Its fascinating on one hand as you have to decided whether to upgrade the existing system or update the existing one. Benefits of updating is that there is very little user training involved, however a 5 year old php web based application seems incredibly outdated when you look at the exciting stuff that is currently out there. Upgrading has its benefits but could be time consuming....and its difficult for me to predict how long it will take to do such a thing. Whats more interesting is that everything has changed on the user experience you have ZOHO, Sugar, Vtiger 5, and lots more - however the big thing is when real businesses use it and the customisations they ask for - ( bare in mind most of these web apps have very common features) - thats when things start to get a little tricky. Take for example reporting, reporting can be such a huge thing and yet there most of these although do provide reporting features its not full-set - in that you cant report on every single module within the application. You can only report on what has been decided is worth reporting on. Secondly the biggest issue is custom fields say you want custom field on a section that doesn't exist or you want to create sub-section ( I know Sugar provides this, and its great ) but what about if you have 500 hundred custom fields? Are you supposed to sit there and type every single one in? Why not just have a CSV file telling what a field name is, its type and length - simple, and then import that into the system?
I've had to learn PHP, MYSQL all over again and by MYSQL what I mean is SQL programming, and the biggest problem is not learning a language but learning how to edit an existing program written already. Its like trying to find the ingredients for a particular cuisine by taste, cutting the food up, seeing what works what doesn't.....its a tough mountain to climb but not an impossible one.
- You hit a block but can't move on until you figured out how to fix another block you've already hit.
- Certain short-cuts you made years ago come back to haunt you!
- Programming is hard, and its difficult learning somebody else's system
- Comprise, but how much you want to please your end users and give them what they want, yet it goes without saying that some of the smallest tasks in the users mind can be the most difficult to achieve.
- Documentation is hard to do, and when the only person is you - who do you turn to for advice.
I am tired, but at the same time its 2am (GMT) here in London and I'm fascinated by SQL. Its got me hook line and sinker! The data manipulation possibilities are endless and you can do so much, its keeping me awake just thinking about it - hence why I'm still here. I love the fact that its been around for so long its got history and its still here, refined, reproduced and perfected.
I'll leave you with this amazing tune by the incredible Ronald Jenkees.
I'll leave you with this amazing tune by the incredible Ronald Jenkees.
