newbie NEEDS help making a scheduler

[dpdrums]

hi,

i just installed os commerce. it is for a flight school site.

any suggestions on how to turn the shopping cart into a way for students to schedule their aircraft, pilot, and time.

 

headings will havve to be renamed to reflect a schedule, the price does not need to show. plus it is driving me crazy just trying to figure out how best to add the options for the students to pick from.

there is only 1 pilot, 3 aircraft, then the calendar, or days and time to configure.

 

if anyone, out of the goodness of their hearts can help me with weaving my way throught this, i would be be so grateful.

 

it seems like it should be a simple thing, however just getting the options in a intutive structure, and changing the header names, is driving me......well to this forum to ask for help of any kind. with any steps.

 

thank you in advance....

 

dp sean

 

it's right here

[kgt]

Why not use a scheduler to manage scheduling? There are open source projects out there already geared towards your needs. There are several on sourceforge:

 

http://sourceforge.net/search/?type_of_sea...&imageField.y=0

[dpdrums]

well os commerce came with the hosting plan of the client....

my goal was to make something for him with what is already there.

it installed automatically just by selecting it in the admin area.

it is worth taking a look, and trying to see if i can install a 3rd party program.

the host offers no support for 3rd party software.

 

thanks for the heads up, i appreciate it

[kgt]

You say the host offers no support of third party software. I assume you mean they will not help you with programming or code issues for third party software. I am wondering if you think they will help you if you modify OSCommerce to the degree you'd need to get it to work as a scheduler for you. Of course, I don't know your host or what they offer, but I doubt they'd be willing to support your personal code, which is what they would regard the massive changes you'd be making to OSC.

 

Just a word of caution before you get too far.

[dpdrums]

well, that is a good point.

they tell me they support the software that comes with the hosting plan. dot5hosting is who it is.

if i mess up the code to much, and my back ups do not provide me a fix, i can do a reinstall of the osc program.

do you ask because you have an idea??

 

like what files have the header titles. i need to change just a few things. it does not have to be an actual calendar. the students need to be able to pick the pilot, and aircraft, then include the time they wish to schedule time of said aircraft and pilot.

 

the sites owner does not want to spend an arm and a leg to make a aviation schedule. i looked into it for him, and they want almost 300.00/yr just to let him have his own schedule on their own host. he does not even get to own the software.

 

so i am just looking for a work around for a simple way for his students to post to him their desired time and so forth.

 

thanks for asking

[kgt]

well, that is a good point.

they tell me they support the software that comes with the hosting plan. dot5hosting is who it is.

if i mess up the code to much, and my back ups do not provide me a fix, i can do a reinstall of the osc program.

do you ask because you have an idea??

Well, I don't know that you'll get it to work the way you want - or that you won't. I just hate to see you make huge changes to the application, thinking you'll have support for your host when you very well may not.

 

like what files have the header titles. i need to change just a few things. it does not have to be an actual calendar. the students need to be able to pick the pilot, and aircraft, then include the time they wish to schedule time of said aircraft and pilot.

I understand that part. Many of the schedulers are reservation systems geared more towards hotels and the like, but they have to mange resources (hotels have rooms, tables, chairs, staff and equipment; you have planes and pilots) and schedule events so that the resources are never double-booked.

 

It seems to me like a scheduling or resource management program may be geared more towards your client's needs. Maybe not.

 

the sites owner does not want to spend an arm and a leg to make a aviation schedule. i looked into it for him, and they want almost 300.00/yr just to let him have his own schedule on their own host. he does not even get to own the software.

Understandable. But the links to scheduling software I posted were all open source, just as OSCommerce is. And if your site can run OSCommerce, it has PHP and MySQL. Many of the projects at sourceforge run on PHP and MySQL. It does not cost more to install or use this software than it does OSC. The only drawback is, you have little to no host support, and probably a smaller user group (though the actual programmers of smaller projects are often able to make themselves available for support through their forums and mailing lists, which can better support than anything your host could ever offer).

 

I'd suggest installing a couple of different solutions and playing around with each to try and determine which will fit your needs best. After all, what good is host support if the system doesn't fit business needs? Make your decision based on whether the software fits your needs AND whether there is adequate support available. Community support (such as that found on the OSC boards and other sourceforge projects) is often as good or even better than what the host provides. Guess where they search to find answers to the questions you ask them regarding OSC?

[dpdrums]

yup, i hear ya....

you are making good sense, i suggested to the site owner o get a real scheduler designed for aviation, right off the bat.

i did however tell him i would do mt best to try and make something out of what he had with the hosting plan.

he has phpnuke too.

although, i did upload a calendar program called webcalendar 1.0.1.

and much to my surprize, the host admin agreed to un-tar it for me.

so lets hope that will work out.

again thank you for all the time and help you have given me.

i truly do appreciate the wisdom.

have a good one, i wil let you know how it all goes.

regards,

dp sean