I am a fairly new programmer still working through college but I have an internship project I am working on right now. I need to help create an app (most conveniently on iOS) simply for a mobile service to give customers a price quote on hail damage after they enter info about their car and their insurance. I guess I'm just looking for a place to start and someone to tell me what I need. Anything helps! Thanks!

Hi Byron, Welcome to Buzztouch! You're absolutely at the right place to get done what you want done. There are tons of ways you can approach it: * Create a custom plugin that does the calculations you require. This involves some coding experience (or hiring somebody to do it for you). * Create a web-based form that the user inputs the data into, and then tie it to a PHP script on your server that gets executed when Submit is hit, returning the results back to the app. * Create a JavaScript based form with the HTML Plugin that does the calculations and provides them back to the user. There may be other ways as well. With your level of experience, which of these interests you? Again, Welcome to Buzztouch! Mark

Greetings, and welcome to Buzztouch! Like Mark said; there isn't anything that can't be done... it's a matter of deciding which direction you want to go, and moving forward. Everyone in the BT Community is very good about helping each other out, so you won't be all alone during the development process! A Custom plugin would be the 'best' way to go, although not the easiest. At least, at first. If the quote isn't 'live' then it'd be a matter of gathering the user information, maybe a couple of pictures of the damage, and a way to get them to you... either by email, or direct server submission, or something along those lines... If the quote 'is' live, then you'll want to do the calculations within the app. Not a big deal, just a little more work. Draw out the 'workflow' you want, and divvy it up into different tasks, and then gather the resources needed to implement each part. Most of programming is 10% creation, 90% preparation :) Let us know which direction you want to head, and we're all here to help you get there! Cheers! -- Smug

Welcome, welcome! Take a few minutes to write down the sequence of things. Include what steps take place on the iPhone and what steps take place on the Server. Also note: - What information is entered by the user - Where is it saved (iPhone, Server, email, text message, notification) - When does information get sent to the iPhone and to the Server - What does the User see on the iPhone, which parts are read-only, interactive, read-write Finally, go through this exercise on making a Blueprint of your app idea: http://www.buzztouch.com/forum/thread.php?tid=47D35231F571EE9A1AB0660 -- Niraj

I want to say thank you to all that have responded so far. You seem like a great group of people and I'm excited to start working on this project. I have to work with my boss this week to get some more details but what you guys have given me has been great. I do believe the quote will have to be live. I need to figure out all of the calculation needed to complete the quote and how much data we need to process.