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Author Building some workshop software/website.
Dan
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Registered: 22nd Apr 02
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14th Jul 11 at 10:03   View Garage View User's Profile U2U Member Reply With Quote

I work in A hgv workshop, and currently all our workshop planning is on paper. Which is ok, but when something is done early it cocks it all up.

Workshop software is very expensive, so is it possible to build a basic thing to do it?

Ideally you would need to be able to type in a reg, pull up old service card, which have been scanned in, print a list of that weeks due jobs, mots etc etc.

Is it really so complex. Bit basic info given but u get the jist

Dan


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Gary
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14th Jul 11 at 10:08   View Garage View User's Profile U2U Member Reply With Quote

Sounds pretty simple.

Dom or Ed are the guys to speak to. Ed is developing something for me more complex than that also.
James
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14th Jul 11 at 10:12   View User's Profile U2U Member Reply With Quote

To a software developer that would be trivial.

You might not get a package as complete as an off-the-shelf package, but you could certainly get something that would meet your needs.
Gary
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14th Jul 11 at 10:14   View Garage View User's Profile U2U Member Reply With Quote

quote:
Originally posted by James
To a software developer that would be trivial.

You might not get a package as complete as an off-the-shelf package, but you could certainly get something that would meet your needs.


Dont think a load of mechanics would care if it didnt look pretty tbh

Theres prob a load of coding online for stuff like that too to piece together
Dan
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14th Jul 11 at 10:16   View Garage View User's Profile U2U Member Reply With Quote

My knowledge is very limited about this, so I'd like to have a go and learn a bit. Reckon I could do it?

Doesn't need to look pretty, a website would do ok. Any places I can look for info, other than google


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Gary
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14th Jul 11 at 10:22   View Garage View User's Profile U2U Member Reply With Quote

If your not familier wirth PHP etc i wouldnt bother. I know a bit of PHP and it would be far too much for me.

And for what Ed charges, it'd be daft to do it yourself
James
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14th Jul 11 at 10:22   View User's Profile U2U Member Reply With Quote

quote:
Originally posted by Dan
My knowledge is very limited about this, so I'd like to have a go and learn a bit. Reckon I could do it?

Doesn't need to look pretty, a website would do ok. Any places I can look for info, other than google
You need to decide on a technology for the client and then one for the database.

For a really simplistic approach you could do the whole thing in MS Access, I wouldn't really recommend that though, you wouldn't learn much about proper programming.

Other than that, you can either make it web based or Windows based. For web based you could either use PHP with a MySQL database or ASP.Net with a SQL Server database. Or you could do it Windows based using .Net or similar.

Consider that if it's web based, it needs to be hosted somewhere (either internally or on the web). And regardless of whether it's web/Windows based, the database also needs to be hosted somewhere. This hosting can all just be on a local PC though if required.

[Edited on 14-07-2011 by James]
ed
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14th Jul 11 at 10:45   View User's Profile U2U Member Reply With Quote

As James has said, you can setup your own web environment to run either locally on one computer, or over a network. I've got a NAS with PHP, MySQL and Apache running on it just for fun (I know ) but for real development I have VertrigoServ on my computer which is a bundled PHP, MySQL and Apache environment which if you've got your firewall setup correctly you can access over a network. The other alternative is to setup a sub-domain on your companies website (If you've got one) and use that. You can of course do similar things with other technologies but it's not something I could comment on.

As for the application, it seems fairly simple. Just your average database stuff.
Sam
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14th Jul 11 at 11:00   View User's Profile U2U Member Reply With Quote

Just do something in Access or Excel if you're not wanting to spend any money on it.

Will be a bit shit though TBH, but it's possible to do.
Dan
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14th Jul 11 at 11:14   View Garage View User's Profile U2U Member Reply With Quote

I wouldn't mind it web/network based so it can be accessed from main office. Already a network set up there.

I haven't a clue where to start if I'm honest. I suppose a good plan of what I want it to do would be best.

What sort of price would something like this cost to build from you ed?




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Whittie
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14th Jul 11 at 11:38   View User's Profile U2U Member Reply With Quote

I can vouch for ed's work.
ed
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14th Jul 11 at 11:41   View User's Profile U2U Member Reply With Quote

If you drop me an email on e.coleridgesmith@ecsid.co.uk and give me as detailed description as you can on the project then I can have a think and give you a price
ed
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14th Jul 11 at 11:42   View User's Profile U2U Member Reply With Quote

P.S. Thanks Mr W.
Dom
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14th Jul 11 at 11:54   View User's Profile U2U Member Reply With Quote

As said, pretty simple database and frontend. Any decent dev should be able to knock up something within a day.
If you can spare a computer in the workshop to act as the webserver (as Ed said, use VertrigoServ or WAMP), and firewall that, then i'd opt for that over hosting it remotely due to security concerns (if it was to hosted remotely then i'd lock it down as much as possible).

Access/SQL + Excel is another option though - could be a little messy perhaps but it certainly would do the job.

[Edited on 14-07-2011 by Dom]
Dan
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14th Jul 11 at 14:40   View Garage View User's Profile U2U Member Reply With Quote

We have servers etc already, although i know absolutley nothing about these, as im there to fix trucks, and have nothing to do with the computer systems.

Im thinking the best thing i could make first as a learning curve, would be to make a page which allows you to input a vehicles details, along with all the info we would need to know about it.

That way i can build the database with all the info in, which i can then build bits around it to access this data and give me the info?

