Elo!
The goal is to build a Webshop where all the product categories and products (aswell as user authentication, order placement, order history, etc etc) comes from a REST webservice..
So basically very little data will be stored in the CMS DB..
I've managed to extend the login-part (looking at "Windows Authentication Module"), but im not sure how to proceed with the other parts?
Is the answer here a way to go? However the answer seems to claim that we would need records for each product?
How to change Orchard record repository
First of all, this is something you might want to consider. Do you really want to flood the rest service with requests. From the way you put this question (very little data will be stored) it seems like every time someone browses a page, you create a REST request. This usually is not a good idea, so be sure to include some caching.
Then, I doubt it's windows authentication you want for a webshop. Make sure to check out forms authentication.
Then, I guess orchard is something you could consider for this project. Regular webshops usually have so much overhead that it is better to create a webshop (with this specific requiremetn) in a regular CMS, and orchard is very extendable.
One mayor thing is, payment. Make sure you have a good payment processor that works (or that you can make it work) for orchard.
Related
There are a ton of online CMS services out there. And a ton of (new) backend-as-a-service products too. But I can't seem to find what I am looking for.
I am building an app for a client. The app contains data about shops, products, and more. The client must be able to update this data (and not just one person: each shop manager needs to be able to log in and edit the data for their own shop). And of course the app must be able to access this data.
Client edits data online
This has to be extremely user-friendly and completely online. I don't want to sell my client something where they need to install stuff on their server. I don't want to sell them something that's accessible online but looks like phpMyAdmin.
I want a shop owner to be able to go to a webpage, log in, and then see a pretty UI where they can edit the data for their shop. The back-end needs to have a pretty front-end that's auto-generated for whatever data this particular shop owner is allowed to edit.
So there are two bits: storing data in the cloud in such a way that it can be accessed by the app (which I am building with Titanium), and allowing the client to log into the backend and edit the data in a non-tech, user-friendly way.
Here's a list of things I tried...
Backend-as-a-service
Services with a great back-end, but without easy auto-generated data editing website:
Appcelerator (Titanium) Cloud Service
Amazon EC2
Stackmob
BackBeam
WebVanta
Parse
API o Mat
ShepHertz Cloud42
Kii
Online CMS
Services that provide a nice way for clients to edit data, but no easy way for apps to connect:
CloudCMS
(and many others I'm sure)
It's insane that no-one seems to be providing the cross-breed of BaaS and online CMS. So many people are building apps for clients, and so many clients are not tech-savvy and are reluctant to get a special server and host database software they don't understand. Why does this not exist? What am I missing?
With apiOmat it's easy to create your own data-editing app for e.g. with JavaScript SDK and HTML. Or you send a feature request so that they build a module for your preferred CMS.
As you mentioned, Cloud CMS is a really good option (disclaimer: I'm one of the founders). The product provides an enterprise content management backend and an API that lets you plug in some really powerful features right into your mobile apps.
This month, we released a brand new user interface which provides much of what you're asking about. Instant forms, document libraries, search and workflow all in one place.
You can check out Cloud CMS here: http://www.cloudcms.com
I completely agree with your assessment particularly with respect to the last mile (getting the final app built). It's kind of the wild west out there and the strong technologies are still proving out.
You mentioned Titanium - that's a good choice. I also quite like the Ionic Framework (http://www.drifty.com/). It's a step in the right direction.
I often need to create similar, but very long HTML forms for a client. The forms contain some inter-dependent fields and lot of validations. Some images also need to be uploaded.
Then the client needs to check the database in the CPanel and export it from there.
I want to create something with easy interface which can create complicated forms. Also, client is asking for easy-to-operate back end. The CMS option looks like an overkill. I want to keep the site as lightweight as possible because of performance requirement.
Please suggest me the best path I should take. Should I try to develop everything from scratch? Should I use a CMS? Is there any particular CMS more suitable for the task?
We use ChronoForms along with Joomla 3.1 to create such forms. It has two modes, an easier one that limits the functionality but creation of forms is much easier. The other one offers the full capabilities of the engine but requires manual steps to do even simple things.
Having said that, ChronoForms is the most powerful web based forms designer I have come across. It seems they also support Wordpress now.
They have a drag-drop mechanism to design the forms. Validations are easy to do via check boxes for the standard ones. You can save the results into database tables, send emails, redirect users to specific pages, add captchas.
The backend allows you to view the records and create new tables based on the fields of the form. You can also export the result as CSV.
