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"User Design" Script?

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Oct 17.2006

I have no idea what I would call it – I posted this on the JavaScript board, but they recommended I pop over here for additional information…

I design announcements & invitations, as well as other photo gifts, and would love to have a script that does something similar to companies like Vista Print, where the customer can input wording, images, etc., and see a “proof” right on screen… I hope I’m not violating anything by using VistaPrint as an example, I don’t do business cards, and they have a neat program here:

[url]http://www.vistaprint.com/vp/ns/stu…71&gallery_id=9[/url]

I have looked at the source and cannot determine if this is software that I can purchase, or if it’s a code I’ll have to write (har har, or have someone write for me… please tell me it’s easy or I could buy software for it!)… it appears to have loads of javascript, amongst other codes… am I asking for the impossible? What does one even CALL a script like this one, if I needed to do additional research?

Thanks in advance for your help!

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PHP

6 Comments(s) ↴

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@TheBearMayOct 17.2006 — The site you're using as a reference was done in ASP.Net, but you should be able to do the same thing in PHP...
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@garysgalauthorOct 17.2006 — That's good, but where do I even begin? Are you aware of any software that may do this, or is this going to have to be written from the "ground up"? I can HTML til the cows come home, but PHP is a little out of my scope as far as complete scripting...
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@bokehOct 17.2006 — Well personally if I were going to do this I would do it with Javascript. You would need to build a user interface. This would need controls that work immediately. To do it with php would be a nightmare with the constant submissions all the time to make a minor alteration. All you need is a few arrays of different fonts and have Javascript lay them over the image using CSS, absolute positioning and z-index. You would have up and down and left and right controls to move the text around the image. Once the user had decided the image was to their satisfaction only then would it be submitted to the server for PHP to make the composite image. To see the basics of this logic have a look at the avatar script in my signature. Javascript layers the image and once the user is happy PHP assembles the composite.
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@garysgalauthorOct 17.2006 — Ah, that's a nice script - I could definitely make something like that work for what I need!

Okay, so this may sound like a moronic question, but how would I integrate my customer's images (or I guess for arguement's sake, I could have a "blank generic image" there and the customer could simply envision what their card would look like, then when they send me the image I can finalize it, does that make sense?)?

So I just need to figure out how to tackle words/fonts and allowing the user to move the data around... methinks I may be in over my head! LOL!
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@bokehOct 17.2006 — Well first they would upload the image so you could save the full sized version. You would then output a reduced size version for them to play with in the user interface. Finally in your database you would make a record of the image, the applied text, the font style and colour and the coordinates. You wouldn't even need to make a full sized version of the final image at this stage, just a reduced sized one where they can confirm the final image.
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@garysgalauthorOct 17.2006 — Thank you.

I've spent the last three hours cleaning up the mess from my brain exploding, however. ?
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