Or am i barking up the wrong tree lol


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Ian
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14th Jul 11 at 14:45   View Garage View User's Profile U2U Member Reply With Quote

Whatever you do, make sure the time on the computer per job is absolutely minimal. I read the bit about scanning cards in wondered who was going to get that job.
Dom
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14th Jul 11 at 16:29   View User's Profile U2U Member Reply With Quote

quote:
Originally posted by Dan
We have servers etc already, although i know absolutley nothing about these, as im there to fix trucks, and have nothing to do with the computer systems.

Im thinking the best thing i could make first as a learning curve, would be to make a page which allows you to input a vehicles details, along with all the info we would need to know about it.

That way i can build the database with all the info in, which i can then build bits around it to access this data and give me the info?

Or am i barking up the wrong tree lol


Collecting the data in something like Excel is useful, whether the final application is done in Excel or something else. But as Ian said, someone is going to get the lovely job of 'data input'.

Had a spare 10 minutes so quickly knocked this up, might be of some use to you albeit extremely basic (first sheet is the 'application', press find type in reg throws out some info; second sheet is the data) - http://listen-to.me.uk/ServiceBook.xlsm
Dan
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14th Jul 11 at 16:40   View Garage View User's Profile U2U Member Reply With Quote

That would work for some basic stuff, but would it work for more complex stuff like:

Producing a list of whats due for service on a certain week of the year?

Produce an mot due this month sheet?

Alter if the vehicle is serviced on the wrong week?

can you do all that with excel?

Would i be right in thinking, if i built a database of vehicles with fields such as last service date, last service date mileage, mot test, etc.

I could then use something in the vehicle initial input data to say how many weeks between services.

Could a database then produce its own date for the next one due, based on the last service date and the weeks between services?


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Ian
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14th Jul 11 at 16:44   View Garage View User's Profile U2U Member Reply With Quote

quote:
Originally posted by Dan
a database of vehicles with fields such as last service date, last service date mileage, mot test, etc.

Dates where they are repeated do not belong to the vehicle. I would recommend a vehicle table and an events table of some sort, which has a relationship to vehicle. That way you can query it for the entire history of that vehicle, not just the most recent event. It could also have a future schedule using the same structure.

quote:
Originally posted by Dan
I could then use something in the vehicle initial input data to say how many weeks between services.
Yes.

quote:
Originally posted by Dan
Could a database then produce its own date for the next one due, based on the last service date and the weeks between services?
Yes.

[Edited on 14-07-2011 by Ian]
Dan
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14th Jul 11 at 16:46   View Garage View User's Profile U2U Member Reply With Quote

I wish i knew what i was doing and could knock something up right quick, i have some good ideas for what it could do.

Am i wasting my time trying to make something, will it take me months of research, or can i find this stuff simple online somewhere and copy paste etc?

Im pretty computer literate, just never done this kinda thing.


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Ian
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14th Jul 11 at 16:48   View Garage View User's Profile U2U Member Reply With Quote

Biggest thing for me is that you're very clear what the system needs to do and that you get the data structures right.

Otherwise it's a messy bodge that is more difficult than paper. And your users will tell you that.

It won't take you months of research, just enough thought about what is going on in the business and what functionality you require.

Oh and don't use Excel.
Dan
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14th Jul 11 at 17:10   View Garage View User's Profile U2U Member Reply With Quote

A plan of what i need it to do is my starting point then.

I was thinking build something that will allow me to input the initial vehicle data into a database. Then once ive managed that, and got it working, i could build more things to access that data in certain ways etc?

Is that totally the wrong way of going about it?

Also, this is where im stuck first, what software do i build this with? dreamweaver etc or something diffo?

Do i have to make the input fields using html and php for the database stuff?

God im a fucking noob, but i love learning new things like this!


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Dan
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14th Jul 11 at 19:55   View Garage View User's Profile U2U Member Reply With Quote

Had a quick play about just now and managed to make a form with inputs for each field i want on the initial input page. Need to figure out how to get the form to now submit this to the database. Thats a project for another day.


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Dan
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17th Jul 11 at 14:40   View Garage View User's Profile U2U Member Reply With Quote

Right, rather than putting a list together of what i wanted. I thought id learn some basics.

So ive made a simple form with 2 items in, the code for these is


code:

<form method="post" action="initialdata.php">

Customer: <input type="text" size="12" maxlength="30" name="customer"><br />
<br />

Reg No: <input type="text" size="12" maxlength="30" name="reg"><br />


<br />
<br />
<input type="submit" value="Submit">


</form>




Then i made a file to add this to the database, the code for this is:

code:




<?php
mysql_connect("localhost", "admin", "password") or die(mysql_error());
echo "Connected to MySQL<br />";
mysql_select_db("planner") or die(mysql_error());


$customer = $_POST["customer"];
$reg = $_POST["reg"];


mysql_query("INSERT INTO vehicle
(customer, reg) VALUES('$customer', '$reg' ) ")
or die(mysql_error());


$result = mysql_query($query);

?>





The form works fine and brings it to the initialdata.php page, but then it all goes wrong throwing up errors about line 28 which is ?> says undefined variable?

What have i fucked up on, i expect you to say all of it


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Dan
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Registered: 22nd Apr 02
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17th Jul 11 at 14:43   View Garage View User's Profile U2U Member Reply With Quote

O, actually, ive just discovered,

Its adding the data to the database. Its just brining up that error.

Is that my $result = mysql_query($query); causing the issue?


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