I'm creating an iPhone Game where I want the user to get a unique numeric code when they first launch the app, that way when a friend of that user opens it, he/she can input that code and both users can get rewarded. I haven't encountered any issues regarding that, however what I want to do is make it to where the app registers the code given to every user and saves it to a website of some sort. That way when the other user enters the code, it will load the data from that website and check if it's registered. How would I manage to save the data onto a website? and also What free website could I use for this without having a character limit on the body page?
-Thanks in advance
Your thinking is correct, in that you need to save your data somewhere online, but you don't really "save data onto a website" in the way that you're describing. "Free Website" services usually serve a different purpose entirely - that of serving up public html pages. Sure, they can take the form of a CMS (like wordpress.com or tumblr accounts), but using that as an interface for storing your application's data is not something they're typically designed to do.
For something like this, where you have a public iPhone app that requires secure access to custom strings, you really want to have control over your own web server (different than a domain name, btw), and interface with a database on that server. This will come at a cost, and will involve more code than you're likely to find someone to write for you on here. Sorry to say it, but hey if someone wants to prove me wrong I'd love to see it.
Because all you need to store & retrieve are random strings (basically referral codes... if I'm understanding correctly), your database needs are pretty simple. If you're not familiar with things like PHP / MySQL, and you don't want to learn, it might be worth reaching out to some server-side developers for help. Unless there's more to it than you describe, you can probably find someone to help you for relatively cheap.
Good luck - and I'm sorry there isn't a simpler answer for ya.
You can send data using NSURLConnection. Just create an NSMutableURLRequest and call its -setHTTPMethod: method with “POST” as the HTTP method. Then, set its body and header fields appropriately, and you can use NSURLConnection to send the data.
I've tried looking around but honestly not finding much help. I am mostly seeking for advice as to how I should approach to develop what I am thinking.
I want to accomplish something like this.
Imagine a website, with a backend database. This database contains information fed by users themselves. The website is fully functional, now I want users to be able to have the same functionality on their iPhones. I don't use a local database because I want all users to be able to have access to the same database, and this changes constantly.
What would be the best approach to:
Allow users to access all the information currently available on the website (database perspective).
Able to edit & add new entries to the database
I don't know if me creating an array to hold all this data would be wise to do. Specially with large amounts of data. I dont know how well it can scale.
Should I create a duplicate SQL lite database on the phone itself duplicating that of that website? What do you guys feel would be a good approach to this?
Comments, links, references would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks!
Sounds like the perfect time to create an API for your website. If the size of you application is not very big, you can use the same database, but would be good to run the API separated from the web server.
Essentially, such an API should allow you to make requests to certain URLs for retrieving, updating and deleting information from the database.
Depending on what server-side platform you are currently using, there are many options.
Client-side, your iPhone app can use http://restkit.org/ or http://allseeing-i.com/ASIHTTPRequest/ if you feel confident.
I'm considering Wordpress as my CMS platform for a client site I'm doing at the moment.
However, I need to create a couple of custom 'modules'. One of these modules is a form that people will be able to complete and have a quote, and once submitted, in a special place in the Wordpress panel (like a menu or something), there will be a listing of all the submitted quotes (just fetching it from a table in my database).
Another one is to manage a cafeteria menu, so the client can add a different meal to each day of the week.
I know perfectly how to do this kind of things using some kind of MVC framework and doing it 'by-hand', but I'm just wondering if this would be possible to do with WP and if yes, what kind of tools I'll have to use.
Thanks
Quite simply, yes, WordPress would be a more-than-capable asset to your criteria. But it's whether the learning curve in getting to know WP outweighs using a framework you're clearly already familiar with?
Personally, it sounds you like you're pretty solid with PHP, and considering the fact that, in my opinion, what you're planning on doing is relatively easy, I'd say WordPress is an excellent solution.
I'd recommend reading about WordPress 3.0's new custom post type API, and skimming the basics of hooks and filters in the Plugin API.
Submitted quotes would merely be a custom post type. You'd be better off writing the front-end code (like handling the form, UI etc.) yourself, either within a theme or plugin, then using wp_insert_post and let WordPress handle all the database administration. In fact, WP will go one step further and set up the entire admin for viewing, editing and deleting quotes.
Post meta (also known as custom fields) is also there for you if you need to store additional information about a quote that doesn't quite fit the post's table structure.
For the menu, this is even easier. I'd say just create a post category called 'Menu', and the client can publish 'dishes' to it as you would with a blog or any similar rolling format.
I've only licked the surface here. Get stuck in with the above, then check out some other goodies like meta boxes and custom taxonomies!
If you want to try a plugin instead of writing something yourself, Flutter might work. It's a little unpolished sometimes but it makes this sort of thing an absolute breeze.