Greetings!
For my masters thesis I have to design a software for the energy certification of buildings, more specifically for the lighting system. I think a web-app/website would suffice, but as I lack the necessary skills, I would like to ask here for guidance.

The certification is really just about processing lots of input data. This is done by using some equations and also pre-determined data arranged in tables. Another student is doing a similar assignment, but in Microsoft Excel, and he was kind enough to share his excel document.

On this screenshot I highlighted stuff like selecting the building type from a drop-down list, which then alters the selection appearing in the other drop-down menu - where you can select different room types for the given building type. The colour coding is - yellow to select items from a drop-down menu, orange to input data manually (mostly geometrical dimensions), and the values in the grey field get calculated automatically. On the right side you can see another sheet with some of the pre-determined data.

So the question is, where do I start? Any and all help is appreciated, thank you in advance!

Do you have any programming experience?

I would personally say that while web-based stuff is the "hip" thing at the moment, you don't need all that overhead and something more traditional might be easier.

The best language for any quick project is the one you already know - I'd use Java (using the Eclipse RCP framework if I felt really fancy) or MFC / C++ if I wanted to enter a world of pain.

But I think Excel might be easier (for basic calculations).

I have some programming experience with C, but not that much :/ To be honest I thought creating an interactive website would be easier than coding an app. I am not looking for anything fancy really, functionality is more important, and as the deadline approaches rapidly, I am willing to throw myself at anything. ^^
I do realize that I've started taking this seriously way too late, so I might have to skip a year cause of this. But it's all right, for now I want to take my best shot at this and see where it goes.

Java or C++ for something simple as this? I think not.

Simple HTML and PHP would only take a few minutes to build this. I have no idea what it is you have to build, but if you just put the data in a SQL database and group all things (I guess data is processed in groups or something?) and use the dropdown menu as a HTML form which posts the selection to a PHP file, that file can then handle the input and show all records from the database.

Or something in that direction.

You could do it in pure client side JavaScript as well.

Quote from dawesdust_12 :

You could do it in pure client side JavaScript as well.

This would be my solution as well. Would take no time to learn how to do.

Quote from sil3ntwar :

This would be my solution as well. Would take no time to learn how to do.

Plus mata is in IRC, where he has Karl (The Angry Angel), Vic, myself and others who are reasonably good at programming, Javascript specifically, as a reference.

You guys are suggesting JAVA and Javascript to the dude. Do you want to send him to hell or something? I'm not sure why a simple Excel sheet is not fancy enough for your needs, especially when you are not that familiar with programming languages, and at this point you don't really know the concept. Even if you decide to surrender yourself to shaman, first do an Excel sheet to sum all those formulas, that will make your job a lot easier.

So there is:

-a bit knowledge of C
-nothing fancy needed, functionality is more important
-little time
-lots of data processing

I think console application would work.
Sounds stupid at first and not very fancy, but with these circumstance - why not?

In simplest form you have something like:


At start I would concentrate on the formulas, algorythms or whatever else you need. Simple GUI like above picture.
Press 1 to add item
Press 2 to remove item
Press 3 to go back to the main menu
and so on.
Or maybe even only read input from files or commandline.

Then later, if you want, add some-what fancyness like:


Of course even the nicest console application will always look very basic.
But if it works then it might be better than some crude half-finished web application.
And you could always have an option to export the output to a nicely formated html file, for example for printing.
Yes, maybe none of that is really the optimal way. But maybe realistic one?

Quote from Kristi :

You guys are suggesting JAVA and Javascript to the dude. Do you want to send him to hell or something? I'm not sure why a simple Excel sheet is not fancy enough for your needs, especially when you are not that familiar with programming languages, and at this point you don't really know the concept. Even if you decide to surrender yourself to shaman, first do an Excel sheet to sum all those formulas, that will make your job a lot easier.

Like mata did say, he does have some familarity with C. Javascript is simple enough for someone with medium programming skills to be able to accomplish a lot in a reasonable amount of time.

It's not like I'm suggesting him go full retard and build it in AngularJS.

As for Java, I wouldn't suggest that to my worst enemy, especially considering building a desktop application has a tonne more overhead than a web page (where the display layer, the DOM, is already idiotproof).

Thanks for all the replies!

@Bose - after consulting with a friend, he suggested Python instead of the HTML/PHP/SQL trinity. So many choices, so little time

@Dustin - I'll get back to you.

@Kristi - I already have it all in an Excel sheet, but my task is to create a software solution.

@Gutholz - I actually like the idea, but it will get way too cluttered/cumbersome to input all the needed data - tens of rooms, with multiple windows, then the light sources and their parameters.

Thanks again, for now I'll harass Dustin for JS guidance :P

Well, if you need a GUI, simple coding I'd rather suggest C#. Knowing a bit of C will get you going in short term. Pretty easy to use Visual Studio, and as you know some sort of programming, it shouldn't be hard to get started.

I would think that javascript+html would be the best way. You could easily put all of the data in human-readable tables inside of several <div>s, have them all hidden by default. Then, when you select a particular option, a javascript function would simply unhide whatever <div> you need to display, and then hide whichever one was being displayed before.

For some added complexity, you could auto-populate the drop-down menu based on the <div>s with the tables. That way once the javascript is written, it'd only be a matter of adding more <div>s that are formatted properly to be parsed by the javascript code.

I've spent most of the day reading through and doing some beginner JS tutorials, and I don't feel like I've made any progress at all However, just now I installed Visual Studio and created a simple calculator (following a tutorial) in a matter of minutes. VS looks promising, I will experiment some more with it, as it does seem to be easier than JavaScript.

If you have knowledge of C, you really don't need anything more.
Just download some examples from internet and you'll figure it out in matter of minutes.

I know that there is a lot of data for user to enter in such a software, so I'd suggest you drawing most things in loops otherwise code can get quite messy.

All you need is basically some static text and edit boxes: [copied random crap from my project )

afterwards just handle messages sent in WinProc. If you need any help on something specific post here and we will try to help you