Incomplete site in PHP

[bwglaw]

Hi...

Have been discussing with one of our Directors about completing one of our online projects which has been dormant for some time. It is an online booking system done in PHP/mySQL.

I have always preferred ASP and wondered if it is possible to convert a PHP site to ASP/ASP.net without costing the earth? Is this a complete re-write job?

Appreciate any comments so I can assist with the preparation of a brief/tender. We are not inviting quotations externally because we have two web developers on board who are approved, one in ASP and other in PHP

Thanks


Jonathan

[lex]

Complete rewrite, but it will make it easy for whoever does, to see how u want it to work.

[bwglaw]

We have the functionalities mostly developed already. We need to add a few more i.e. each (specific) user once registered, logged in to 'create own invoice' including charges etc plus several other functions. The site is currently in public domain but not in operation.

Its a cross between ebay and easycar and we are considering converting it to ASP/ASP.net if it is not too costly i.e. more than £2500

If it is not likely to be costly then it is worth spending time on the brief to our approved ASP web developer

[DotNetWebs]

I agree with lex. The site would have to be rewritten from scratch. The only bits you could possibly reuse could be any relevant JavaScript code and possibly the most basic HTML template and style sheets etc. (i.e a few bits of the client-side code).

As lex points out the fact that you already have a working site would mean the developer could get straight into the coding without spending too much time in the design phase and 'proving the concept' etc.

You should insist the site is written in ASP.NET 2.0 and if possible use SQL Server 2005. This will save a lot of development time over 1.0/1.1 (especially if you are using a lot of user-specific functionality). It will also mean the site can be built to XHTML / W3C compliant standards etc.

[nsdesign]

If it's so far developed in PHP, why change?

[Cornish Steve]

Can someone explain to an ignoramus like me the basic difference between the two languages? When would you choose one over the other?

[Coding Monkey]

Can someone explain to an ignoramus like me the basic difference between the two languages? When would you choose one over the other?

Honestly, the difference will, in 99% of cases, simply come down to a preference. Whether it's because you're simply trained in one, or because you somehow believe that one is better, when the majority will not be fluent in both.

They're not the only web languages available, but they will be the most common for database control (such as storing information, orders, forum posts) and have a great amount of power behind them. Because PHP is open-source, there's plenty of extensions, manuals, help pages and so on related to it, and also a greater number of people able to offer help, as more people are able to learn it because it's free. But, there might be cases where ASP actually performs a task better, faster or just works better on that environment (Windows) and is therefore required.

[Cornish Steve]

Thanks, Tom.

[bwglaw]

If it's so far developed in PHP, why change?

Like Tom said, a matter of preference. We feel PHP is too 'rigid'. This could be down to simply changing the CSS or something..?

We are lovers of XHTML/CSS and the site MUST comply with W3C because the site is all about accessibility. We need to ensure the site is very secure. The site currently has 3 interfaces, full admin control, online diary, etc

The sites where we developed the concept from are ASP, at least one is but not sure about Ebay. The PHP site is currently on our Windows server and if reliability is paramount I am not sure Windows will be the best server, but Linux

I would be happy to PM a few of you (established members!) the website address for you to have a peek and advise further.

Jonathan

[DotNetWebs]

The PHP site is currently on our Windows server and if reliability is paramount I am not sure Windows will be the best server, but Linux

I wouldn't necessarily agree with that statement but that is irrelevant.

What is relevant is the fact that if you believe that and wish to run your site on Linux there is no point in considering ASP.NET. PHP is the only sensible option.

[Lushdigital]

We can complete the job

[bwglaw]

As my earlier post said we are not inviting tenders but seeking advice in order to draft the brief for either our PHP or ASP developers

Sorry, but it has taken us 3 years to find the right developers and a few projects failed because of the developers we had used in the past

[Coding Monkey]

In that case, you'll save yourself so much more money going with PHP to carry on the development, rather than starting from scratch. And I'm not sure where you've gained the idea of it being too rigid from, as it was ASP that originally made sites so that it was impossible for them to validate by WC3 standards. To my knowledge, this has never been an issue with PHP, and certainly hasn't for PHP 4.0 >=, which has been around for a fair few years. The only issue that can sometimes arise is with session variables, but this is a simple 1 line fix to prevent anything being added to forms.

As I mentioned, there will be very few people on here who can program in both (I believe mattk can), and therefore you're not going to get an open opinion, just the preference of a developer, generally based on what they learned first or know better. My company will, for the foreseeable future, work in PHP, as when I employ someone to take over the development, I can only verify their talent by looking at their code. The same will apply to many web development companies, where one route was chosen because the owner knows of it. And I must admit, I don't see any advantage in learning ASP, as if I couldn't do the job sufficiently, I wouldn't take it on, and the only cases where this has ever happened was because it required either Flash or Java. I would be very surprised if what you're after cannot be done in PHP when it can in ASP, as all you're asking for is database manipulation. PHP is regularly updated with security patches and has a huge user base, so bugs are constantly being fixed at a faster rate than what most standard development languages are.

[bwglaw]

As always, many thanks for your contribution Tom. I think I am likely to do the brief on PHP. I believe that we have shown you the website which we are talking about now.

The reason I say PHP is 'rigid' is because the feel I get of that site whereas our sister site at http://www.handsonaccess.com has a better feel to it, which I suspect is because of the use of XHTML. Not being an expert I am not sure if this is to do with the scripting language being used hence a 'preference' to ASP

Many thanks again


Jonathan

[Coding Monkey]

Coding Monkeys is XHTML 1.1 Strict and made in PHP. I won't go into detail, but basically, XHTML is a language in itself, and ASP/PHP is a dynamic programming language that runs behind-the-scenes. It doesn't actually display anything - that's the job of the XHTML/CSS. So, what it means is that it doesn't matter which of the languages you use, as they will both validate. Ergo, PHP is the cheaper method on this project ;)

[bwglaw]

Thanks for that clarification. So the brief will now say PHP and XHTML/CSS

When we get the brief done and when our sister company is ready we will ensure you are invited to put in a quotation ;) I cannot guarantee when this will be because I have just brought in 2 Directors of the company that owns the site and they will have an input.

Jonathan

[DotNetWebs]

Thanks for that clarification. So the brief will now say PHP and XHTML/CSS

Jonathan

Glad you sorted that out. As I pointed out there is absolutely no point in attempting to run a ASP.NET site on a Linux server.

I would like to point out though, just for the record, ASP.NET has very little in common with "Classic" ASP. Attempting to compare the two is like comparing JavaScript with Java. If I had to choose just one difference it would be that ASP.NET runs compiled code as opposed to an interpreted script.

Also regarding cost, a PHP application will usually cost less to run as Linux hosting is obviously cheaper than Windows hosting but ASP.NET is actually FREE and believe it or not there are many open source ASP.NET applications out there.

As Mac points out ask any developer which language they prefer to use and it will usually come down to the developer's own background. The point I would like to make is that this will not always be the best choice for the client. If someone is already hosting Linux websites then PHP will be the logical choice. If however somebody is already hosting Windows websites and other Windows technologies then ASP.NET would probably be a more suitable solution.

[bwglaw]

We have only a Windows server which is why we are asking whether to rewrite to ASP. The PHP site is currently on the windows server. The PHP site belongs to our sister company that has an ASP site and was hoping to move the PHP site to join the ASP to share traffic but this is obviously not possible unless they are both ASP