Dynamic Suite CRM?

Good morning, I want to purchase Dynamic Suite but was told to ask my questions here first, hope someone can assist? I need to build a small web portal using asp/sql using DW CS4 which needs to act like a CRM and hoped Dynamic Suite may be able to help as I am no coder but have experience building sites.

1 - I want our staff to have secure logins, behind that they will be able to add client/edit/update details and be able to retrieve all this information at any point, but only their data.
2 - If they were to create a client record and upload a file would this file automatically be linked to that client only, retrievable via the client detail pages?
3 - I would like to create a "diary" section on home page that would show all tasks related to that day, these would be preset in client records [ie; call client in 14 days etc], guessing this one isnt out of the box..
4 - Could I have a 'master overview' login that would allow our MD to view all records created, ie filter by 'client lead' or 'client case', enabling us to to report on staff sales?

Many thanks for your help & time..

WebAssist products will certainly help to speed up your development time however, some very important points:

1) If you want to use WA products you should develop in PHP and mySQL, not ASP
2) You will be able to build the solution you described using WA products and standard dreamweaver functions such as recordsets, pagination etc

Cheers
Ian

Originally Said By: Ian S

  WebAssist products will certainly help to speed up your development time however, some very important points:

1) If you want to use WA products you should develop in PHP and mySQL, not ASP
2) You will be able to build the solution you described using WA products and standard dreamweaver functions such as recordsets, pagination etc

Cheers
Ian  

Hi Ian, thanks for the reply.
Does this mean I cannot use asp/sql with WA products or you advise I use PHP/mySQL?

I have no experience with PHP/mySQL but several years with ASP & SQL/Access, all my other sites & hosting created using that language/db and feel going down another path may lead to longer development time.

Kind regards

Gary

Some of the older extensions still work with ASP, but more recent ones are PHP only.

I use to develop in ASP, and moved to PHP to ensure that I could continue to use WA Extensions. I have never looked back. In my opinion it is a much better platform to develop on.

Cheers
Ian

All of the extensions included in the Dynamic suite:
Data Assist
eCart
HTMLEditor
SecurityAssist
UniversalEmail

Are only compatible with PHP / MySQL, you will not be able to use these tools to develop a site using ASP / MS SQL.

Originally Said By: Jason Byrnes

  All of the extensions included in the Dynamic suite:
Data Assist
eCart
HTMLEditor
SecurityAssist
UniversalEmail

Are only compatible with PHP / MySQL, you will not be able to use these tools to develop a site using ASP / MS SQL.  

Thanks to you both for the answers, could have been a costly mistake for me! Would it be pointless buying the Suite if I have no knowledge of MySQL & PHP or would the extensions pretty much build the site for me, I could just then tinker with html & css as required?

Kind regards

Gary

You don't so much need to know MySQL or PHP to be successful with the dynamic suite, but you do need to have a decent understanding of how Dynamic webpages function, and how relational databases work.

An ASP /SQL site will use the same basic concepts as a PHP / MySQL site. For example, passing querystring variables from page to page to tell the database what record should be used, or using session variables to determine which user is logged in.

You will need to create the database in MySQL for the site to use, but if you can do that in MS SQL, you will be able to create a MySQL database, Same concepts, just a different GUI.

Originally Said By: Jason Byrnes

  You don't so much need to know MySQL or PHP to be successful with the dynamic suite, but you do need to have a decent understanding of how Dynamic webpages function, and how relational databases work.

An ASP /SQL site will use the same basic concepts as a PHP / MySQL site. For example, passing querystring variables from page to page to tell the database what record should be used, or using session variables to determine which user is logged in.

You will need to create the database in MySQL for the site to use, but if you can do that in MS SQL, you will be able to create a MySQL database, Same concepts, just a different GUI.  

Hi Jason, again thanks for the reply very helpful. I think I may indeed go with Dynamic Suite, have you any 'live' demo's of sites built with WA products so I could gain an insight into what's achievable, you don't have trial versions of the software do you? I need to convince the MD to spend the money so showing him something would really help?

Again could I finally check the below list as a basic could be achieved with the WA/Dreamweaver products without php knowledge?

- Create user authentication system, users see own data, admin sees everything?
- Build table display & data input/edit forms with data bound to logged in user only?
- Build search/results page again data bound to logged in user?
- Document upload option with documents bound to logged in user or by 'CaseID'. For example if user creates a sales case with CaseID 001, any documents uploaded while viewing this case will be attached to this case only?
- Email specified user if record is added to certain table?


Kind regards

Gary

The functionality you describe is functionality that is offered with our tools.

Specifically Security Assist, Data Assist, and Universal Email would be needed.

You can find demos and tutorials on our site and some users have posted sample sites they have created in this forum. We don't currently offer trials, but purchases are eligible with a 15 day money back guarantee.

"Without php knowledge" is possible, but the reality is that the more php knowledge you have the easier it will be to debug and figure out what you are trying to do. "Without writing php code" is more accurate, but by using our extensions and beginning to understand them you will gain php knowledge, so by the end of the process you will have some php knowledge even if you didn't at the beginning.