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Beanstalk

Beanstalk Beanstalk is an application to manage user group members and their participation…

Right now, I’m working on an AIR application that user group managers can use to connect to their user group websites.  Provided the site is running on Joomla, they can authenticate through the AIR app against the Joomla site.  The vision is that at a user group meeting, the people who come in can sign in on the application (through a laptop at the entrance) using their website credentials.  They’ll be given an option to register if they haven’t yet.  Logging in allows the user group managers to keep track of who attended as well as give an interface to prize drawings.  For user groups that keep track of participation, there can be weighted drawings so that members who participate more will have more of a chance of winning.

It’s currently in it’s baby stages.  I am in need of experience creating Joomla extensions so if you have developed Joomla 1.5 extensions before and feel pretty comfortable using PHP, I could really use your expertise.  This especially applies if you’ve ever used AMFPHP with a Flash/Flex application.

Informal roadmap: 

  1. Get AIR application to connect and authenticate using a Joomla website.
  2. Create interface for AIR application
  3. Create Joomla plugin that creates the necessary database tables
  4. Create Joomla administrator section to manage the entries
  5. Get AIR application to manage participation points
  6. Develop animated prize drawing portion of AIR app
The goal of the project is to provide an tool for user group managers to make their group meetings more successful.  There is a lot of potential here, and I’m only focusing on the beginning to start out with.  Further into the future, I can see adding meeting planning tools, such as a way to keep track of potential speakers and events, as well as full site administration.  Perhaps even adding support for other CMS sites.