Difficult request from a client

**PJH** · 17 October 2013, 12:40 PM

Hi everyone,

I'm hoping that someone on the forum can point me in the right direction.

I've had a request from an insurance/investment broker about designing a website that includes a budget tool whereby prospective clients can type in information to calculate retirement funding for instance.

Can this be done in Xara?

Any help would be appreciated.

Cheers,

Peter.

**pauland** · 17 October 2013, 02:30 PM

You can't do this with Xara alone. You could add such a tool in a placeholder, but you will need a programmer to build the tool if you don't have the skills yourself.

**PJH** · 17 October 2013, 02:35 PM

Originally Posted by pauland

You can't do this with Xara alone. You could add such a tool in a placeholder, but you will need a programmer to build the tool if you don't have the skills yourself.

Thanks for the reply.

Are you aware of any kind of generic "widgets" that are available in the form of a calculator?

Cheers.

**gwpriester** · 17 October 2013, 02:36 PM

If such a service exists, you could add it via an iframe which is a placeholder that links to an external website but displays the content on your website.

So first you need to do some research and see if such a service already exists.

**pauland** · 17 October 2013, 02:51 PM

In my experience clients would require bespoke calculations that would match completely their operation, so I think the chance of finding a generic widget is low.

You need to get a very specific brief for this tool.

I have made such a tool in the past, but the client provided all of the calculations required for the tool.

**Acorn** · 17 October 2013, 06:15 PM

Get them to provide a working example in MS Excel.
If not too complex a Javascript form conversion would be fairly easy and it could then be added to a Placeholder.

Acorn

**pauland** · 17 October 2013, 07:45 PM

a Javascript form conversion would be fairly easy

That depends if you write javascript or not.. ;-)

**Acorn** · 17 October 2013, 08:25 PM

Originally Posted by pauland

a Javascript form conversion would be fairly easy

That depends if you write javascript or not.. ;-)

I do and if it were not too complex, I would.

Acorn

P.S. I should have typed JavaScript...

**pauland** · 17 October 2013, 09:25 PM

My point was that it's not fair to assume others have your skill level. What's easy for you isn't easy for others.

Peter, sounds like you have a volunteer to do your project for you!

**Acorn** · 17 October 2013, 09:43 PM

I was actually trying to point out that if it could be scoped in Excel then a JavaScript conversion might be possible.
By defining it in small steps it allows the OP to just their own skill level or the level of someone required to undertake the job.
To secure such a person, at a good price is then easier using something like Amazon Mechanical Turk: https://www.mturk.com/mturk/.
I don't mind offering my service up for free for a small task if it helps.

Acorn