Some of you know that I"m in the office furniture industry. I've created a site for my company and even created a forum.

Something I've been putting together to roll out for office furniture dealers and architects, and end users is online preconfigured pricing samples. In the furniture industry we call these samples "typicals". They consist of a drawing layout (2D/3D AutoCAD and PDF) with a detailed specification and pricing (also PDF as well as a special format specific to the industry called a SIF file).

There are a considerable number of these "typicals" that I've prepared. As a mnatter of fact, it seems they are exponentially growing, but there are a few problems with upkeep and functionality of these examples.

First, the updating of the pricing is a monumental task. I am creating the files for each of these typicals - these have the potential to number in the thousands for each of the manufacturer's furniture I prepare these files for. All of these files are basically "flat" files - a simple snapshot of the info in my specification package. I receive updated pricing monthly - most manufacturer's update their pricing only once or twice per year and it seems to be staggered between the manufacturers. What this means to me is that I need to update my spec software and regenerate all of the revised specification sheets. It is time consuming for a few, but a monumental task for the number I have (and the addditional I am planning). There are many similarities between these various "typicals" - the kit of parts isn't huge -> maybe a couple hundred sku's - mainly just changes in quantities. My thought is that updating a database with the proper pricing a couple of times a year would be MUCH easier than creating all those spec sheets every time there is a change. BUT, I need to be able to dynamically create these PDF reports from the online store (I think). I've looked at Crystal Reports and think that if I create a MySQL database for the parts, I can use Crystal Reports to generate the dynamic reports. I've toyed with Crystal for customizing existing reports for my spec package, so it isn't completely alien to me.

Second, I have no way to allow the user to input their desired pricing discount. Office furniture is priced according to a manufacturer's list price, less a discount. No one ever pays list price, but it is the starting point of all pricing exercises. The work around is that I only provide a list price and let the user worry about how they present the information - be it through a summary with discounting or something else. I'm pretty sure that Crystal can handle this.

Thirdly, I'd like to allow the user to personalize the drawings I've created by adding their company and project name to the drawings. This is a "nice to have". If it is too difficult or creates too much upkeep work, this will the first to go. The one nice thing about NOT having the drawings personalized is that after I do the drawings once, I'll never need to touch them again. The drawings don't change with the updates - only the pricing information is updated. Pretty sure I can do this through Crystal also.

My goal is to sell these prepared packages to everyone and anyone in the office furniture industry through an online store (via download). I'm not too sure how I can integrate that into the store though. Unless I can have it as part of the online catalog, the user clicks the item and are prompted (via JS popup window? or maybe a form in the store?) to enter the title text and a discount, then when it finishes generating, they add it to the cart (?) I know the OScommerce I played around with would allow downloads, but it used a static URL for the item to be DL'd. This would require something dynamic I think.

Anywho, I know this is a lot to think about - I'm not sure anyone has done anything remotely similar (from a process standpoint), but it seems there are a lot of web savy guys on here that are a lot smarter than me.

I guess the big questions are:

Is this even possible?
What special software if any is needed?
Is there a "best way" to attack this?

Thanks in advance!

 

Anyone?

Or did I just confuse everybody??

 

i understand what your trying to do, i just have no idea how to go about doing it. i can talk to a couple of guys who know MySQL and see if they have any ideas.

 

Thanks Chris - I thought I may have lost everyone. I can see it working in my mind, it's just working out the mechanics of making it work that I'm having a tough time grasping.

 

good news and bad news...

bad news is that i hate to say this, but everything needs to be custom written there.

good news is that i just saved a bunch on my car insurance...






in reality, any PHP coder can whip this out in a weekend. a fast prototype.

#1. look at jasper reports. a free version of crystal reports. and it has a PHP interface which will churn out PDF files like a charm.

if you dont like jasper reports (like me) write your own. lol... a couple PHP PDF packages exists:
http://fpdf.org/

and

http://ros.co.nz/pdf/

that i know of...

#2 huh? why would CR factor into this?

#3 CR is really not needed...


what is the prepared packages? actual furniture or just a PDF file?

i have a reading comprehension of a knat...

 

The prepared package is basically a PDF file. I would pull in the appropriate previously prepared drawings into the freshly generated "new" spec file, create a PDF output and add it to a shopping cart. There are some other formats I'd like to add also, that part can wait.

Good info Leo!

 

then you REALLY dont need crystal reports.

thing templates.

you would need to have a template of how the PDF file will look like.

then the PHP script will just fill in the blanks.

take a look at either of the 2 links i gave. both have sample demos.