This question isn't directly genealogy related. Its somewhat indirect. I'm considering creating a questionnaire for my family to enter lots of personal info to help create a "persona of the era" asking them to post information about their memories of childhood, what was a proper age to go on a date, how late were they allowed to sit up in the evenings, did they have to attend Wednesday evening church as well as Sunday. What was the price of a movie, fountain drink, etc...
In essence, try to get an inside view of life as they knew it 50+ years ago. I'd like to do this for several family members. Its one thing to read history books about the depression, and its quite another to get first hand info about it that directly relates to those you know. It might explain the oddities we notice in our families -hehe.
Now then, I'd like to set up a php page so family can log in and complete the form(s). I've seen Joomla and a couple of others mentioned, but seems like they might be overkill for what I want to do. They also look like they're better designed for "polls" than what I'm really wanting. I'll install them if they'll get the job done. Anyhow, how difficult is this to set up if it were to be built from scratch? Since the website already has Mysql+PHP+Apache running on it, it seems the DB/tables need to be created and a few pages of html/php to access it would be all that is needed. I've seen a few examples on the internet....greatly simplified examples that is.
So, I suppose my questions would be:
Would the content management systems (joomla) be easier to set up and make do this?
Would the creation of DB/tables and php/html be easier to do this?
Is there something already created that would do something like this that I could install on my site?
With this said, my knowledge of php/mysql is almost nil. I'm checking out books on learning this because I'd like to contribute someday to PGV. I'm not sure if this is something that would interest the developers here in adding in at some point if the code is stable. It goes a bit beyond the scope of gedcom management, so I'm throwing a lot of this "out there" to bounce the ideas off you fine people that knows more than I about direction of PGV as well as the programming efforts behind a project like this.
Any comments would be appreciated.
Thanks all,
Marshall
If you would like to refer to this comment somewhere else in this project, copy and paste the following link:
If you would like to refer to this comment somewhere else in this project, copy and paste the following link:
Anonymous
-
2008-12-19
Marshall, its great to hear you hope to assist the development sometime. The few that do at present need all the help they can get. Most people would have no idea how much of their free time these people put into PGV.
Your question though is useful in itself, as it raises an issue that often crops up, but is rarely specifically addressed - "what is the 'direction' of PGV?".
The short answer, though it may sound unfair on our developers (but not intended to be) is that it doesn't have one. As a truly open source project its direction is determined by the interests at any given point in time of the people willing to develop it.
So it comes down to personal preferences. My own would definitely be to keep PGV very tightly developed as "genealogy" software. Peripherals like questionnaires, newsletters, social networking etc etc should never become integral to it. They can (and always will) exist, but should be kept outside, as 'modules'; and modules should nover be released as part of PGV itself.
But even that can become a problem. We already have in PGV a number of modules that were developed by enthusiastic people who have since moved on and no longer maintain them. So now the core developers, even though they have no interest or use for those modules, are left to maintain them. But even these comments are over simplistic, as some modules have been deemed, quite rightly, to be valuable enough to become 'core'. Its complicated <G>.
If you would like to refer to this comment somewhere else in this project, copy and paste the following link:
My apologies for such a long time responding. It seems my internet provider only provides me internet when its convenient....
Mitar,
Thank you. I have installed limesurvey and am currently trying it out. I really liked Drupal's Webform. It looks really nice and is quite configurable. I just figured it might be overkill for what I wanted.
Kiwi,
Thank you for the insight as to the would-be direction of PGV. I have been using open source for a long time now, and it always seems to be the case that "need" usually steers the projects. And this "need" changes from time to time. However, I'm excited about all the work that does get done. If something like this was to become part of PGV, it should definitely become a module. I would try to let Limesurvey use the login info from PGV so users don't need to login to a 2nd page on the same site, but I'd probably botch it. I haven't looked at any docs on how to do that. I think Limesurvey should take care of my needs for the time being.
I'm eager to learn php, and have been going through a huge book picking up the jist of how it works. I suppose I won't really learn it until I apply it. And that won't really happen until I start playing with a DB using it. "Hello World" is only so helpful =)
Thanks again for your candor, and the link.
Merry Christmas all
Marshall
If you would like to refer to this comment somewhere else in this project, copy and paste the following link:
Hi Marshall
To answer "Would the content management systems (joomla) be easier to set up and make do this? ", I've been using PGV with Joomla for a few months now and, being almost completly new to setting-up website and without real programming skills, it is really easy (and fun) to set up and use. I did not use any "form" modules up to now but there are some available. Also, it opens the door to plenty of extensions so I would defenitely recommend using it. Only problem is that you spend a lot of time trying everything which is available without having always an application for it!
