Need Assessment of An App Idea, Please.

[rcai]

Blessings and Peace:

I have no idea of whether a concept I have is a) easisly doable b) difficult and cost prohibitive or c) within the scope of exisiting script(s). Would appreciate any insight, feedback or suggestions:

I envision a Matrix Manager, which will let me
a) create a list of 100 persons via a form
b) will take the name fields and present each person in his/her own
flash button or some dynamic HTML graphic representation

c) As each person visits the site, and completes a certain action (fill out a form for downloading a client), the database will trigger a change in that person's flash button (in the Matrix); perhaps simply the 'state' or color
d) Automatically add each of the 100 persons to a mailing list

Purpose: to create a dynamic Team tool that has some graphic display reflecting 'targeted' team members, and 'supporting' team members- those who've completed an action. At the same time, I'd like to offer the Team Manager an automated system for sending out email briefs to team recruits and team members.

Please advise with your assessment of the ease, or difficulty, of this project; and perhaps some alternative approaches to the objective.

Thanks, in advance, for your time and energy.

In Service and Respect,
Rafiki Cai

[see threepio]

if you have some knowledge of PHP (or equivalent - coldfusion or asp) and mySQL then this is a 1-5 day job depending on your actionscript level. it would take me a day and a half. not highly expensive.

important questions like:

- do the color changes need to be triggered in real-time, while the administrator is using the application?

- do the 100 people register themselves? or does the administrator add names to the dB?


need to be asked.



you then need to construct two simple use case scenarios - one for the team members, another for the administrator.

after which you should ask the question: is flash giving me any added value?

if the answer is yes you then need to construct:


a server side script that lets FLASH talk to SQL and back.

some web forms (this could be in html) for the team members.

server-side scripts to process the forms. one for team member registration. one for the administrator to send out mass emails. another to process the form for downloading the client.

one swf file to serve as the application for the administrator.

in the swf file you can take this route:

use the XMLConnector component to pick up SQL information via a server-side script, and represent it with any kind of icon you like. an SQL field like 'completed' or 'status' will tell you what actions have or haven't been completed by any of the members at any one time. place this information in a datagrid component with column sorting. datagrids accept icons and pics. think about using recordsets (1-10, 10-20) and build this logic into your server-side script, since 100 rows is quite a lot to take in one go.

the app can have a second screen where the admin fills out an email form and clicks' send' to send out to the mailing list.

a third screen can supply the administrator with some settings. like what the 'reply to' address is on the mass email.

ok, hope this is of help! it's simply how i'd go about doing it,

Anil.

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