Can I build my Project using Processwire? (Events-Ecommerce-Trip-Sharing-Community)

[dontforgetmario]

First of all I apoligise for writing such a long post… was not intended.

I'm happy to have found this CMS. I guess like most of us, I came here because somewhere somehow we found a reference to somewhere which leaded us somewhere else and then somehow we landed here

In my case I landed here from the CMS Symphony forum, as someone there mentioned Processwire is something to watch out as it looks really cool.

Anyhow I don't know if I'm an average Processwire user, and most probably no the right user to create something using Processwire. Why, well, I'm not a programmer, I really have no idea, I could not build the most simple script, I know the most basic HTML and most simple CSS and even though I was able to build simple Expression Engine websites, I'm one of those that knows somehow how to make changes in a template using Firefox firebug or build websites using Wordpress and plugins, so I'm able to build anything as far as I don't have to create much code.

I don't know if there are more users as me here, anyway, I wanted to make clear which are my current knowledge limitations but I like learning.

So, why am I here? because I have a personal project, I want to do it myself and although I could do it entirely in Wordpress using a bunch of plugins, I'm not sure if that would be the right choice. I have tried to make it entirely using Invisionpower Suite, and although it works in some way, it is not what I really want.

So what I want to build is this:

A website where users and organizers are able to enter, publish or list events or activities and those users who want to assist to those activities should be able to share their car or accommodation or meet o get know each other even before going to that activity.

People who have participated in those events or activities should be able to rate or leave comments about how was that event so that next assistants know if its worth or not to go and organizers can get the benefit of feedback. Kind of an Activities and Events Community with Trip, Accommodation and Informations sharing between assistants.

So that is what I'd like to offer:

- The activities could be free or pay activities.

- Event Organizers should be able to decide to sell pay events on this website using their own paypal or the gateway should be able to calculate a commission in case website's own paypal must be used (small commission for me, the rest for them).

- Organizers and users should be able to see how much and how many events tickets are being sold and who is assisting.

- People that want to assist to an event should be able to announce that they will assist and if they want, share their car or travel ways with other users going to that event. Ideally when an event is published, you could see e.g:

If the event is Barcelona someone from Madrid is going to that event as well by car, so you could just contact that person from Madrid and book a seat in his car. That person from Madrid should be able to list his trip, car model, free seats, seat price, and so on, and when someone else book that seat, then it should show that already one person is driving there in that car with him so that there is still let's say two seats left… same thing for shared accommodation... so you get the idea.

- Assistants should be able to share accommodation in case they live near where the event is taking place or maybe anything else… not sure what this project will lead up to, maybe users want to share anything else, or have other demands.

- I'd like also to be able to show those activities in a calendar, but an Agenda view would be enough, as there is not such a thing anywhere.

- Users should be able to sort and filter those activities (as I see in Processwire that is not a problem)

- I was also thinking on integrating a forum but the thing is that without a proper bridge or integration, users end up having two profiles. Having a kind of SSO would be nice.

So I think of several ways to do this:

1.- The Wordpress Way integrating following components:

- Wordpress
- wp-types.com plugins (Forms, Custom Types, Woocommerce plugin, Views) or the ACF (Advance Custom Fields) from http://www.advancedcustomfields.com/
- Woocommerce e-commerce plugin
- Woocommerce extensions
- Wordpress Affiliates Woocommerce Plugin
- Invisionpower IP.Board
- Wordpress IP.Board Bridge.
- Or integrate it with the new moot comments | forum platform from moot.it, although I must say I like IP.Board.

2.- Expression Engine and the necessary modules (which I have to figure out yet), their forum module is terrible to put it kindly. And after reading their last moves about how are they dealing their Customer Support to small customers, I don't know what to think. I also don't like that in Expression Engine you are not able to add a user to more than one group and that could be a limitation when you build a community oriented website. On the other side there are tons of modules for it.

