Help with my First App

dj_cubop

I am new to PHP and MySQL so I figured the best learning experience is to work on a small application. I am working on an application which will enable a music teacher to schedule music lessons on a calendar. i have the business rules and sketched out a data model. At this point, I am overwhelmed, stuck, going in circles and not sure what the next step should be. Can any make suggestions? Are there guidelines for developing a new application? Any suggestion will be greatly appreciated.
Cubop

NogDog

Part of the answer would depend on whether you plan to use mainly object-oriented PHP or procedural PHP. In either case, though, the goal should be to modularize your application code into distinct pieces -- whether they be classes, functions, and/or include files -- which can be developed and tested individually. This allows you to concentrate on one task at a time, and then ultimately combine those tasks into the final application without having to deal with a single mutli-thousand-line file of spaghetti code.

Francoise

DJ, unfortunately I can't help you in a practical sense, but I'm interested in what you are trying to do. And in what NogDog said in reply. Maybe it would help to identify what modules you have already broken the project into? and then what modules you still need? The word "modularize" sounds very promising but exactly what it would entail is still kind of mysterious. Well, to me, at least. 🙂

dj_cubop

Hi NogDog and Francoise,
Thank you for taking the time to reply and sharing your suggestions. I have been reflecting on my question and realize that there are no easy answers. I am taking suggestions and exploring Object Oriented PHP. OO PHP is a new way of thinking about analysis, design and development. It seems to be a a entirely new mindset. After studying a number of tutorials, I am still trying to wrap my mind around classes, objects, encapsulation, inheritance, constructors, properties, methods, etc. What comes first the class, object, business rules or data model. I guess this is all part of the learning process.

I had an idea for an app in PHP and MySQL yet to get from the idea to the finished product is a journey in itself. My original idea was to find an easier way to modify websites for up and coming local musicians who cannot afford big production websites... my way of giving back. Right now the websites are in XHTML and CSS. Updating nine websites with new play dates is a hassle. I figured there must be a way to store content in a database; have an input screen for the musicians to update their info into a database (MySQL) and feed that info into their website using PHP... As opposed to manually updating each website.

So I figured let me start on a small app to learn PHP and MySql... music teacher to schedule music lessons on a calendar. I think I am starting to get a headache. Yet, I will keep plugging away to a finished product. Onto studying OO PHP concepts.

Thanks Again,
DJ_Cubop

NogDog

You might find this blog post of mine somewhat useful for some links to get started with object-oriented PHP.

Francoise

DJ, you sound rather discouraged. Maybe NogDog could tell you whether or not you really need to learn OOP PHP -- I have a feeling that you could achieve your goal without going to so much trouble.

Just now I put "php schedule calendar" into Google and it gave me a whole bunch of results with many calendar scripts. Perhaps you could use a script that someone else has already created?? Somehow it just seems to me that you should not have to reinvent the wheel on this.

NogDog

Certainly you do not have to use OOP. However, if your long-term goal is to create a large application (for some undefined value of "large"), learning to do so with OOP can ultimately make your life easier, even if it means more to learn up front; as OOP concepts deal directly with the sort of modularity and encapsulation needed to keep large applications under control and manageable to work on.