What's the best way to approach this very simple project?

[Diddums]

I need a very simple URL system, where I can stick a QR code to a piece of plant (pump, boiler, whatever) which an engineer can then scan and links to a very simple page with a photo of the item and a description of the maintenance that needs to be carried out.

I've approached this from all sorts of angles and it's always too much for me to learn in one go so I lose interest, so I need the easiest, quickest, simplest way to do this.

Basically a simple page, with a photo, with a URL which can be easily accessed. It should be editable by whichever is the simplest way, but only by an admin.

Oh and I need it to be very secure.

Can any of you boffins suggest anything?

Cheers

 

[gpuerrilla]

Datastore (MySQL, postgres etc.), language (PHP, flask/python), little HTML to keep simple form layout. Then the usual stuff like hosting depending on what you already have at your disposal. You scan the code that pushes a GET request which then comes back to the user with the page of what you said above.

Im not that versed in the securing it side of things, but you did want simple!

 

[Semple]

Is the page with photo and maintenance steps something provided by you, or directly from the manufacturer?

If the latter, then you don't even need a system. You could just generate a load of qr codes and point them to the manufacturer manual/reference material etc.

 

[gpuerrilla]

Two issues I see with that. One is if you point to the manuf. page they might move it or take it offline. Second is from my relation to supporting field engineers, you will link to some sites that are either vague or have no explanation so you will need to add steps/detail especially if you have a cop or procedure to align to.

 

[garnett]

WordPress site, with a page for each item, and a blog on each page where the newest maintenance requirements get posted as a new blog entry.

You can then set up "contributors" (I think) , with their own login details, and they can submit new "blog posts".

(There are probably plugins and widgets that might make it slicker)

 

[Diddums]

Thanks for the replies guys, very much appreciated <3

I think @garnett might be on to something but I need to have a proper fiddle to see what works best. As @Th0nt says, I'm reluctant to link to a manufacturer's page because they might change the link / product / whatever, and also a lot of manufacturers simply say "call one of our engineers at £lol to investigate a fault".

Naturally though we've decided to start ramping up towards re-occupation of the office so this is yet again put on the back burner until I've got some free time

One day Diddums, one day

 

[touch]

Any CMS will let you create basic pages like that with individual URLs. WordPress is a good suggestion.

If you want to link to the manufacturer, use a url shortener service like tinyURL or something. The QR codes on the machines don't ever change url but you can change where that tinyURL redirects to so you can handle it if manufacturers website changes.

 

[garnett]

Thanks for the replies guys, very much appreciated <3

I think @garnett might be on to something but I need to have a proper fiddle to see what works best. As @Th0nt says, I'm reluctant to link to a manufacturer's page because they might change the link / product / whatever, and also a lot of manufacturers simply say "call one of our engineers at £lol to investigate a fault".

Naturally though we've decided to start ramping up towards re-occupation of the office so this is yet again put on the back burner until I've got some free time

One day Diddums, one day

I'm guessing that you need an admin - to set up the website, the pages, the photos and the blog framework - a Wordpress "Admin"

Then people who can create maintenance descriptions - (I had a check, and I was right, WordPress call them "Contributers", but there's a lot of different levels of user-permissions, so there might be one even better suited (eg maybe "Customer")).

There's a plugin I've used to password-protect an entire site -that you could give to the Contractors called out to fix the problem.

Pick a Wordpress template that's nicely optimised for mobiles (most are), and it could look and function pretty well.

Wordpress is nice to play around with because there are so many plugins offering out-of-box solutions to each little problem or function you need to tackle.

 

[chroniclard]

How many pages are we talking here? Maintaining 20 on wordpress, ok. Maintaining 2000, nope.

 

[garnett]

Should have refreshed before posting - Didn;t see Touch's post...

If you want to link to the manufacturer, use a url shortener service like tinyURL or something. The QR codes on the machines don't ever change url but you can change where that tinyURL redirects to so you can handle it if manufacturers website changes.

As I say...

Wordpress is nice to play around with because there are so many plugins offering out-of-box solutions to each little problem or function you need to tackle.

Here's one that looks useful:-

https://wordpress.org/plugins/qr-redirector/

(Not many installation instances though - might want to see if there's a similar plugin that's got more people using it, and which has been updated more recently...)

 

[Diddums]

It'll be no more than 100 pages, and will be read-only content that I myself create. For the actual records and contributions towards them, I have logbooks. This is just something that an engineer can hit up quickly whilst out and about without having to find records and whatnot.

 

[m4rkw7]

You could even just use static HTML pages, however there would be no fancy CMS web interface to edit the content and editors would need FTP access.