Using PHP to write an application...

OK, so I need to write a windows application, except I know little to nothing about coding in VB, C#, etc... I do know PHP, and most other web languages fairly well, so I am trying to figure out if I can accomplish a similar functionality using PHP, flash, and some SQL...

Here's what the project needs to accomplish:

1. A one page display with 5 menu items on the left (looks just like a standard web page)
2. Each of these sections will include menus which the user can choose media from (videos, flash files, etc.)
3. Some of the functionality requires that data be stored and retrieved from a SQL DB for use.
4. Each time a different menu item is clicked, a time stamp needs to be put into a SQL DB so I can track how much actual time was spent on each portion of the "presentation" after the fact.

Here's what I'm thinking:

1. A WAMP configuration so I can run PHP and MySQL on a local machine.
2. A locked down, kiosk-style browser to give the appearance of a full screen windows app instead of a web app...
3. The MySQL DB's will replicate on a daily basis to a central SQL server (on the same network)
4. Some kind of javascript (or other) event handler (onclick) that makes a SQL entry every time a menu item is clicked, thereby tracking when the user switches between sections.


Would someone tell me if this is a reasonable thing to try? I simply don't have the time to learn new syntax and coding logic at this point and I feel I have to go with what I know, in this case, PHP.

Does anyone have any experience, good or bad, with trying to create a desktop app in this fashion.

Did you think about PHP-GTK (http://gtk.php.net)?

OK, so I need to write a windows application, except I know little to nothing about coding in VB, C#

C# is fairly easy to learn once you are familiar with a C style syntax language. Which PHP happens to be.

I'm looking at that as well, but I'm not a greatly advanced PHP coder. What I'm essentially trying to do is take a very nice web page that I can easily write using PHP and HTML and turn it into a "desktop app"...

More for the purposes of not having to count on a solid internet connection to make the app work. The resources all need to be local, but it is for all intents an purposes a web app...


Anybody know anything about MioFactory?

What about installing Apache and PHP and just running it as a website?

Well, that's kind of where I'm leaning with the WAMP configuration, but I'm trying to avoid a browser if possible.. I like the idea of writing everything as a web page and then cranking out an executable from that....

Any suggestions on how to pull that off?

Seems like apples and oranges to me. Executable applications aren't limited by the dreaded HTTP request protocol (hense stateless pages) so you can do so much more.

On the other hand, browsers and this got-danged innernet technology (as Hank Hill would say) has come such a long way, there are workarounds for most anything you want to accomplish.

Kinda sounds like you want to turn an apple into an orange, which you can do by peeling the apple and gluing an orange peel on it, then removing the apple's insides and replacing them with the insides of an orange.

Then again, someone's probably written something to do just that! This got-danged innernet technology is so ubiquitous, surely someone's gone through the trouble.

I just don't see a good answer to "WHY".