HOPS is a recruitment agency specialising in agricultural seasonal workers, annually placing approximately 10,000 recruits on British farms for crop picking and processing.
HOPS operated an MS SQL database on Microsoft Small Business Server which had fallen out of support. The database was overly complex, housing over 100 tables and more than 400 stored procedures and functions.
The client sought a modern web application for customer order placement and management, necessitating seamless integration with the existing MS SQL database. Data migration wasn’t feasible due to the database’s shared use with two other applications. Options considered included developing the system in MS .NET or PHP using the freetds library for MS database connectivity. Ultimately, the PHP solution was chosen based on cost-effectiveness and support considerations.
The most challenging aspect of the project was deciphering the convoluted database structure. Data normalisation was lacking, and there were no consistent naming conventions for tables, procedures, or columns. Careful coordination was essential to avoid disrupting the other applications relying on the database. At times, I utilised TCP/IP network tracing of existing applications to determine active tables and procedures.
Despite these database complexities, initial releases of the client portal were successful. Subsequently, I incrementally enhanced the application with additional features according to client requirements.
The project achieved success and garnered positive feedback from many of the client’s customers.