Can a web application do the following?

[whitsunday_lad]

Hi,

I have just finished building a web site for my business with basic content for marketing and 2 client functions that signs up new clients and sends them by email a copy of the document, and a form that lets the client load up over due debtors for our business to process.  (We are a slow or bad debtor collection service.)

Currently the application is using classic asp and a MS Access DB.  I want to change this to PHP and Mysql.  The DB is not normalized and I am redesigning that currently and I hope to get it to (3NF)

The DB is going to have a major over haul to provide functionality to automate and produce 10 to 15 standard legal documents that we file at the appropriate court of jurisdiction, plus support documents such as invoices to the client. 

I hope to have the data from the record sets in the Mysql DB populate different fields in a given document specific to the details of our client/plaintiff and the debtor/defendant.

Some of the more difficult automation functions will be related to a diary in the application, the diary will control when to produce a spesific legal document and file it at the court, I also need an input value such as the specific number of days after the clients last invoice to the debtor was sent, further interest calculations are needed to input the interest on the debt amount in the legal documents from when the debt was first due to judgment or final payment.  Currently this is worked out manually like this;

Number of days since invoice sent, Thursday 29^th October 2009 to Friday 19^th February 2010

3+ 30+31+31+19 = 114 days 

114 x 10 x 19,806.10 / 365 / 100 = $618.60 (Number of days x 10% interest x debt amount $19,806.10 /365/100)

The last thing is, after I build a web page interface into my site (a password protected admin area) to input above values can I out put the data from the web page to a standard Word or PDF document that can be printed or emailed and holding all the correct formatting?

Following below is one of the legal documents a statement of claim that will give you an idea of the complexity of automation and different data types that will have to be input and output from the Mysql DB to build the word or PDF document.

MAGISTRATES COURT OF QUEENSLAND

Cheers

Len O'Grady

[whitsunday_lad]

Hi

The legal document did not make the last post please find below, it is not holding its format properly but you will get the idea.

MAGISTRATES COURT OF QUEENSLAND

REGISTRY:          Proserpine

NUMBER: M 400      of 2009

Plaintiff                             TEST PLUMBING PTY LTD ACN 097 000 000

AND

First Defendant                 TEST HOLDINGS PTY. LTD. ACN 000 500 000             

                                          TA TEST RESORT

___________________________________________________________________________

Filed in the Proserpine Registry on

STATEMENT OF CLAIM

This claim in this proceeding is made in reliance on the following facts:

1.         At all times material to this proceeding:

(a)        The Plaintiff was and is a company duly incorporated in Queensland capable of suing and being sued;

(b)        The Defendant was and is a company duly incorporated in Queensland capable of suing and being sued;

2.         On or about September 14^th, 2006 and up to and including October 27^th 2008, the Plaintiff sold and invoiced goods to the Defendant at the request of the Defendant in this district pursuant to the Plaintiffs standard terms and conditions of trade.

3.         The value of such goods is $19,806.10

4.         The Plaintiff has invoiced the Defendant for such sum.

(a)          for payment terms being net 30 days from invoice; and

(b)          for Queensland as the proper law to this proceeding with the parties submitting to the jurisdiction of the Magistrate Court at Proserpine.

5.                       Pursuant to the invoices and account facility:

(a)           on or about the month of September 14^th, 2006 and up to and including October 27^th 2008, the plaintiff, at the request of the defendant, supplied to the defendant plumbing goods and services (hereafter “goods”) on invoice noted in the running account and issued credit note on the defendant’s running account from time to time, particulars of which have been delivered to the defendant as follows:-   

Particulars

Invoice/Credit Note	Date	Amount ($)
10090	14-09-2006	1,515.54
12477	19-11-2007	77.00
14017	29-07-2008	239.25
14123	21-08-2008	7,605.25
14287	10-09-2008	2,048.04
14474	23-10-2008	1,440.95
14479	23-10-2008	2,197.80
14481	23-10-2008	332.75
14485	23-10-2008	1,127.12
14487	23-10-2008	874.50
14488	23-10-2008	426.25
14489	23-10-2008	193.60
14492	23-10-2008	1,011.95
14514	27-10-2008	716.10
	TOTAL	$19,806.10

6.         Insofar as any of the supply of goods constituted a supply within the meaning of A New Tax System (Goods and Services Tax) Act 1999 a component in respect of the goods and services tax was included in each of the said invoices.

7.         The aforesaid charge was the amount normally charged by the plaintiff for goods or materials supplied and such charge was a reasonable charge.

8.         The plaintiff demanded from the defendant payment in the sum of $19,806.10

9.         The defendant has, despite demand, failed to pay to the plaintiff the sum of $19,806.10 for goods supplied by the plaintiff to the defendant.

