NYCPHP Meetup

[EZ]

Hi all,

Thanks for your input into the use of " and ' - I had figured out places 
where I should use one or the other but never understood WHY. Now I do. :-)

I have a new question which is a little more complex....

I have been working with a running club to bring them into the 20th 
century (we'll worry about the 21st century in a year or two, just 
getting them out of the 19th century is difficult enough!). They have a 
basic website with a large amount of content which is just crying out 
for a CMS. They also have a brand-spanking-new membership management 
system with a PHP front-end and MySQL backend (shameless plug: It's an 
open source project I've begun at http://ericzander.com/ZebraZ ). This 
system replaced a flat-file MS Access "database" (I tell you that for 
your laughter and enjoyment).

So, with that background, I'd like to do some longer term planning and 
figure out a roadmap on where to take the club's IT structure. I would 
like to continue to develop their "specialized" functions - like the 
membership system, develop a race results system, on-line training logs, 
etc. all from a single login (note I did not say log-in ;-) ) And I 
would like to help them simplify their website management by 
implementing a CMS. But, I am worried about the two systems being 
incompatible or having difficulties in tying the two together.

I am looking at the next 1-3 years as a time frame for implementing all 
of this for the club so if there is a solution that is "not there yet 
but will be in a year", I would be happy to look at and watch it. Since 
this is all in very early stages, I could also aim development of 
systems towards a certain common standard.

Can anyone shed light on these future issues? Would I be better served 
developing two systems? How about authentication and such between 
systems? Am I in for a LOT of customization of existing projects over time?

Many thanks in advance for your advice!

EZ