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