I want to build a program ... advice needed

loopylou · 1 Nov 2010 at 15:48

Hi all,

I am hoping you will be able to help me, I want to get back into programming (I haven't really done any since uni apart from SQL queries).

I thought the best way to get back into it is to create a little project for myself, which is to build a complaint management system!

Features I would like of my program
SQL back end to save the information.
Ability to log time spent on complaints
Ability to generate standard letters from the system, but pulling through complainant information such as name and address.
Ability to save letters against the complainant to be viewed again at a later date.
Ability to capture investigation information through standard forms.

I need some advice what GUI I can use. I have no restrictions on whether it is web based or standalone. Also if anyone can give pointers where I can look to research how to produce documents from the system that would be great.

Thrash · 1 Nov 2010 at 17:01

You could use an Access front end with either an Access or MSSQL back end. Easy to integrate with Word to create the letters and would be quick to prototype.

regulus · 1 Nov 2010 at 19:40

Or, to train those atrophied programming muscles, use a language of the .Net variety. With C-Sharp you can knock up a working prototype in a day or two. That include learning some of the basic language features as well. Hell, I think the hardest part would be designing the UI in a professional manner.

loopylou · 1 Nov 2010 at 21:49

Thanks for the suggestions, will have a look at C#. It's been so long since I have done any programming it's hard to get my head around where I want to start. I already have a page of notes regarding the design and how I want the interface to work. Looking forward to getting started.

The design will be the hardest bit, I have never got the knack of making things look clean and simple.

ZombieFan · 1 Nov 2010 at 22:23

You may want to consider how many people are going to be using the application at the same time. If it has multiple users then it may be better to go with a web-based system, since this will remove the need for installation on individual computers and can also help when working with just one central database for everyone.

Tilluss · 2 Nov 2010 at 08:46

ZombieFan said:
You may want to consider how many people are going to be using the application at the same time. If it has multiple users then it may be better to go with a web-based system, since this will remove the need for installation on individual computers and can also help when working with just one central database for everyone.

I agree, something web based would be best for this kind of system. That would involve HTML, PhP and MySQL, or if you wanted to go the microsoft route you can use HTML, ASP.NET and MSSQL.

_TubbZ_ · 2 Nov 2010 at 10:46

I would go the web app route for this too. Look at php and mysql and a decent framework, I have recently started to learn code igniter framwork which seems to be awesome. Along with some plain php tutorials it shouldn't take you long to build a capable crud app.

My development setup is:
- xampp (mysql, php, apache webserver and perl which I haven't used)
- eclipse pdt (for most the coding of HTML, CSS, JavaScript and php)
- codeigniter framework
- notepad++ for little edits
- chrome dev tools

All are free and rather easy to use with plenty of documentation and large community base when it comes to questions and plugins etc. Goodluck

BunnyKillBot · 2 Nov 2010 at 10:53

Python, all the way. Python

Thrash said:
You could use an Access front end with either an Access or MSSQL back end. Easy to integrate with Word to create the letters and would be quick to prototype.

Please take this olde yella out back...

Creating letters is easy. You could just have a template file with keyword tags, then enact a simple search/replace to fill them.

loopylou · 2 Nov 2010 at 18:12

Thanks guys, I'll be spending lots of time in hotels over the next view weeks so this will get me doing something in the evenings rather than watching rubbish on telly.

I'm liking the idea of the web based route as I concentrated on those languages at uni, so it will be more refreshing some skills while learning some new ones too.

regulus · 2 Nov 2010 at 19:34

BunnyKillBot said:
Python, all the way. Python

Please take this olde yella out back...

Creating letters is easy. You could just have a template file with keyword tags, then enact a simple search/replace to fill them.

What's Python's GUI tools like? Been meaning to get my hands dirty with Python for a good while now but I fear GUI programming.

My head is still full of bald patches from my last foray into that type of esoteric voodoo. I prefer a nice and easy IDE where I can drag and drop buttons and forms, assign properties and make them dance. I don't want to code them from scratch.

Does Python have that type of IDE?

BunnyKillBot · 3 Nov 2010 at 10:03

regulus said:
What's Python's GUI tools like? Been meaning to get my hands dirty with Python for a good while now but I fear GUI programming.

My head is still full of bald patches from my last foray into that type of esoteric voodoo. I prefer a nice and easy IDE where I can drag and drop buttons and forms, assign properties and make them dance. I don't want to code them from scratch.

Does Python have that type of IDE?

I have no idea about a drag and drop IDE, but GUI programming is not that bad. As any Linux fan boi would probably tell you, there are certain benefits from doing this programatically rather than wysiwyg

wxpython, which wraps the wxWidgets library is probably the most powerful and widely used.

http://wiki.wxpython.org/Getting Started

lemonade · 3 Nov 2010 at 14:34

You could use the QT framework to build a GUI.

If you go the Java route, then Netbeans IDE has some built in GUI builder. But from my own experience hand coding the GUI is the best way, it's not that hard building a simple GUI for Java, but can't say for something more complex and fancy.