10.       The plaintiff repeats and relies on the allegations in paragraphs 1 to 9 inclusive above.

11.       The said sum of $19,806.10 remains unpaid.

12.              Further the Plaintiff claims interest thereon at the rate of 10% per annum pursuant to the Supreme Court Act 1995 (Qld) from the date of the debt until the date of payment or judgment, whichever is sooner; and

13.       An amount of $6,034.10 of interest is now owing. 

The Plaintiff claims the following relief:

A.        As against the Defendant $19,806.10 for goods sold and invoiced;

B.        Interest thereon at the rate of 10% per annum pursuant to the Supreme Court Act 1995 (Qld) from the date of the debt until the date of payment or judgment, whichever is sooner; and

C.        $6,034.10 of interest pursuant to the aforementioned Supreme Court Act 1995 (Qld)

D.        Costs.

Signed:                                                                                                                        ___________________

TEST Law

Description:                                                                                         Solicitors for the Plaintiff

NOTICE AS TO DEFENCE

Your defence must be attached to your notice of intention to defend.

NOTICE UNDER RULE 150(3)

The Plaintiff claims:

Claim:                                      $19,806.10

Interest:                                  $  6,034.10

Filing Fee:                               $     197.80

Corporate Affaires Search:     $      25.00

Solicitor’s Fee:                        $  1,144.00

Service Fee:                             $    143.00

Total:                                       $27,350.00

The proceeding ends if you pay those amounts before the time for filing your notice of intention to defend ends.  If you are in default by not filing a notice of intention to defend within the time allowed, the plaintiff is entitled to claim additional costs of $258.50, costs of entering judgment in default.

Cheers

Len O'Grady

[David_Powers]

It's not quite clear what your question is, but MySQL and/or PHP can easily work out the number of days between certain dates, and calculate an interest amount. PHP can also generate PDF documents. What you're proposing is not a trivial task, and Dreamweaver won't automate any of the coding for you, but it can definitely be done.

[whitsunday_lad]

Hi David,

Thanks very much for that.  I am going to build an application for my site, probable in partnership with an industry professional in MySQL and PHP as I am a novice Dreamweaver MX user.  I need a back office application in my business site http://www.debtorstocash.com The new back office application will automate from a new MySQL DB with PHP.

The application will automate our business core functions as follows;

New client/plaintiff details from a form on my site http://www.debtorstocash.com/ssl/getauth.asp to input to my MySQL DB and email to me.

New debtor/defendant details from a form on my site http://www.debtorstocash.com/online.asp use my test login name: Len O'Grady Password: guest  You will be presented with a list of services on the next web page, select Upload debtors link and you will be presented with the upload debtors form with my test business details at the top of the form (this saves my actual clients the trouble of filling in their details) I want this form data to also input to my MySQL DB and email to me.

All the above data that has been uploaded to the MySQL DB has to be then checked against Australian government ATSIC DB as correct, the client data only once the debtor data in each legal matter.  (This will probable be done manualy)

I want to design and use an interface and the raw data above with further input data in the MySQL DB to automate every step of our collection process including building our legal documents in PDF format for filing at the courts via email.

This will probable be a 12 month project I will takle in small bites as I have a business to run but will be invaluable to the growth of my business.

I have MySQL and PHP but I am very much a novice with the aforementioned, the first project will be building the DB.

Can I get an industry professional such as you or another within this forum to work on a contract rate to help with the coding that is out of my experience, and also assist in tutoring me with the coding I can manage as I am most interested to learn?  Or is this forbidden?

Can you recomend tutorials for above and coding examples close to what I am trying to build?

Cheers

Leonard P.O'Grady

[David_Powers]

whitsunday lad wrote:

Thanks very much for that.  I am going to build an application for my site, probable in partnership with an industry professional in MySQL and PHP as I am a novice Dreamweaver MX user.

The PHP code generated by Dreamweaver MX is out of date and insecure. You must use Dreamweaver 8.0.2 or later.

The project that you envisage is quite complex, even for a professional. It's not something that should be undertaken lightly.

Can I get an industry professional such as you or another within this forum to work on a contract rate to help with the coding that is out of my experience, and also assist in tutoring me with the coding I can manage as I am most interested to learn?  Or is this forbidden?

There is nothing wrong with contracting a member of this forum to undertake work for you. Unfortunately, I'm not in a position to undertake such a project at the moment.

Can you recomend tutorials for above and coding examples close to what I am trying to build?

The first thing you need to do is to get a solid understanding of PHP and MySQL. I would not recommend relying on Dreamweaver's automatically generated code (server behaviors) for this sort of project. I have written a number of books about PHP/MySQL. Some show how to customize Dreamweaver code. Others, such as "PHP Solutions", teach you how to hand-code. PHP Solutions might help you get started, but a more in-depth book, such as "PHP and MySQL Web Development" by Wellings and Thomson, might be better.

You have a long journey ahead of you. Good luck.