Form Based Website design

lobbylad

Hi,

I've experience with PHP/HTML and SQL (and C, but haven't done it in a while) programming, but have been asked to look into developing a website that has as its primary focus, the ability to take customer orders and store them on an SQL database.

The main requirements are:

Agents use either a PC, iOS or android device to gather the customer details, (face to face), customer signs the order (via a finger swipe or signature pad), and the order is submitted to an SQL database.

There's a couple of requirements:

Configurability, I'd like to be able to have full control over the forms, ie add and remove new sales options on a constant basis.
Agent info, let the agents see new information as required, ie new offers available to the customers.
Audit trail, orders are tracked by agent username (pretty much done by the SQL anyway)
Fairly advanced form management, ie branch off into different sub-forms depending on answers selected

I'm fairly well setup in terms of what the end software will look like, and how I want it to work.

However, my question is, should I go the route of an "off the shelf" form designer (coffee cup or other) or start from scratch and just write it in HTML5, then port it to an iOS/android app later.

Has anyone any recommendations on form software to have a look at?

RainyDay

Would you not look for an off-the-shelf eCommerce solution? There is generally a lot involved in taking orders. It is not just entering fields. You probably need a product catalogue. You probably need a price list. You probably need VAT calculation. You might need stock availability.

lobbylad

Thankfully there's no stock required, its a service sale rather than a product sale.

I won't go into too much details publicly, but an example might be along the lines of selling bin services, where the details of the customer are recorded, a specific service is selected and the customer provides direct debit details (hence encryption etc are needed). The customer would in the above instance, provide their address, contact details, select the bin services they require (black only, black and green, black, green and brown etc.).

The agent would then submit the details through to an SQL server, where the back office would organise the service for the customer.

So its really only data capture without requiring to check inventory.