how to start a workflow tracker? PHP mySQL

craptakular · 29 Jul 2014 at 21:52

Essentially the company I work for still uses word documents for projects and an excel log book as a project tracker.

As a proof in concept I want to start to mock up something using mysql as the DB, php and javascript.

I have some experience of these three in the past, what I have no experience in is creating a login system and subsequent approval levels for each stage and then tying up each initiator and approver for each stage... so its something like this:

Craptakular permissions for stage 1, Stage 3,4,5.

Designer Guy permissions for Stage 2 only.

Craptakular selects Designer Guy as the designer and "sends" to him so he can complete Section 2.

Designer Guy completes Section 2 and sends back to Craptakular to complete for Stage 3 Approval.

hhmmm this is going to be complicated... I just realised I would need to create a portal system for each user as they would need to see there pending workflow/actions.

gah, I am making no sense...

Kotu · 30 Jul 2014 at 23:05

what about using a message board/forum? you could setup member groups with permissions for stages.

planty · 30 Jul 2014 at 23:23

Is there any reason why you need to write this yourself? Some of the features you mentioned could end up being quite complicated. There are plenty of cheap/free issue tracking tools that may be suitable for workflow management:

Jira - really powerful, use this at work, not free though.
Bugzilla - Not used this but heard good things, and its free.
Pivotal - Again, heard good things about this but it's based around agile development so may not be suitable. There's a free trial.

davetherave2 · 31 Jul 2014 at 00:15

Would something like trello not also be suitable for this as well.

Having tried a number of different solutions and attempting to build my own I see why these systems can be very expensive as the logic and workflow can get really tricky.

If you have share point you could use that at a push with workflow features (my share point experience is a bit rusty but I am sure there was a workflow processing template)

I wish you all the luck and if you need help with security/login there a number of great guys out there and technologies (coming from a .net background I use Brock Allen's Membership reboot library) takes all the headaches out of doing all the security stuff and I can control all the access through claims.