Application Generators

[walterbyrd]

I would like to put together a very simple inventory program. When I
ship an item, and edit the quantity; I would like the quantity _on_hand
to auto-decrement, and the quantity_to_reorder to auto-increment.

Also, when the data is displayed in a table format, I would like to be
able to edit the quantity field as I
would in a spreadsheet, just edit that field, without having to change
to an edit-record screen.

I thought the easiest way to do this would be to use a PHP code
generator. But I'm not having any luck. Maybe I give up and code by
hand? Or maybe I should use django? It seems that application
generators never do exactly what you want, and even if they do, what
about future development? I am looking for something that will make it
easy to put together this simple project, and be flexible enough that I
can easily modify the project.

This application is supposed to run on hosted server, so that is also a
concern. The present host doesn't even have python, but I could move
the site to a new host, which has cgi python.

I have an open mind. If anybody can suggest anything, I will take a
look.

Application generators that I have tried:

dbQwikSite: I found it difficult to get it to work, and very slow. I
had to uninstall Xampp, and install AppServ just to get it to work at
all. I don't know why, maybe Xampp's versions of php/mysql were too
new? I still can not get it to generate php code that I can use.

AppGini: works as advertised, easy to use, inexpensive, and fast. But,
frankly, it doesn't do much. As far as I could see, it doesn't even
offer the basic security of a login. It just displays data, and allows
you to add/delete records. I don't even think you can interactively
edit records. Not much reporting capability.

PHP-Runner: the best so far. Fast, easy, nice looking display, has
basic security, allows editing records. Still does not seem to have
the basic functionallity I'm looking for.

Other app generators that I have looked at, but not tried:

PHP-Peanuts
PHPMaker
phpmysql
DaDaBik
WizzyWeb
Navicat

Again, glad to read any opinions.

 

[walterbyrd]

In case anybody is interested, here is an update on my reviews for code
generators:

AppGini & PHPMagic. ($35 - $70) Cheap and easy to use, but not very
functional. Okay if you are making flat-file, unsecure, CRUD. No
authentication. No real relational functionallity. No event triggers.

PHPRunner. ($199). Some authentication, but only one level. Some
relational capabilities, not great. Event triggers. Fairly easy to use,
but if you want to relate two or more tables, you have to hand code
the sql, which sort of defeats the purpose.

dbQwikSite ($140 - $200). Slow and diffecult to work with. In fact, I
couldn't get it to work at all.

dataface (free). Interesting new project. Huge potential. But, not
really completed yet. Relational capabilities, and has event triggers.
No authentication yet. Not easy to work with.

 

[Chris Seymour]

Have you taken a look at CodeChargeStdio (http://www.yessoftware.com)?
This will handle what you are looking to do and then some. Might be a
bit pricey, but it is worth a look.

Cheers.

Chris

 

[walterbyrd]

Thanks.

It does look good. The personal editon costs less than phprunner. And
it seems much more powerful than PHPRunner.

 

[rajeev.tandon]

Hi walterbyrd,

I had also gone through this search earlier, but unfortunately the app
generators generate a lot of code, and more imp is that inspite of
this, they are not very close to what you really need. I had been
evaluating these from time to time. Appgini is good but mostly from an
academic view point, you can better learn from its mechanism.

Secondly, the kind of app you have in mind, is better hand coded. I
recently came accross a similar project, which was eventually done by
handcoding.

 

[Steve Hannah]

I know that this is an older thread, but I came across it on Nabble.com.
Just wanted add some updated info on Walter's observations about Dataface
(http://fas.sfu.ca/dataface) . It is much further along in development now
and it does support authentication now.

Just wanted to follow this up in case people come across this post.

Best regards

Steve Hannah

 

[walterbyrd]

I know that this is an older thread, but I came across it on Nabble.com.
Just wanted add some updated info on Walter's observations about Dataface
(http://fas.sfu.ca/dataface) . It is much further along in development now
and it does support authentication now.

Thanks, for the particular project that I was working on, I went with
AppGeni, and added my own authentication.

I do have other projects in mind. Dataface seems almost like a free
version of codecharge. One thing I don't much like about codecharge, is
that it's windows only.