Re: [Sheflug] (no subject)

[Lesley Anne Binks <lesley.binks@xxxxxxxxx>]

David.willington@xxxxxxxxxxxx <david.willington@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote :

> Original Message:
> -----------------
> From: John Southern john@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> Date: Thu, 23 Nov 2006 23:05:19 +0000
> To: david.willington@xxxxxxxxxxxx,
> sheflug@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> Subject: Re: [Sheflug] (no subject)
> 
> 
> Hi David,
> 
> > Can anyone suggest a web-based registration system? Specifically I'm
> > looking for something for a music competition for competitors to register
> > to take part in different classes (grade 6 violin, u13 singing etc), and
> > the competitors need to be entered either as themselves or as part of a
> > larger institution (school, music group etc). The administrators will need
> > to be able to control which classes are available, set registration
> > deadlines (beyond which competitors can't change what they've registered
> > for) etc. It's a bit nebulous at the moment but it feels as though there
> > should be something out there, but I've had no luck finding anything on
> > sourceforge
> 
> >Would this be something simple such as a html page with a few drop down
> lists 
> >for them to choose from and submit.
> >If you want to get clever you could then use MySQL as a backend?
> >Anyone want to suggest something better??
> 
> >Failing that how about "phpForms", "LULI Tournament Manger", "Dataxi",
> "PHP 
> >Track Meet Registration" or "Leaguerunner" on freshmeat, 
> 
> Thanks for the suggestions. I had a quick glance at them, but nothing
> seemed to fit the bill. Doing it from scratch is the second option, but
> these things always seem to have a habit of growing and while I don't
> anticipate any major problems, it's still considerably more than a trivial
> job. The end user isn't going to want to poke around in php files to change
> drop down lists so there's going to have to be an administrative front end
> for the whole thing - there's definitely going to have to be a database
> behind it all.
> 

Well, there must be 'stuff' out there.  Sourceforge and freshmeat are the two main software repository sites and there may be something there to suit.

I am sure there are plenty of unemployed IT professionals on this list that will do the job for free - as in beer - or some form of payment.

But there is one thing that you need to do and that is sort out what your spec actually is.  You can't expect to assess whether something will work for you or not if you aren't entirely and absolutely clear about what you want it to do and where you want it to go.

I would steer clear of a project that said 'maybe this maybe that' when working in freelance mode because all that happens then is arguments about what was in the original non-existent spec or expectations with the end result of bad feelings all round.  

Try to tie down what data you need and what processing you need on that data, what user interfaces you need and what levels of access to data so that deliverables can be identified and then parties can all be happy at reaching targets and identifying what bits were subsequent addons rather than my dealing with someone whom I end up feeling is getting a lot more than their money's worth by claiming things were asked for at the outset.   Getting a good spec together in the first place will help you get a decent job done.  The technological requirements egt flat file versus db etc can then be determined.

Good luck hunting out what you need.

Regards

L.
Regards

Lesley





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