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Ok, if I had to build this application, I would build this as a single
page web application that is built using the Dojo Javascript Toolkit
with a single Ajax handler on the server written in PHP. This can be
developed relatively quickly, made secure, and perform like a rock
star. You don't need Gears. Ajax allows for asynchronous calls and
you can cache stuff in the browser using Javascript, so it would slow
you down at all. Preloading all of the images is a bad idea.
Preloading the next image is a good idea. There isn't a great way to
zoom and pan an image, but it can be done with some Javascript magic.<br>
<br>
What I'm describing is a very elegant solution, however it's not for
the faint of heart. Building single page applications is not easy. It
takes a good developer with experience to do it right, delivery it in a
timely manner, design good usability, and make the app perform well.<br>
<br>
-Chris<br>
<br>
<br>
Tom Penney wrote:
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<pre wrap="">It does not *need* to be a browser based application. If I were to
start from scratch that is how I would do it. There lots of advantages
and disadvantages to a browser based system. The biggest disadvantage
is the latency. To get fast at data entry you get into a mindless
machine like rhythm, the variable latency you see in browser apps
disrupts that, quite annoying to the point of not being workable.
I was really hoping to find some type of existing solution i could use
without a lot of development. but the systems I've found are not that
great, and pretty expensive.
If it were browser based it would have to have ajaxian features for
the on the fly lookup of entered items for auto filling addresses,
names and other validation.
I was looking into google gears because of the built in client side
data caching in sqlite. the user could submit and move on without
waiting for the post to the server. heres and article about gears and
data entry
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.onlamp.com/pub/a/onlamp/2007/07/12/the-power-of-google-gears-part-2.html?page=1">http://www.onlamp.com/pub/a/onlamp/2007/07/12/the-power-of-google-gears-part-2.html?page=1</a>
I haven't workd with gears but I'm guessing there would be a nice way
to preload the large images that the user enters off of. you don't
need gears to do any of this but it certainly looks like it would be
helpful for a project like this.
The forms themselves are 2 page forms with several addresses which can
be looked up in a database of known addresses or entered from scratch.
other format validations have to occur, nothing too complex. The
images are large (2000pixels wide) and often hard to read so the user
has to be able to zoom and move the image quickly if they need to. the
images should move to the right position as the user moves from field
to field so that they are not spending a lot of time scrolling around
the image.
I've built similar but simpler systems in the past, this would tame me
about 3 weeks I think.
currently is stored to a database and exported to csv for import into
a different system.
- Tom
On Thu, Sep 11, 2008 at 12:01 PM, Chris Barber <a class="moz-txt-link-rfc2396E" href="mailto:stuff@cb1inc.com"><stuff@cb1inc.com></a> wrote:
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<pre wrap="">Why do you *need* Gears? I don't see how it would help in a data entry
application.
How complicated is the data entry? Is it like a rebate form (couple easy
fields) or like an benefit enrollment form (employee info, spouse info, zero
or more child info, varying length of items)? Where is the data going?
File? Database? Is there any special formatting to the data?
As for some of the other responses, I don't think Drupal is the right tool
for anything other than eating up CPU cycles and bandwidth. There are lots
of things that can be done to speed up a web app and the web app can be made
to be as secure as the weakest password.
If you needs are relatively simple, take a look at the Forms functionality
with Google Docs. Once you define the form, any submitted forms get dumped
into spreadsheet that can be exported to .csv, .html, .ods, .pdf, .txt, and
.xls.
-Chris
Tom Penney wrote:
Forgive the off topic post. I was hoping that someone might have some
advice for me.
I've been handed a home brew data entry system written in VB6 that is
in need of replacement. Code is poorly commented and the guy who wrote
it can't be found. What I would LIKE to do is start from scratch and
write a nice browser based system using google gears or something like
that but I don't have time. I would think there would be a ton of
stuff available, open or otherwise, as we are not doing anything
unusual. But what I've found seems antiquated and expensive. I was
asked to evaluate some Viking Software stuff which has the features
that we need but, man, low tech, 8 character file names, keyboard
overlays required, etc.
We process about 10,000 hand written forms a month entered from
scanned images on screen. Each form is entered twice by separate
people and compared for accuracy. some fields are looked up in a
table to auto populate other fields which can then be accepted or
edited. nothing to fancy. Has anyone here run across anything I should
be looking into?
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