[dba-Tech] Looking for a web based app that does these things

[Jim Lawrence]

There are a number of CMS, content management systems out there. Of the top, I can think of Magento, Drupal, Joomla and WordPress. There are dozens more, some OS and some proprietary.  

The most popular product of that ilk, by far, is Wordpress, with over 60 millions websites created through its use. There is documentation everywhere, it runs on all platforms, its resultant applications runs on all browsers, it attaches to all major database BEs (MySQL, MS SQL, Oracle, MondoDB and so on and so on and it is free to download everywhere, even from Microsoft: 

https://www.microsoft.com/web/wordpress

If you want a particular application set of features there are dozens of companies that have template ready to use for very inexpensively. ($100 or less)

Here is a link to some of the various framework plugins that will add functionality to input fields and data presentation:

https://wordpress.org/plugins/pods/
 
Jim        

----- Original Message -----
From: "John R Bartow" <jbartow at winhaven.net>
To: "Discussion of Hardware and Software issues" <dba-tech at databaseadvisors.com>
Sent: Wednesday, August 31, 2016 9:51:53 PM
Subject: [dba-Tech] Looking for a web based app that does these things

Hi all,
Wondering if any of you know of a web based app that would fill the needs of
what an old access app did that I wrote 15+ years ago. The old one is pretty
simple in concept but it uses VBA to accomplish  much of the functionality
and as A2016 doesn't support that anymore it is starting to break and they
want a new one that is web based. It's basically 3 main tables with
metadata, linking tables and lookups. 
Person <> Organization and a "Bulk Mail List" which essentially holds person
IDs chosen via the first two. Using selected info from any of the three
tables data or all, it then produces emails, a faxing list for people
without email addresses, labels for people without either (hey, it was from
last century) and content reports. There is also some pretty basic event
tracking based on events they have people invited/attending which is pretty
much based on person IDs being linked to a small event info table. The
"Security" was based on metadata held in the main tables.

So rather than reinventing the wheel, if there is something that would fit
the bill then we'll just check that out as a replacement.

Here is an outline of what they want now (other than a couple of modern
items the access app did all of this):

The following list of functions was identified by staff as critical to the
automation of contact lists in a web based Contact Manager (CM):

.Store name, address, phone (multiple), and emails (multiple) per person
o	Optional space for professional title and certifications (P.E. CST,
etc.)
.Store name of group/organization/event with space to type in description
o	Option to store group address
o	Option to store group web page, Twitter, Facebook 
.Ability to link a person to a group/organization/event (one to many)
.Ability to assign a person's role in each group/organization/event (one to
one)
.Allow groups and people to be combined (many to one) to form a bulk mailing
list
.Link to Outlook to allow emailing to lists directly from CM app
.Link to Dymo printers to allow printing of mailing labels/name tags from CM
app
.Export lists to:
o	Outlook folders
o	Excel
o	Constant Contact 
o	Word for mail merges
.Import lists from:
o	Outlook
o	SharePoint (recycling app)
o	Excel
.Produce reports:
o	By last name 
o	By email address
o	By group/organization/event
o	By bulk mailing list
.Allow links from another, existing, web app to allow people in the CM app
to be connected to a permit and assigned a role in the permit process 
.Security:
o	Records and displays who created all contacts and lists
o	Warn/verify when a list is deleted - double warning if you did not
create the list
.Must be mobile compatible (phone, tablet, etc.)
.Searches:
o	By last name
o	By email address
o	By phone number
o	By group/organization/event
.Ideas:
o	May replace Constant Contact if CM app allows for web subscribing to
mailing lists.
o	Needs to allow links from a SharePoint app, which stores details on
events such as attendance, presenters, location, start times, and other
attributes.

Thanks for any suggestions,
John

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