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Invoicing & inventory problem for my business.

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db90h:
@superboyac: Trust me, I'm not that sharp ;p.

our only real "external" issue is triggering the activity from a received email. With a product like Filemaker and AlphaFive you ask (and search) on their forums and you probably get a few good answers.  Should be fairly easy, a lot depends on the email product used (Note: Filemaker may have some email integration/hooks.)  Let's say you use Eudora but prefer Thunderbird or TheBat! for this app. You should be able POP-ify a Gmail account so that you could work that account with Thunderbird/Bat so you do not have to change your own personal email preference. "Pushing" the email response should be fairly simple, built in to the product (one of the reasons you purchase an environment instead of simply doing more basic raw code, as in a scripting language).
-Steven Avery (March 23, 2012, 11:20 PM)
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I advise against using a mechanism such as this. It is better to have the server send the response email than some POP3 client handling a rule. It is extremely easy to code, perhaps easier than setting up a local client in many ways, and the server is more likely to be 'always up'. Well, this should be the obvious superior solution. For many, it is simply taking a step into something you've not done before. You'll find it is *very* easy to send an email from your server via PHP (or other) though. Just my two cents.

Even events that require file manipulation should be done on the server, and - again - ironically can often easier be done there. PHP and other scripting languages have grown so robust that you can do more with them than the 'rules' of any email client, that's for sure ;)

Steven Avery:
Hi,

When you say the server should send the response email, I think you are assuming a web site linked to its email server in its same domain ?  Surely that would save a step and be reliable, once set up, for an automated response.   However that is assuming that you are keeping the auto-increment logic there as well, along with the customer database and all related biz data.  If you want the app local, on your own PC-Mac, then there might be some decisions.  Same thing if you want more personalizing in the response email.  If you are trying to do a small, simple app, it seems like forcing everything unto your host server adds some complication. (And may help explain the $1500 price tags above.)

And if you auto-check your mail every minute, or have some sort of push-passthru-download (including the simplicity of Gmail forwarding which does work great)  I really do not see any real functional distinction.  My email I estimate at better than 99.99% fine for those activities.  (I pass a lot of forum mail down to boxes on my PC.)  What is the advantage of a 3-second or 1-minute save ?

The point is simple. The email response itself might be excellent in the cloud.  However if you decide the full app should reside on your disk, then you may not want to divide responsibilities.

Another point is that you would have fairly elegant customization if your "Filemaker" had nice hooks.

Note that these database programs will also have "server" options, but again, why spend the extra money and hassle for a KISS application ?  Later, you could always port your app to the server.  Even Filemaker, known for its proprietary files (e.g. .FP7) I believe now will run on some sort of SQL database as an alternative. (Check this, though, if it is important.)

The idea that you will simply hand-code in PHP the overall functionality of a Filemaker app is simply a non-starter, imho. Where I program on an iSeries, one exec actually set up duplicate functions on Filemaker just to get the really nice email, PDF, word-processing, excel-export, PC style data-base integration, running local server multi-user (including a lot of communication and documents with vendors overseas).  I'm actually in the process of deciding how to best re-unify the system, while letting the few users maintain that nice simple functionality.  (I'm even considering simply forcing all data entry to be on the mini and then refreshing the data periodically.  At least at first, so that no functionality is sacrificed while playing with alternatives to Filemaker.)

I can see the plus for a mission-critical response.  My internet connection has an outage, usually a couple of hours, every few months.  If you absolutely had to have quick response all the time, that might be unacceptable, since you do add another traffic point.  The other day I had to reboot my router, and was down for a bit, a quirky situation.  Clearly, you would avoid the occasional local point of delay.

Steven

superboyac:
Thank you Steven.

I just spoke this over with my partner.  It's too much to swallow right now, we're going to have to put this part of the business plan off.  Seems like eventually we will revamp how we automate some of our stuff, especially once we move more towards digital content.  We'll need to change our website, the way we handle emails, start using database programs, etc.  OK...this will take more planning.

mouser:
I think its a wise decision to do more planning and move to a more automated online system.

Setting up an ad hoc mechanism that uses your desktop mail program to send out serials would work but eventually you are going to have to move to an online system for handling this kind of stuff so you might as well do it that way to begin with.

superboyac:
I think its a wise decision to do more planning and move to a more automated online system.

Setting up an ad hoc mechanism that uses your desktop mail program to send out serials would work but eventually you are going to have to move to an online system for handling this kind of stuff so you might as well do it that way to begin with.
-mouser (March 24, 2012, 03:52 PM)
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Now that our product is more or less completed, we really shouldn't have to do all the manual work we are doing right now.  So I want to now start thinking about how to automate everything.  And i don't want to get ripped off for it in the meantime, which means I need to educate myself much better.

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