the replys i live in newcastle england, and with regards to a web page i already have a background in php and html and currently have this via a mysql database, however just for simplicity of a user i would like it to be developed as a multi platform app therefore easier for my clients ... money that i wish to spend on it would be around 2-3000 pounds, just another quick question would an app integrate with my website as i will need it to continuously talk with mysql database therefore the office can also update with appointments when some users ring in ? ... thank you again for all your help

 

[DaveSimmons]

I'm not sure that an app would automatcially be any simpler than a bookmark to a phone-friendly web page. Web pages can be decently interactive with scripting + AJAX and/or frames.

Are you targeting people like property managers that use your service often? I'm much more likely to be willing to visit a web page than to download an app, especially for a service I might only use once in a blue moon.

2-3000 pounds might get you bare-bones iOS and Android apps, once, but you'll then need to pay for maintenance on them.

 

[beginner99]

I recently had to create a web app were internal people could reserve access to certain machinery. Anyway the issue is how complex your actual requirements are...mostly people want more features than the initial claim.

Anyway have a look at this JQuery Plugin:

https://github.com/themouette/jquery-week-calendar

Demo Page:

http://jquery-week-calendar.googlec...endar_full_demo.html?_sm_au_=iVVMnDWNPW8nF6H0

I had to customize it a bit for my needs so that is possible too. So a somewhat competent developer should be able to create something usable with this in a week times max. In my case I use sqlite to store the meeting data.

 

[EagleKeeper]

Any different than Google Calendar?

 

[Plummerdan]

yea Dave we have now decided to keep it online as a web page,and develop an app at a later stage, as internet it much cheaper than a multi platform app, i am going to begin work on the actual site today, however will be needing a bit help with the back end of things connecting to mysql ect and getting the system we are developing talking properly ... would be grateful if someone would be able to help me with this and take it on as a project ... if anyone is interested, your help would be much appreciated i can send a spec of what we need and possibly give us a quote on how much we would be looking at ? ...

 

[Plummerdan]

and beginner99 we could definitely use something like that to help us