Everyone,

I thought I'd share with you a screenshot of the project I'm working on, and I'd like to get some feedback on it.

This is what I'm trying to get the BARCLONE website to look like sometime late this year, or early next year. I'm doing all of the programming myself (learning PHP and MySQL along the way...).

Nothing is yet written in stone, but this is the basic floorplan that I'm going to stick with. Basically, it's a slimmed-down shopping cart, based somewhat around an open source program called osCommerce. I'm only using the osC code for reference, as I'm trying to learn the ins-and-outs of PHP. This website will use a MySQL database to track visits, download counts for each model, display the top five downloads in one box, the latest five or so in another, and other features you'd typically find in a commercial website.

The front-end code is the simple part. Communicating with MySQL is not quite as easy, especially when you're staring at the screen between 12 and 1 in the morning (my usual programming time, BTW...)

The screenshot is large (about 193KB), but it's got all of my screen showing (1280 x 1024).

Let me know what you think, and send me some ideas about what it should feature.

Thanks.

Attached Thumbnails

 

__________________
Craig McGraw

BARCLONE Rocketry -- http://barclone.rocketshoppe.com
BARCLONE Blogsite -- http://barclone.wordpress.com
BARCLONE Forum -- BARCLONE Forum

BARs helping BARs

SAM 0044
AMA 352635

Craig,

If you need any help with the backend, let me know. I set up a PHP/MySQL based system for the small mom 'n' pop air cargo company I work for. It allows us to input/access trip information from anywhere via https and password protected accounts, and I also use it to generate invoices and payroll. It's been working great for over 3 years now, with over 1700 trips in the database. The server is a just a PC running Windows 2000 Pro! Everthing was hand-coded in notepad using a combination of HTML, PHP, and a little JavaScript here and there...

__________________
John Lance Ladd
Yoyodyne Propulsion Systems
Grovers Mill, NJ
Established 1938
lladd.netau.net

Much appreciated!

I'm using 1st Page 2006, which is the update to my all-time favorite editor 1st Page 2000. Can't say I'm completely as happy with it, as it seems to be a bit sluggish in response even on a 2GHz Athlon with 1 GB of RAM. It isn't any better on my new toy -- a 15" Toshiba laptop with a 1.4GHz Celeron M and 512MB. I've also got the Svoi.net PHPEdit program, which has its own peculiarities. It's 'tweaked' for PHP, but sometimes gets in the way of actual thinking...

Most of my problems to date with the project center around the MySQL back-end, and in my getting comfortable with SQL syntax. This will be my first real database project, so it's the steep learning curve that I'm fighting. Most of the 'self-taught' books aren't always so helpful in the crunch...

__________________
Craig McGraw

BARCLONE Rocketry -- http://barclone.rocketshoppe.com
BARCLONE Blogsite -- http://barclone.wordpress.com
BARCLONE Forum -- BARCLONE Forum

BARs helping BARs

SAM 0044
AMA 352635

Two months of the initial pre-programming on the application I put together was focused on the database structure. The company had someone that used MS Access before I got there. I tried to build on what was already in place, but since I already had been teaching myself PHP/MySQL at home with the Sambar sever, (all free stuff, BTW) I just re-wrote what they already had in place and made it better and more functional. The main thing is to give each individual "thing" it's own table and also set up an auto-incremented integer ID column for each table and make it a primary key. In the "trips" table for example, I have the dispatcher that booked the trip, the captain and first officer, the client, and the aircraft tail number on the trip. Each of these columns has an ID number in it that references another row in the "employees", "clients", and "aircraft" tables that contains columns with all the other info for each item. I can then access the additional info with joined queries. Example for dispatcher's name for a particular trip: SELECT employees.firstname, employees.lastname FROM employees, trips WHERE trips.dispatchid=employees.employeeid AND trips.tripid="1245"; The trick is to access and return the info within PHP and output it as HTML for the page display.

__________________
John Lance Ladd
Yoyodyne Propulsion Systems
Grovers Mill, NJ
Established 1938
lladd.netau.net

You just helped me with something:

In your SQL string, you're using a "dot" operator between the TABLE and FIELD labels, and I've yet to run across this in the books. It's probably in there, but I just have not seen it yet. Thanks. That's a heads-up note to myself.

