So what are we going to create?
Every good application comes from a great idea, and I've got one. It's going to make me a ton of money. See, I live in San Francisco, where the hills are steep, the parking scarce, and the population wealthy. When combined, these factors make for an outstanding business opportunity for the person with the right skills.
And I am the man with the talent. My parallel parking abilities are unmatched. I can maneuver my standard transmission rig into the tightest imaginable space on a 15 percent downhill grade. The way I figure it, the elite of this burg would be willing to pay plenty to learn how to park like me.
I've been unable to get the VC (that's venture capital) I need to get this gig going. Investors always say, "If they're so rich, why wouldn't they pay for a garage?" But those stuffed shirts just don't understand the satisfaction that comes from a good park.
So I've decided to bankroll the business myself. Since I'm not exactly rolling in it (yet), I'm going to forgo the fancy office space and company car and instead build a simple, affordable Web site that will allow people to check out my services and make appointments. But a mere sign-in sheet isn't going to work here. I want to be able to track the cars that my clients drive, the pitch of the slope on which they need help, and the type of transmission they're using. Further, I want to have rates generated depending on these criteria.
I also need the ability to post my available appointments as the mood strikes me - and have those appointments show up on the pages as I enter them into the database.
To understand all I needed my database to do, I sketched out some sample pages. Here's one of the key pages. Notice the list of cars (which will need to be dynamically drawn from the database so I can add additional cars whenever I need to). Also, as I said before, it's important for me to know the type of transmission I'll be dealing with.
After I've gathered all the necessary information, I want a screen like this to appear:
The rate I've quoted is calculated for each client based on that person's car, the type of transmission, and the slope of the hill on which they want lessons. The list of available appointments should also be drawn from the database, which will be populated by only those appointment slots I've entered. As these appointments are booked, they should no longer appear in this listing.
Sound like fun? Sound like a sure winner? If you think so, or even if you don't, join me for Lesson 2, where we'll start building this application. We'll begin with the most important part: setting up your database.
And when you're done with that, trust me, you'll be fighting off the babes/hunks/company headhunters.