If you would like to refer to this comment somewhere else in this project, copy and paste the following link:
What I'm trying to do, and why. First, the "why"
This question isn't directly genealogy related. Its somewhat indirect. I'm considering creating a questionnaire for my family to enter lots of personal info to help create a "persona of the era" asking them to post information about their memories of childhood, what was a proper age to go on a date, how late were they allowed to sit up in the evenings, did they have to attend Wednesday evening church as well as Sunday. What was the price of a movie, fountain drink, etc...
In essence, try to get an inside view of life as they knew it 50+ years ago. I'd like to do this for several family members. Its one thing to read history books about the depression, and its quite another to get first hand info about it that directly relates to those you know. It might explain the oddities we notice in our families -hehe.
Now then, I'd like to set up a php page so family can log in and complete the form(s). I've seen Joomla and a couple of others mentioned, but seems like they might be overkill for what I want to do. They also look like they're better designed for "polls" than what I'm really wanting. I'll install them if they'll get the job done. Anyhow, how difficult is this to set up if it were to be built from scratch? Since the website already has Mysql+PHP+Apache running on it, it seems the DB/tables need to be created and a few pages of html/php to access it would be all that is needed. I've seen a few examples on the internet....greatly simplified examples that is.
So, I suppose my questions would be:
Would the content management systems (joomla) be easier to set up and make do this?
Would the creation of DB/tables and php/html be easier to do this?
Is there something already created that would do something like this that I could install on my site?
With this said, my knowledge of php/mysql is almost nil. I'm checking out books on learning this because I'd like to contribute someday to PGV. I'm not sure if this is something that would interest the developers here in adding in at some point if the code is stable. It goes a bit beyond the scope of gedcom management, so I'm throwing a lot of this "out there" to bounce the ideas off you fine people that knows more than I about direction of PGV as well as the programming efforts behind a project like this.
Any comments would be appreciated.
Thanks all,
Marshall
Check this script: http://www.limesurvey.org/
Marshall, its great to hear you hope to assist the development sometime. The few that do at present need all the help they can get. Most people would have no idea how much of their free time these people put into PGV.
Your question though is useful in itself, as it raises an issue that often crops up, but is rarely specifically addressed - "what is the 'direction' of PGV?".
The short answer, though it may sound unfair on our developers (but not intended to be) is that it doesn't have one. As a truly open source project its direction is determined by the interests at any given point in time of the people willing to develop it.
So it comes down to personal preferences. My own would definitely be to keep PGV very tightly developed as "genealogy" software. Peripherals like questionnaires, newsletters, social networking etc etc should never become integral to it. They can (and always will) exist, but should be kept outside, as 'modules'; and modules should nover be released as part of PGV itself.
But even that can become a problem. We already have in PGV a number of modules that were developed by enthusiastic people who have since moved on and no longer maintain them. So now the core developers, even though they have no interest or use for those modules, are left to maintain them. But even these comments are over simplistic, as some modules have been deemed, quite rightly, to be valuable enough to become 'core'. Its complicated <G>.
My apologies for such a long time responding. It seems my internet provider only provides me internet when its convenient....
Mitar,
Thank you. I have installed limesurvey and am currently trying it out. I really liked Drupal's Webform. It looks really nice and is quite configurable. I just figured it might be overkill for what I wanted.
Kiwi,
Thank you for the insight as to the would-be direction of PGV. I have been using open source for a long time now, and it always seems to be the case that "need" usually steers the projects. And this "need" changes from time to time. However, I'm excited about all the work that does get done. If something like this was to become part of PGV, it should definitely become a module. I would try to let Limesurvey use the login info from PGV so users don't need to login to a 2nd page on the same site, but I'd probably botch it. I haven't looked at any docs on how to do that. I think Limesurvey should take care of my needs for the time being.
I'm eager to learn php, and have been going through a huge book picking up the jist of how it works. I suppose I won't really learn it until I apply it. And that won't really happen until I start playing with a DB using it. "Hello World" is only so helpful =)
Thanks again for your candor, and the link.
Merry Christmas all
Marshall
Hi Marshall
To answer "Would the content management systems (joomla) be easier to set up and make do this? ", I've been using PGV with Joomla for a few months now and, being almost completly new to setting-up website and without real programming skills, it is really easy (and fun) to set up and use. I did not use any "form" modules up to now but there are some available. Also, it opens the door to plenty of extensions so I would defenitely recommend using it. Only problem is that you spend a lot of time trying everything which is available without having always an application for it!