__________________
Craig McGraw

BARCLONE Rocketry -- http://barclone.rocketshoppe.com
BARCLONE Blogsite -- http://barclone.wordpress.com
BARCLONE Forum -- BARCLONE Forum

BARs helping BARs

SAM 0044
AMA 352635

It's not always necessary; only if you have the same column (field) names in two different tables accessed in the same query. I like to do it though just to be sure! I have a LOT of tables in the db.

I also alias the SELECT clause like: $result=mysql_query("SELECT employees.firstname AS firstname, employees.lastname AS lastname.... ");

This forces $row=mysql_fetch_array($result); to use $row["firstname"] and $row["lastname"] as the data holders.

It can be a little redundant, but it helps me debug if something's not right.

__________________
John Lance Ladd
Yoyodyne Propulsion Systems
Grovers Mill, NJ
Established 1938
lladd.netau.net

I've been a busy boy with MySQL and PHP, trying to get comfortable with the syntax of both...

Here's a screenshot of the progress, showing the next stage of the job. I'm trying to introduce new designs as little "nuggets" that link to individual pages.

Attached Thumbnails

 

__________________
Craig McGraw

BARCLONE Rocketry -- http://barclone.rocketshoppe.com
BARCLONE Blogsite -- http://barclone.wordpress.com
BARCLONE Forum -- BARCLONE Forum

BARs helping BARs

SAM 0044
AMA 352635

Craig, What is this going to be exactly? Is it going to be a searchable design download kinda thingy? If so it would be nice to have either roc sim pictures or photos of the designs in "nuggets" along with general size specs and recommended engines. Heck, with MySQL it could be searchable on any parameter - engine type, engine diameter, length, estimated high/low altitude, category (like fantasy, sci-fi, scale, sport, etc.) - that would be great!

__________________
John Lance Ladd
Yoyodyne Propulsion Systems
Grovers Mill, NJ
Established 1938
lladd.netau.net

It's rapidly becoming a nightmare trying to populate the database with 300 entries. I'm having a full-blown coniption here trying to IMPORT a 300-line comma-delimited CSV into the DB table through phpMyAdmin. Even after exporting the table fields to Excel, then populating the table and saving as the CSV, it refuses to load anything other than the first and last rows of the file. Everything in between gets ignored.

I'm sure it's just a matter of getting the field separations right, but figuring out just exactly what phpMyAdmin wants in the CSV is getting on my nerves. Nothing is working as it should...

As for what it's supposed to be, well, yes, a searchable database-driven download site. Designs, whether models or accessories, are searchable by categories of Skill Level if it's a model or as accessories and launch equipment. The center 'box' of the page is the main display window. When you first land on the site, the center is loaded with the most-recent uploads (timestamp indexed), and will change as often as a new design is added. In the left column, top box, I have added a "Top Five" feature which shows which five designs have been downloaded most. Along the top, just under the logo banner, is a stripe with some additional information about the total number of downloads, the total number of models in the database, and how many visitor hits the site has had.

Other features, still planned for the release version, include a contact (send-a-message) box, a links box for our favorite websites like SEMROC, JimZ, YORS, YORP and YORF, and a search-by-something box. That one's still in the raw concept stage, but a more detailed search feature sounds like a good idea.

Each "Nugget Box" will have the model name at the top, the skill level at the bottom, and a thumbnail image in the center; the whole nugget is a link to the larger box.

The full-size display box will have the larger image (typically the RockSim 3D image we've been posting on the 'Scrounged' forum, just reduced to fit the box. The model name will be in the top stripe, while the model creator's name will be in the bottom stripe. It should still have enough detail to see what the model looks like clearly. The dimensions, weights, motor recommendations and some additional blurb text will finish out the contents. The color of the frame, too, will change depending on the skill level similar to what Estes used to use. I might even have a background image (like a watermark) saying "Skill Level One" or whatever.

__________________
Craig McGraw

BARCLONE Rocketry -- http://barclone.rocketshoppe.com
BARCLONE Blogsite -- http://barclone.wordpress.com
BARCLONE Forum -- BARCLONE Forum

BARs helping BARs

SAM 0044
AMA 352635

Craig,

You may want to talk to DeanHFox. He's a database programmer.

__________________
Scott D. Hansen
Ye Olde Rocket Shoppe - Your One Stop BAR Shoppe!
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