Looking for programming/development help

[Citizen]

Unfortunately you're incorrect. Windows applications run on Windows. Mac applications run on Mac. A program created in Visual Basic is a Windows application, and will only run on Windows.

A PDF is just a document.

True enough. But depending on the OS & drivers on the host computer, Windows apps can run on Macs, and (some) Mac apps can run under Windows. Or so I hear. Again, I'm not the expert, and I'll kindly yield to your expertise, that's just what I've heard.

On the PDF idea, you still need an Adobe App to develop the thing, and at a minimum a PDF reader. So doesn't that defeat the purpuse of not have an app stored on the stick? Perhaps I don't have all of the requirements.

[ccurzio]

But depending on the OS & drivers on the host computer, Windows apps can run on Macs, and (some) Mac apps can run under Windows. Or so I hear.

Sorry. Still wrong. Windows apps run on windows and Mac apps run on Mac.

(There's emulation and virtualization of course but those things are waaaaay outside the scope of this discussion.)

On the PDF idea, you still need an Adobe App to develop the thing, and at a minimum a PDF reader. So doesn't that defeat the purpuse of not have an app stored on the stick? Perhaps I don't have all of the requirements.

You don't need an Adobe app to develop them (I already pointed out an open source package to do so) but even still, you also need apps to do program development. That is a silly argument.

And aside from the fact that OS X has always had the built-in ability to view/create PDFs, you would extremely hard pressed to find a windows box that didn't have Acrobat Reader installed.

[Citizen]

All good points, no argument here! I yield to your expertise.

T.

[Spittybug]

Wow that exploded quick! But wait a second..... there can be anything necessary ON THE STICK, just not needed to already be on the user's computer. It must be self contained - on the stick. If that means that something must temporarily load off the stick into the computer, I would think that would be OK as long as it did it without user involvement and then removed itself.

As far as quantity of data is concerned, were talking the rough equivalent of what 2 or 3 patients worth (going with the same analogy) would fill out. There is only 1 user "A" that is providing data. Any user "B" that is in possession of the stick would be able to see what's on it. It really is only intended for 1 user "B", but it's plausible that they would take it somewhere else and pop it into a different machine to show someone the contents..........

I need to go back and digest what you guys have been saying..... thanks, and keep asking for clarification if I'm not being clear enough.

[Kevin]

I'd say from some of the requirements, a PDF might not be enough, especially for these:

- "Inputs will be text or numbers but perhaps jpegs or or .mp3 files"
- "Possibly have one 'page" that needs password protection" - sure you can password-protect entire PDFs, but single pages?
- "Must be able to capture and retain input from user" - the user experience for this isn't ideal and may involve having the user create whole new pages in the PDF, grandma may be overwhelmed

Plus just from the sound of the workflow and what all is expected of the user experience, this may need to be a custom app.

The conversation about cross-platform apps is correct, but that doesn't mean you can't have two apps developed, one for Windows, one for Mac, then have the USB stick's auto-launch the correct one, happens on CD-ROMs all the time. You can create cross-platform applications using the common practices (data logic is shared, UI logic is unique), so it's not like you're asking for two apps to be written from scratch. You may be able to achieve this even simpler on the development end by writing the app in Java (whose goal is to write code once, and run it on any platform), but then that's assuming everyone has Java installed.

So I'd say you'd need to talk to a developer who can write cross-platform applications.

Or, you can make this a web application, which can be much more accessible to your users and be much cheaper to develop and maintain. I understand if it can't be online for various reasons, but it really is the more flexible, cheaper way to go, especially if you need it to work cross-platform and user experience is so important.

[Spittybug]

Sorry if this is a stupid question, but can a "web app" be created locally and not on the web? A key selling point is the perceived security of NOT going to web.

• Don't worry about .mp3 or .jpgs at this point. They wouldn't be "answers" to any of the form questions. I was just thinking ahead that one of the features might be simply a parking space for some files or maybe letting user "A" set the background from an existing .jpg file. Don't let this be a deal killer
• If password protection had to be at whole file level, not at the page level, not a deal breaker
• Capture & retain; crucial

[Kevin]

Sorry if this is a stupid question, but can a "web app" be created locally and not on the web? A key selling point is the perceived security of NOT going to web.

No, in order to execute the code that handles the data logic, it would need to run software that would be hosted on a web server, unfortunately.

• Don't worry about .mp3 or .jpgs at this point. They wouldn't be "answers" to any of the form questions. I was just thinking ahead that one of the features might be simply a parking space for some files or maybe letting user "A" set the background from an existing .jpg file. Don't let this be a deal killer
• If password protection had to be at whole file level, not at the page level, not a deal breaker
• Capture & retain; crucial

In that case, a well-designed PDF may work, something that can guide the user along so they know what to fill in and how to save the document once they're done. You'll then need a way to "reset" the USB stick, which can simply be dragging a fresh PDF on to the stick for a new "patient".

If you need anything extra, like a way to search a database of captured data, or data exporting, or anything extra outside of what a PDF is meant to be, you'll need to find a developer with cross-platform experience. I guess I'm just worried about you being limited by a PDF, but I also want you to save on development costs by going with a PDF.

[Spittybug]

Sorry, didn't mean to take the analogy too far. There is only 1 user "A" that will be inputting data. It was just an approximation as to the quantity of data that I was making reference to.

[Spittybug]

I've been looking at some YouTube videos and other training tutorials for PDF forms. I think that is the correct direction from what I can tell. All of the data gathering requirements look like they can be accommodated using such. How they are all managed, navigated to and generally encompassed into a cohesive package to work off the stick is what I can't immediately get my head around. It can't rely on "Grandma" knowing how to do anything other than stick it in the computer and follow some VERY basic on-screen navigation.

So does it look like I need to find someone with Adobe Acrobat skills along with JavaScript? If I can't find the right person(s) here in these forums, can you guys help me use the right words and the right skill set requirements so that I can intelligently search elsewhere? Thanks.

[Kevin]

How they are all managed, navigated to and generally encompassed into a cohesive package to work off the stick is what I can't immediately get my head around. It can't rely on "Grandma" knowing how to do anything other than stick it in the computer and follow some VERY basic on-screen navigation.

I was also a bit worried about this part. You can set programs to auto run off the USB stick, but opening documents won't work on some versions of Mac and Windows. You would also need some sort of way to prompt the user to install Adobe Acrobat if they're on Windows and don't have it installed. A possible solution is to have a program written to launch the PDF and also check to see if Acrobat is installed, and have that program run when the USB stick is inserted. There just has to be something seamless between the user and opening the document for editing.

As far as navigating within the PDF, you may need someone with design/user experience (UX) skills to make this easy and intuitive. You should be able to make links within the document to jump to other parts of the document that can serve as on-screen navigation.

So does it look like I need to find someone with Adobe Acrobat skills along with JavaScript? If I can't find the right person(s) here in these forums, can you guys help me use the right words and the right skill set requirements so that I can intelligently search elsewhere? Thanks.

Yes I'd say Adobe Acrobat skills and cross-platform development skills, which is typically with Java (not JavaScript) or C, and possible design/UX skills. You may want to talk to a consultant, someone who you can get to sign your NDA and then advise you, maybe there will end up being a better solution out there that we didn't cover.