Looking for a web script...

[codywdx1]

I was hoping someone could help me find a web script. I need a script that allows people to set up accounts on my website, and I can provide them with their invoices online. I want it to also be able to allow them to update their information (like new address, etc...) so they can easily manage their accounts online.

If something like this doesn't exist, I can program it, but I would rather avoid rewriting something that already exists

(I could, of course, make a forum system work in that way, but I'd like to avoid it if possible)

 

[Patrick.B]

Hi,

When you write "something like this", it's called a Content Management System (CMS), this is exactly what you have to search, and yes, it's already exist.


Feel free to ask others questions.

 

[essellar]

No, what's being described is a CRM (customer relations management system). A CRM is a customer account management system that has awkward ways of doing other things; a CMS is a publication workflow system that has awkward ways of doing other things.

The problem with CRMs is that they tend to fall into one of three categories: "enterprise", which usually means complex, inflexible¹ systems that lock you into their structure (and which usually run on Java); "cargo cult", which are poor copies of enterprise systems, missing most of the useful features because it was essential to mimic the more pain-in-the-butt stuff that any good ground-up rewrite would have seen as a problem in the original (but would require too much end-user training to fix in an upgrade), but have the advantage of running on low-cost PHP hosting; and "toy" (or, in start-up speak, "minimum viable product"), which sort of cover some of the basics badly, need to be vastly extended to be useful, and generally have a lot of outdated copy-pasta under the hood.

You know your business and its requirements. The actual log-in is sort of a "done deal" in PHP right now; the language includes functions specifically for hashing, verifying and re-hashing passwords (using bcrypt with good defaults and a cryptographically random salt). Best practices for things like login tokens ("remember me") and password resets are easy to find these days thanks to things like Stack Overflow and the Information Security Stack Exchange. You know what customer details you do and don't need, and whether old transactions should be stored in document style or relationally updated (should the old or new address appear on an invoice from three years ago, etc.). Development can be time-consuming, but realistically it's no more time-consuming to build from the ground up than it is to take a generic system and customize it to your needs.
____________
¹ "Inflexible" might be somewhat unfair here. You can make substantial changes to the system(s), but even the smallest changes (other than skinning) are usually Projects with a capital P.

 

[codywdx1]

Hi,

When you write "something like this", it's called a Content Management System (CMS), this is exactly what you have to search, and yes, it's already exist.


Feel free to ask others questions.

To begin, I have already tried almost every CMS available, and none of them serve my purposes. I was hoping maybe I missed one, or that feature of one, which is why I didn't mention this. CMSes, as essellar stated, does not do exactly what I need, which is more CRM.

Second, this was rude:

Which yes, I can do this, and I have in the meantime until I can get the right script, or write it. I see you have deleted this, which means you either regret it, or don't want to get in trouble for any violations of rules here. As is stated often, if it is on the internet once, it is there forever.

To essallar: Thanks for being kind about this. I actually have been using Django to make it, but I feel I need to ask: Can I use Python scripts on x10hosting servers? If not, I guess I will need to resort to PHP

Thanks in advance!

 

[caftpx10]

You cannot execute Python scripts on free hosting.

 

[bdistler]

Can I use Python scripts on x10hosting servers?

for information about that see --> [ https://x10hosting.com/support/account/plans-upgrades-explained ]

 

[essellar]

You can't use Python, but you may find that a PHP-based "convention over configuration" framework may give you some degree of what you're getting with Django. I've never been a huge fan of any of them (Rails, Django, etc.), mostly because the further you get away from the prejudices that came in the box, the harder it becomes to work around what the framework wants to do naturally. That said, if Django is letting you do what you want to do, then a similar PHP framework would probably give you very similar leverage in similar ways with less to adapt/port than if you were going from "pure" Python to "pure" PHP. (Metaphorically, the language may have a different vocabulary and rules for punctuation, but at a 10,000-foot view, the grammars would work the same way. Unfortunately, there's no import antigravity in PHP.)