iPhone/Web App Idea

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Supreme [H]ardness
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Mar 18, 2008
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I'm looking to either make or find someone to create an app or even database for me. I'm not looking for something super fancy, just something that can easily check-in and check-out kids and keep track of their monthly hours.

Are any of you guys interested or know of where I can go for something like this? I'd like to be able to use an iPhone app or even a mobile friendly site that is easy to use with an iPhone or tablet. I easily have the resources to host the site internally and that know-how, but I'm not a programmer/designer.

What I'm thinking is having a way to add kids. You then select the kid and hit "check-in' when they arrive and "check-out" when they leave. The information can then be compiled into a daily, weekly, monthly and yearly report. Or even select a range of dates and finding the total time per child.

The key part is mobile/tablet friendly as using an Excel spreadsheet is clunky and takes a lot longer than my wife simply opening her phone and hitting the check in button.
 
Keep in mind that coding and deploying a functional app like this is never anywhere near as easy as it sounds. The functionality you described is relatively simple and easy to implement, but you omitted a few features necessary to make this useful in the real world. For example:

Authentication or security. With a single user on a hosted web site, you could theoretically do HTTP basic auth.

Remove / undo / management features. What if someone accidentally clicks on the wrong kid? Do you just check them back in quickly? What happens when you go to check out a kid and realize the kid was never checked in? How do you remove a kid from the list when they leave?


As such, having someone write and deploy this app for you is probably going to cost a lot more than you think it will, and you'll likely realize you need more features down the road, etc.

If you want to code it yourself, I'd recommend learning a basic framework with a strong community. Ruby on Rails has a huge community, for example, and you can find a number of tutorials for making simple web apps. Python + Flask would be my personal preference for such an app.

Doing a proper mobile app will require Objective-C experience and XCode on a Mac for your iDevice, or a bunch of Android knowledge. I'd forget that if you're just starting out.
 
aL Mac said:
I wouldn't be surprised if this already exists. It is a basically timecard / timesheet application for managing employee hours (kids) with clock in / out. Search the internet for timecard and timesheet apps or websites.

e.g.
http://mashable.com/2010/10/24/time-management-iphone-apps/
Click to expand...

This is probably the best suggestion here. Unless your application has some specific requirements that can't otherwise be fulfilled by a normal time card management system, it's crazy to go out and roll your own. Don't reinvent the wheel.
 
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