Thinking of migrating an existing ZEND WebApp into PW

[jwaldeck]

Hi ProcessWire's, how are you all?

I've been postponing it for months, but I think the time has come to try to look into this issue a little deeper.

I currently have a website http://www.tearoffflyermaker.com/ built in Zend that is getting some traction and about 10 new users a day and I'd love to give this a little more attention! The problem is that it was coded on Zend by a dev in Russia that is gone, has a rather simple "Generating PDF" functionality (with some kind of Zend plugin he used) and some pre built PDF Flyer themes that I'll also have to improve ASAP.

I'm perfectly aware that ProcesWire would have the ability to mimic all of that and I'm pretty sure it could replace that heavy Zend to make this app work a litttle better and give me more control about what's going on (since I know nothing about Zend). The only problem, and you hear that a lot, is that I'm not a hard core dev and haven't found many case studies or guides to create apps using Pwire. I would also have to research and undertsand what the optios to generate PDF's from limited user data input there are out there.

Would someone be able to help? At least point me to some how-to's on building apps with PW? And yes, I'm also thinking in having a real coder help me with that soon, but I also love to explore myself and understand what's going on under the hood.

Tks in advance for your help and sorry if this is a little overwhelming!

Cheers!

jw

[geniestreiche]

We use the Zend framework at work and as a designer i fight nearly every day with this monster  . I am quite often in the situation asking a developer if its possible to get this particular markup or something else. Then i hear about decorators and forms and so on and we end with javascript hacks to inject some markup. Anyway...i think you have 2 options! the hard way in my opinion is learn something more about the zend framework. The other way is go with processwire. I couldt'n see anything at your application why you shouldt'n migrate to pw. The forum here is full of content to make this working...

When it comes to pdf generation we use princexml (http://www.princexml.com). After trying some other libraries i think its the best html to pdf conversion option out there. I think they have the widest support HTML, CSS and Javascript. And yes, its great and its expensive  . But the price is relative when you earn money with that...

Greetings...

[diogo]

Interesting idea for a site, I'm quite curious, I'll have to give it a try later

For the PDFs, have a look at https://processwire.com/talk/topic/3008-module-pages2pdf/, not sure it can do what you want though

[jwaldeck]

Great help guy, thanks a lot!

Are you aware on any how-to documentation for creating apps with PW? I've seen a lot of documents about it being used as a CMS for websites, but not as a webapp where users interact with it by create, read update and delete data (CRUD).

Are you guys aware of something I could follow. And yes, I might get a real developer to help me with that, I'm just curious!

Cheers!

jw

[kongondo]

.............a webapp where users interact with it by create, read update and delete data (CRUD).....

What do you mean exactly by a webapp? As for CRUD, are you talking about this in the frontend then? Are you talking about a members only type of site, where you have to log in to edit your own page. Are you talking a social network site?....CRUD is possible but difficult to give you a more concrete answer unless we know the use case.  

[jwaldeck]

Nope, just looking for a way to replicate the functionality found in http://www.tearoffflyermaker.com/ , but replacing it by PW. A webapp in this case would be a site that runs by its users, without my interaction. 

Yes, CRUD on the front end - In other words: 

1) User Registers (some email is sent for account validation)

2) After validation the user logs in and creates flyers with some predefined fields (header, info, long text - for example).

3) User "generate flyer" and this great module kicks in https://processwire....dule-pages2pdf/.

4) User can then edit and delete their flyers or create new ones.

So, basically a site that doesn't get populated by me, but by it's users. Did this make more sense now?

I understand this a very generic approach and it's not how it should be done. I'm just looking for ways to get my feet wet with PW not serving only as a CMS, but also as something like that.

Tks!

jw

[kongondo]

Ah, now I see. Sorry, I didn't read your OP clearly and visit that website.