Re: [Refresh Austin: 6695] Replacement programmer wanted...PHP or new route?

[Luis Torres]

This is likely to spawn a cult war here so I'll briefly advise to
stick with PHP if you already have some stuff in place + an operating
environment.

Then have a good programmer make an assessment around whether it is ok
to build on what you have or if a rewrite is needed.

There are tons of decent PHP programmers in town. Just need to know
where to look :)

Cheers,

Luis

On Tue, Oct 2, 2012 at 12:07 PM, bdetcinc <bd_...@hotmail.com> wrote:
> This is my first time posting anything in this forum...
>
> I don't have a computer background, but I designed a website that is being
> built in PHP and I am running into several issues with the programmer. The
> site is fairly complex with three user types (buyers, sellers, and reps) and
> several functions for each one, site replication for reps and
> downline/commissions tracking for 5 levels of Multi-Level Marketing,
> posts/blogs with media and attachments similar to Facebook, email and SMS
> notifications, back-end management, admin, and more.
>
> The challenges I am facing:
>
> - the site has been under construction for over a year when I was told it
> would be completed within two months...it should be completed asap
> - almost every time the programmer updates some functions on the site, some
> other functions seem to fail (not always seemingly related)
> - the programmer is non English-speaking...the product is not being
> delivered in correct English, and the language barrier makes a lot of the
> work take much longer than necessary
>
> I am looking for someone to take over the project, address the unfinished
> items, and make what has been created already function properly without
> constant malfunctions.
>
> I have heard arguments that PHP is flawed to begin with and wondering if it
> would make more sense to finish the project in PHP (since so many of the
> functions are built out and have functioned at one time) or have the site
> rebuilt in another program that will not malfunction so often.
>
> Any words of wisdom or solutions would be appreciated, I am willing to pay
> market rate or other reasonable consideration for work done.
>
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[Joseph LeBlanc]

I've been through this situation several times before (as a programmer): whether you use PHP or some other language is probably not the biggest issue. Like Luis says, you need to sit down and have a programmer assess whether the current codebase is reasonably salvageable.

From what you've told me, if I had to take wild guess, this project needs to be scrapped and rewritten. If making one change is breaking things elsewhere, there's a good chance that a framework isn't being used (or isn't being used properly). Be prepared to hear this from whoever you hire to take on the project.

-Joe

[cory fro]

Sounds like a programming nightmare. Good luck.

[bdetcinc]

Thanks for your reply...I didn't mean to stir up any controversy, this is just new to me and I appreciate the guidance. Do you have any idea what the market rate for an assessment like that would be, or what I would need to find out to know what kind of work someone would be up against (ie how many pages/lines of code, what program its written in, etc)?

[bdetcinc]

Thanks for your advice...I'm not sure exactly what is causing the malfunctions, but I receive updates from the programmer that have fixed issues I request but then other functions don't work. It seems to be different issues each time, but they are almost always functions that have worked at one point in time but then stop; the programmer has always been able to revive them but it becomes worrisome when the site goes out to public use. 

From your programming experience, what would you do from here?

[bdetcinc]

You are correct...and thank you ~

[Joseph LeBlanc]

Honestly, I'd scrap what you have now and start over. It sounds like this project doesn't have a development site, version control / rollback capability, or unit testing. Because of this, there's no way for you to verify fixes before they go live, and there's no way for the developer to make sure new code doesn't break what's already there.

-Joe