What we have done for our business is build web-based forms in PHP and
tied them to MySQL. :) Works extremely well!

-- 
Brian E. Tafoya
http://briantafoya.com
btafoya@briantafoya.com


Quote 3 of 39, in kookies.txt
"I've noticed that the press tends to be quite accurate, except 
when they're writing on a subject I know something about." 
(Keith F. Lynch)

-----Original Message-----
From: plug-discuss-admin@lists.plug.phoenix.az.us
[mailto:plug-discuss-admin@lists.plug.phoenix.az.us] On Behalf Of Mike
Starke
Sent: Friday, March 28, 2003 8:15 AM
To: PLUG
Subject: business forms, etc

I am in the process of setting up a small company
and trying to utilize Linux as the sole OS.

This company is no differant than most others; they
need various types of business forms and documents. We have all of
their customer/clients loaded into a MySQL db along with
any associated customer info. What I am looking for is
a way/type of system to manage all of the forms.

For instance, a business contract. Should a guy create
a LyX template, and a perl script or two to pull
customer data (name, address, etc) out of the db and
automatically generate a lyx document/contract? Is there a better
way? How about generating XML documents? I was thinking that
one could create a few style_sheets and dtd's and just
dynamically build them from the db and printed right
from a browser. Then I remembered that placing images
in xml documents (e.g company logo) is a nightmare
and almost defeats the purpose of xml in the 1st place.
Then again, is there anything wrong with good ole fashioned
Perl/CGI to generate html output?

I know a slew of small businesses that have piles upon
piles of excel & word docs....I do not want to follow
the same type of logic using Linux equivalants.

I can see 3 main areas (for this application):
* business contracts (1 per client)
* customized various forms (5-10 per client)
* invoices (hopefully many per client :)

Ideally, I would like ALL information (dynamic) stored within
a (the) database.

I'd be interested in hearing some thoughts on how to
create/manage business documents/forms in Linux.

v/r
-Mike
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