3.- InvisionPower IPS: I have be able to do most of this customizing the IP.Downloads App module but the end result has lot to be desired. And Invisionpower Suite although it is a really good product, their documentation and Customer Service is not really oriented to help users to build this kind of projects using their platform.

4.- Craft CMS which is still in development, looks really good but lacks an e-commerce module
 
5.- Processwire which looks amazing. I saw there is an ecommerce module but not sure if I had the necessary skills to adapt it to my needs. And on the other side I guess I'll find myself asking silly questions (for advanced users here) all the time.

What do I prefer?… of course the very best thing would be to be able to make it using one single flexible platform and use as little 3rd party modules as possible. Wordpress is not a fast and secure platform and the more plugins you combine within well the slower it can get.

What do I like from Processwire?

- Simple
- Fast
- The Form Module looks amazing
- The Pro Cache module looks impressive
- Updating looks very easy (as I understand just overwrite the Processwire folder with the new version, change index.php and httaccess file)
- Documentation (Although I'd have to read it 100 times) looks promising
- Great Community, not big right now, but looks very dedicated and friendly.
- I like that it works with anything on it (similar to EE)
- I have seen that some built sites do similar things as what I want to build.
- Built already for Multi-language in mind
- It amazes me that there are so much done in such a young system.
- It looks as Ryan is a kind of Genius

So do you think honestly that someone with my limited skills could build a project like this using Processwire?

I think I need so skills I have not right now and I'm specially worried with the commerce aspect of my project… but I'd like to know your opinions about this.

Thanks
Mario

[diogo]

It's quite a project you have there! I won't lie to you, this is quite complex to build entirely on PW, even for someone very experienced. But if you plan to integrate other tools I think PW is perfect.

Apeisa's Ecommerce module is an example, and for forum integration you can show interest http://processwire.com/talk/topic/3536-forum-integration-module

I would say it will take a lot of learning and questions asked, but you seem to have things well planned, wish is good.

youwontbeforgotten

[dontforgetmario]

Hi Diogo,

OK...  I expressed my interest for IP.Board

What do you think? Which parts of my project could be achieved within PW?

Thanks

[ryan]

The scope of the project you mention sounds pretty broad and will be a big investment on your part regardless of what system you build it in. I think part of your decision has to come from budget. If you are testing the waters rather than dedicating your full time to this project, then I would pursue whatever path has the most components already built, even if the result is not 100% what you want. I think that means looking into what's available and built through WordPress and IPS. I especially like the IPS option in your case. Maybe it's not perfect, but it does at least get you more than half way there and has the level of integration between components that you are looking for (including ecommerce). There's no doubt that you could build this all beautifully in ProcessWire, but I wouldn't recommend such a big project being your first in any CMS or framework. Whether ProcessWire or another platform, you'd want to have some significant experience developing apps/sites before pursuing such a big project in [x] platform. Unless you've set aside a large budget or don't have a full-time job already, find the tool that gets you closest to your needs before having to get into code. Then, once you've proven the concept or made it a success, develop it exactly the way you want it in ProcessWire or a full-blown framework. But stay with us here and start learning ProcessWire in smaller chunks and on smaller projects, and before long you'll be ready to build anything you can imagine. 

[Soma]

Nicely said Ryan!

I wonder why always people with "I only know basic HTML and CSS" come with the biggest and most complex coding PHP projects that even an experienced developer would have its adventure.

[MatthewSchenker]

Hey Everyone,

That is an ambitious project!

I agree with all that Ryan said.  I want to highlight one statement in Ryan's post that I think is most apt here:

"But stay with us here and start learning ProcessWire in smaller chunks and on smaller projects, and before long you'll be ready to build anything you can imagine."

That makes a lot of sense.

I would also add this: instead of looking at the whole project all at once, make a list of each individual challenge in your project, then look for the ProcessWire solution for each one.  This is what I did when first using ProcessWire, and I keep using this now for each new project.  It is not only a way to learn ProcessWire, but it also becomes a great way to organize your project planning.  You will be amazed how even rather complex needs have very elegant solutions in ProcessWire.

Thanks,

Matthew