Is CI the right choice for me?

[eluser]Unknown[/eluser]
Hi All,

I'm not a total PHP newbie, but I'm no expert either, and I have no intention of being one of those people who just gets on a forum and wants to know how to do everything.

What I'm trying to figure out is, will CI do what I want it to do, or should I be going down a different path?

Here's my situation:

I have PC based membership software that uses a MySQL database, and I'd like to have a "lite" version of it available as sort of a plug-in for websites.

I can't control what sort of site a user might have, so what I would like to do is create a series of php "pages" or chunks of code that someone could "drop in" to an existing website to do different things.

i.e., you install my "application" on your webserver, and set some parameters for your database connection, etc., and then on your page where you want to see a list of people in the database, you drop "this" piece of code, which calls my php code. Then where you want a signup form for new people, you drop "this", etc.

My hope is that I can create something so that my users would continue to use (and pay for) the PC based software for the "total" management of the database, but have some "drop in" php code that will let them add pieces to their website as they wish.

Am I crazy? Is this possible? Is the CI framework overkill or inappropriate? I'm having trouble figuring out where to even begin.

Again, I'm not asking anyone to do this for me, I just need some advice on where to start.

Thanks

[eluser]samdoidge[/eluser]
Hi LazyDog,
firstly I'm no expert in CodeIgniter, but I think I can help.

What you want to do is possible, but I'm thinking CodeIgniter would be overkill and difficult for the user to setup / intergrate with their website.

It sounds like you'd need a few php pages. I'd get them to install by uploading your lite folder to their ftp, then goto a file like '/lite-install.php' to input database data into a form and customise. I'd have the form produce snipets of code for the user to paste where they want it on their site (with inline css coding so it displays how you want regardless of their css file) and go from there.

Codeigniter is great, but you can still have good coding and organisation without it.

Hope this helps