Help with PHP and ASP.NET

[fastprint.co.uk]

We have this design tool

http://www.fastprint.co.uk/design-tool/

made in ASP.NET and wondered what work would be involved if we ever did change it to PHP

Any help would be appreciated.

 

[fisicx]

Lots. And lots and lots and lots.

Pretty much need to start all over again. There are tools that purport to convert asp to php but it's rarely successful.

Starting again would give you the opportunity to fix all the UX bugs and annoyances.

 

[Clinton]

With several good off-the-shelf systems from the likes of PrintScience and others, may I ask why you wish to create a solution from scratch?

 

[arnydnxluk]

It might not be quite as much work as expected.

The design image is generated on the front end (in the visitor's web browser, using JavaScript) and then base64 encoded before being posted to an API endpoint.

Therefore it's quite possible the ASP.NET backend is quite simple, depending on what the ASP.NET application does with the generated image once it's stored on the backend.

In terms of the work involved, it's a complete rewrite from one language to another for the backend part only. If the original job included creating the frontend where the images, clipart, shapes etc are selected, as well as the ASP.NET backend, then the new job of converting the backend to PHP should certainly be less work than the original job.

 

[fisicx]

It's going to a lot more work than you think. PHP is server side only so everything you see and interact with is going to be JS/jQuery. It might already be ready to go but looking at the code it doesn't appear to be reusable script.

 

[arnydnxluk]

It's going to a lot more work than you think. PHP is server side only so everything you see and interact with is going to be JS/jQuery. It might already be ready to go but looking at the code it doesn't appear to be reusable script.

The developer just needs to expose the same API endpoints as the existing ASP.NET backend... there shouldn't be any need to touch the JS side. It can be a drop in replacement for the existing ASP.NET backend if done properly.

 

[fisicx]

Take a look at the code. There doesn’t appear to be a simple JS front end ( unless I’ve missed something).

 

[arnydnxluk]

I did take a look at the code....! As mentioned previously, the image is generated using JS (using the Canvas API) and then base64 encoded before being uploaded to their backend. I didn't say it was a simple frontend but that's irrelevant - the new PHP backend just needs to expose the same API endpoints as the existing ASP.NET backend. If the original job was to build the entire system (the JS side included) then the ASP.NET => PHP conversion should be much easier because the JS side does not need to be touched.

 

[fisicx]

Doh! I missed that.