Hi,

I've some questions.

1) How is SS/Sapphire good to create web custom applications?

2) Which support heavy load?

3) How to query external db?

4) How Do I integrate it with others php frameworks?

5) How does work RestFul API?

Thank you

Hi there. Most of these questions require more details before they can be answered. But here are a few:

1. Yes, although it depends on how much you are deviating from CMS to Web Application. Silverstripe's beauty is it's CMS capabilities and how easy it is to build custom functionality into those capabilities. This does have some constraints and limitations when compared to building highly customized web applications when compared to other PHP Frameworks. The development team focus on a kick-ass CMS supported by a fairly well thought out framework. Other framework teams get to focus purely on the framework itself. You need to analyse the requirements of your projects and select tools to suit.

2. Depends what you class as Heavy I guess. Silverstripe was used to power the US dem convention site (this would have been highly customized on the backend however, and http://hub.guitarhero.com/. http://www.silverstripe.com/2008-democratic-national-convention/.

3. Not sure, never done this. You would need to provide more detail anyway.

4. What frameworks? This is a pretty abstract question.

5. Docs are your friend. ;-) http://doc.silverstripe.org/doku.php?id=restfulservice

Aaron

Thank you for your reply.

1) I think a web apps where I can use SS back-end for input data and using CMS function to display data on public frontend or private zone. So I don't reinvent the wheel. But web app is more than a CMS and is more customized for customer needs. If I use other php frameworks ( like CI ), I need to rebuild admin zone, authentication and so...Do you agree with me?

2) ok..

3) I mean to CRUD data from other DB ( local or remote ), not the same of SS install.

4) CodeIgniter / Cake PHP / Zend

5) link error

Biagio

Hi Mate,

1) Yes I agree. For me, each project I undertake needs to be thought about in terms of the platform you use to build it on. A content site requiring some custom data object display and management indicates that SS is perfect. A simple site with basic ecommerce functionality indicates the same. But a client with a focus on blogging, I will most likely look at Wordpress. A client that requires alot of custom functionality that requires fine control over logic, I will look at a more mature framework. Silverstripe is progressing to the stage where customizing is only limited by your skill and imagination, however there are simply cases where you need to sit back and evaluate what platform will provide you and the client with the flexibility the spec calls for. For example, I am currently quoting a large scale, multi-site ecommerce solution calling for a blog and various different payment options. Silverstripe is obviously not the most effective choice for this. Magento is however.

3) Not sure how this would work if you want to link into the backend admin too. I have made older versions of silverstripe talk to custom tables in the backend using iFrames. However they were in the same database and it's not a very tidy solution that I would like to promote.

4) If you have a look in /sapphire/thirdparty/Zend of version 2.4.0, you will see that SS already utilizes several sections of the Zend library. You could dive into core code to see how these are harnessed. Personally I think Zend is your best choice here, as it stands alone so much that pretty much every other framework out there harnesses it somewhere. I don't fancy Cake would be fun to marry with SS. CI: not sure at all. Zend is definitely a good starting point for investigating as the framework does not care if you use the MVC frontend controller or not. Harnessing Zend completely (and externally to SS core) would be info I'm sure alot will be interested in. So if you go that route, please write about it!

5) Hmm, that link still works fine for me. Anyway, go to "Help" in the top menu of this site. Go to "Documentation" and in the search bar, type in "rest" and you will see a drop down of docs relating to Sapphire's Restful API sections.

Aaron

Hi,

1) I'm also choosing platform on based customer requests/focus, but, for me, is good thing to know few packages that with them I cover a range of problems. I know Magento ( we build two sites and hosted on our server... it flies ), but is for customers with greats shops and "money" -:) because is big software and if you want customize it, there is a lot of work.
So we use : CMS+small blog+small small small ecom ( Silverstripe ); Ecommerce ( Magento / Prestashop ) ( but I'll try OXID ); Blog ( Wordpress , sure ).
Would be interesting to use SS + Magento or other ecommerce solution via Web services?

What solution would you use for a ecommerce website where are selled services ( print services ) ?

3) uhm...I don't like iframes...

4) then...you prefer Zend on CI and Cake...I'm thinking where to start with ZEND and SS. If you like , we can made a test, togheter. We have more servers...

5) no problem

Would be interesting to use SS + Magento or other ecommerce solution via Web services?

Normally bridges aren't all that flash with Magento. It's simply not a good end-to-end solution for the type of clients I deal with. That said, there is a bit of documentation out there on integrating both Wordpress and Drupal with Magento, so it's possible.

What solution would you use for a ecommerce website where are selled services ( print services ) ? 

Depends on the complexity of the overall solution. I modified the eCommerce module for silverstripe into a paid subscription system with protected PDF downloads and pages. Suits the purpose fine.

then...you prefer Zend on CI and Cake...I'm thinking where to start with ZEND and SS. If you like , we can made a test, togheter. We have more servers... 

I am learning .NET for another project at present, so I don't have time for digging into something else right now. All SS have done with Zend so far is include the Library file at the top of the class they wish to use it, and instantiate objects. They are just using the library as standard include libraries. See /sapphire/core/model/fieldtypes/Money.php. It uses Zend's Currency class.

Cheers
Aaron

Hi,

I made some php files to import/export data from Magento with Web Services. I know .NET because I use it for legacy apps or enterprise web apps ( we have MSDN Sub and we start to dev for Win7Phone ) and we had developed mobile apps.

Now, I'm also haven't time to lear Zend ( but will be a good thing ).
Then: Should I to use any Zend Class with SS ( see PDF or others )?
Could you send me that site that you describe with ss and ecommerce customized solution?
Complexy solution for selling services: I think if I customized ecommerce apps , I shoul use SS, because I thinl that generic ecommerce package not suite for custom ecommerce apps...and if a customer want a big customization on it??!!!May be problems...

Double-A-Ron -- I am exploring SS as a way to do the ecommerce / paid membership option you mentioned. (I started a thread here -- http://silverstripe.org/payments-and-payment-gateway-apis/show/292558#post292558#post292558).

How would you rate the difficulty of merging membership with paid subscriptions?

Thanks.