binarycloud-dev

[binarycloud-dev] Is BinaryCloud ideal for me?

[Gerry K. <ge...@mc...>]

Hi,

I'd like some help in determining if BinaryCloud is ideal for the projects 
I'll be developing. Most of the stuff I'll be doing is not large. The 
largest project will be to build a system to manage information on partners 
of our NGO. Each partner will have a profile, i.e. basic background 
information. Next, there will be information about the relationship between 
each partner and us, i.e. a project. For each project or for a group of 
projects, there will be evaluation criteria to determine how well the 
project(s) succeeded.

One example of how this system would be used is for the Agriculture 
program. They work with thousands of farmers. Each farmer will have a 
profile containing family, health, economic data. Each year, information 
will be entered on projects to improve the farmer's health and economic 
situation, e.g., growing a high-yield rice crop.

There will be a ton 'o data collected that needs to be assessed so we can 
determine what factor mix will most benefit the farmers, in terms of land, 
crop selection, investment, time to harvest, etc. Staff will be able to ask 
lots of scenario and what-if questions.

So, I'm looking for a framework that will help our small project team, 
which is just getting its feet wet in PHP web development, build such a 
system and others on a smaller scale (e.g., an inventory management system).

Is BinaryCloud overkill, or if not, what are the main benefits of going 
with bc?

TIA,
Gerry

Re: [binarycloud-dev] Is BinaryCloud ideal for me?

[alex b. <en...@tu...>]

> I'd like some help in determining if BinaryCloud is ideal for the projects
> I'll be developing. Most of the stuff I'll be doing is not large. The
> largest project will be to build a system to manage information on
partners
> of our NGO. Each partner will have a profile, i.e. basic background
> information. Next, there will be information about the relationship
between
> each partner and us, i.e. a project. For each project or for a group of
> projects, there will be evaluation criteria to determine how well the
> project(s) succeeded.
>
> One example of how this system would be used is for the Agriculture
> program. They work with thousands of farmers. Each farmer will have a
> profile containing family, health, economic data. Each year, information
> will be entered on projects to improve the farmer's health and economic
> situation, e.g., growing a high-yield rice crop.

Cool, and without even knowing more I can tell you that R2 with
EntityManager will save you untold amounts of time :)

> There will be a ton 'o data collected that needs to be assessed so we can
> determine what factor mix will most benefit the farmers, in terms of land,
> crop selection, investment, time to harvest, etc. Staff will be able to
ask
> lots of scenario and what-if questions.
>
> So, I'm looking for a framework that will help our small project team,
> which is just getting its feet wet in PHP web development, build such a
> system and others on a smaller scale (e.g., an inventory management
system).
>
> Is BinaryCloud overkill, or if not, what are the main benefits of going
> with bc?

first, bs is not overkill. it provides you with a rich toolset for building
applications that you would otherwise have to cobble together from disparate
projects or build yourself. it is a bit heavy if you're new to php, i.e.
fully OO, etc - but you can get used to that fairly quickly if you have
other programming experience.

the benefits:
    -modular, structured code
    -system documentation will be part of your codebase if you adhere to the
comment standards (trust me, having auto-generated documentation is soooo
nice :)
    -powerful tools for managing large datasets.
    -table (list) & form builders for auto-generating forms based on your
record types.
    -continuing expansion and revision of the system.

for example, you could build a single module that was responsible for
presenting 'farmer info' under different circumstances: a list of farmers,
or a farmer detail, or a form for editing a farmer's information. - all in
one module, which would accept a paramter for the 'mode' to use.

tools like these don't exist anywhere else in the php community.

best,

_alex

Re: [binarycloud-dev] Is BinaryCloud ideal for me?

[Gerry K. <ge...@mc...>]

Thanks for your comments, Alex - some questions below.
Gerry

At 09:14 AM 14/08/01 -0700, you wrote:
> >
> > One example of how this system would be used is for the Agriculture
> > program. They work with thousands of farmers. Each farmer will have a
> > profile containing family, health, economic data. Each year, information
> > will be entered on projects to improve the farmer's health and economic
> > situation, e.g., growing a high-yield rice crop.
>
>Cool, and without even knowing more I can tell you that R2 with
>EntityManager will save you untold amounts of time :)

Can you give me an example?


>for example, you could build a single module that was responsible for
>presenting 'farmer info' under different circumstances: a list of farmers,
>or a farmer detail, or a form for editing a farmer's information. - all in
>one module, which would accept a paramter for the 'mode' to use.

 From the documentation, a module is a class that has an Init() and an 
Output() method. So, in your example, a 'mode' parameter would be passed to 
Init() telling it what type of data I want to display. Init would query the 
db using EntityManager to get the desired data.

Output() might then use some template from TemplateManager to build the 
presentation and output that as a bunch of HTML.

Am I on the right track?

>tools like these don't exist anywhere else in the php community.

It all sounds good, it's just that I'm still confused as to the steps I 
would take to build an application using bc, from start to finish. It seems 
I have to create an XML database definition, create some modules with app 
logic, create some page definitions to build HTML content to display to the 
user, and then do something with EntityManager and QueryManager to manage 
database interactivity.

Where does UI Manager fit in?

>best,
>
>_alex

Re: [binarycloud-dev] Is BinaryCloud ideal for me?

[alex b. <en...@tu...>]

> >Cool, and without even knowing more I can tell you that R2 with
> >EntityManager will save you untold amounts of time :)
>
> Can you give me an example?

Well, you won't have to write nearly as much sql.
All of your validation is taken care of for you implicitly by defining
entities and using the associated tools

(long list)

> >for example, you could build a single module that was responsible for
> >presenting 'farmer info' under different circumstances: a list of
farmers,
> >or a farmer detail, or a form for editing a farmer's information. - all
in
> >one module, which would accept a paramter for the 'mode' to use.
>
>  From the documentation, a module is a class that has an Init() and an
> Output() method. So, in your example, a 'mode' parameter would be passed
to

Init() is deprecated, it's the constructor now.

> Init() telling it what type of data I want to display. Init would query
the
> db using EntityManager to get the desired data.

yep

> Output() might then use some template from TemplateManager to build the
> presentation and output that as a bunch of HTML.

yep

> Am I on the right track?
>
> >tools like these don't exist anywhere else in the php community.
>
> It all sounds good, it's just that I'm still confused as to the steps I
> would take to build an application using bc, from start to finish. It
seems
> I have to create an XML database definition, create some modules with app
> logic, create some page definitions to build HTML content to display to
the
> user, and then do something with EntityManager and QueryManager to manage
> database interactivity.
>
> Where does UI Manager fit in?

It would look something like this:

    -Define a set of entity definitions in xml
    -That would automatically build a default set of queries, and DB schema.
     -Create modules with any logic you need, request or post date through
the EntityManager, use the FormBuilder and TableBuilder classes fro modules
to create presentation, etc.
    -Create page defs to embed the modules in pages.

So, yes, you are essentially correct.

_a