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Can anyone help

by Andy Medlam
6 replies
  • WEB DESIGN
    • |
Hi, hope you can help!
we are looking for some one that can build a wordpress site with a
theme and a plugin that will work as a booking system for cars being booked
in for their yearly mot (test).
Customers need to be able to go
online find a suitable testing station from our list of stations.
(Drop down menu)
Then have a calendar system to find the best date and time for
their booking.
On the next page they need to be able to fill in
their details and on the final page they can pay through paypal.
Each test station site needs to be able to login to their own calenders
for manual & offline bookings.
Thank you for your help and please feel free to ask any further questions
  • Profile picture of the author RichKent
    I'm not so sure that Wordpress is the right tool for that kind of functionality.

    You're looking for a way to book appointments with different vendors, and (I assume) bookings can't overlap, and once someone has booked an appointment with a specific vendor it blocks off that chunk of time.

    Lots of automotive and dealership websites do this, but they're using a back end that's specifically built to support these functions.

    I'd poke around and see what software they're using. I'd expect something like that to cost thousands.

    Of course building that kind of functionality / or a plugin for Wordpress would also cost thousands.

    The closest thing I've seen is events/booking calendars, but they function very differently. They're designed to get lots of people to book for 1 event that happens at a specific time.

    Just my $.02 mind you, but I highly doubt there's anything like what you're looking for thats available for Wordpress and I'll say again that I don't think Wordpress is the right tool for this application.

    Good luck.
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  • Profile picture of the author Mike P Robinson
    I personally use a different platform for situations like this. Wordpress is great for blogs (if you don't mind constantly worrying about a break every time you update), aff marketing, and simple 'CMS' but something this potent needs a more flexible and potent platform.

    I am not shamlessly promoting myself but I saw this and see a great fit.

    I would have to check to be totally sure but my solution should handle all of this. The most robust portion would obviously be the Scheduling Section but this should not be an issue at all. Better yet it is non proprietary and has admin functionality that encompasses all pertinent aspects of any business to include: CMS, CRM, SEO, Ad/ Aff managment, Quick Books, Full Database Control, Email Marketing, Hosting, Etc.. and its ridiculously cheap.

    I have weaned my clientele off of WP altogether and almost solely use this platform for pretty much everyone I deal with.

    If you like we could talk and scope some more. Check out my site and if you like what you see, we can talk some more. I consult for free. My solution is pretty closely guarded (as I am not white labeled yet) and I would like to speak privately about those details. You can contact me here or direct if you like.

    Regardless I would research further, Wordpress is just not going to cut it fresh out of the box, there is no plugin for what you need. Updates and proprietary functionality are not conducive to a scalable, reliable solution.

    Thanks,
    ~Mike~
    noob here it wont let me link yet
    you can get my contact info from my profile
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  • Profile picture of the author SmartWeb
    I would have gone with Joomla for this kind of application.
    they have extentions (in joomla they call extentions to what is plugin in wordpress) for similar kind of booking systems, most advanced might be around $200, many are free.
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    • Profile picture of the author davidlieder
      Yeah, you should go with a CMS solution that is widely used and supported - NOT Wordpress. Don't use anyone's solution that is custom built, for example if they PM you on this forum and try to sell you something they have built.

      Joomla is simple in some ways but the fact that it is widely supported means you can always find someone to work on it.

      Finally, once you choose a platform, the best way to get it done is to go to www.guru.com or www.freelance.com and ask people to bid on it, and put your budget as something high so that the good (advanced) people will bid on it, but then negotiate down from there into your real budget. Make sure you take a careful look at their prior portfolio, and then give them only a SMALL deposit in advance. The nice thing about sites like GURU is that they have a ratings system and you can see who has done a lot of projects and gotten good ratings. If you ask someone to bid on a Joomla project, you will get a ton of bids. But as I said, put a higher budget than you actually have so that you can attract some quality programmers, then negotiate them to your actual budget.

      I hope that helps.

      David Lieder
      Astral Universe Worldwide Media
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      • Profile picture of the author Tech Diva
        Hi there!

        You can use Wordpress for just about anything if you want to. It may not be everyone's top pick, but it's preferred by just as many as it isn't. However, in this case, it sounds like it may not be the best site for the functionality you're looking for.

        Joomla may have enough flexibility to achieve what you want, but a custom-built CMS offering the search functionality, the calendar functionality, the booking/payment feature and an admin panel for each test station may actually be cheaper for you. I find that sometimes I spend more time trying to make and customize a CMS like Wordpress to do all specific things when I could have designed and built a custom CMS in less time (and, therefore, less money).

        I've built half of my own team from vWorker.com, a great source for finding freelancers from around the world. You may want to post this project there for bids.

        My team works both with designing/customizing existing CMS platforms and creating custom ones. If you'd like to chat about your project in a free 15-minute consultation, I'm happy to talk with you more. Just shoot me a message.

        Good luck!
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  • Profile picture of the author massivemarketing
    Hi Andy,
    We have full time Senior Joomla Developers as well as Core PHP developers specializing in creating custom Joomla components. If you need any help, feel free to shoot a pm of to me.
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