Profile Manager Premium Case Study: A Dog Rescue Book / Pet Registration Site
by Terri Tinsley
I am the listowner of the Yahoo group "Wisconsin Dog Rescue", a list of 160+
members, both shelters and rescue groups. We also have a website,
www.widogrescue.com
The rescues on my list wanted to create an online "breed rescue book" to
help shelters know who to call if they got Breed X dog into their shelter.
We wanted it available online. I'd never created a form before, but I
started looking for a CGI script I could use to do the job; I realized
early on that having people send their info to me to update would be
insanely time-consumptive as I re-entered their info into a webpage,
uploaded it, and tried to keep it up to date. Ugh!
My first enlightenment came when I realized it IS possible to have users
fill out a form and the form could automatically appear as a webpage. I
tried a couple of scripts from script libraries, but none of them ever
allowed uploading an image, and we needed our book to include a
representative picture of each breed, to help shelters identify some of the
rarer purebreds they might get.
I tried the free version of Profile Manager,
and was immediately impressed with how someone like me could actually figure
out how to customize it to fit my needs. I went as far as I could go with
the free version, then emailed Aytekin to ask if he would sell me just the
"upload image" module of the Premium version. Imagine my surprise when he
said he'd GIVE it to us for free, just because he likes dogs! This was a
huge relief for the group since rescues are all non-profit entities and
every spare dollar goes toward animal care. We figure Aytekin's donation
allowed us one spay, or three full rounds of innoculations, or half a
heartworm treatment, or two neuters. Wow! And he also offered technical
support when I got stuck on some permissions issues; together we figured it
out, and he responded quicker than my own ISP responded!
So, I quickly customized the Premium version, which is laid out enough like
the free version that I could basically use the same forms I'd already
created, and I uploaded everything. I customized the control panel buttons
to look like they're covered with fur, and the pages themselves have a nice
violet and cream color scheme to them.
I had five rescues beta test entering
their info into our new shelter software.
They found the whole process rather easy, and were delighted
with the results. I CANNOT SAY ENOUGH GOOD THINGS ABOUT THIS PACKAGE! I would recommend it to every pet shelter.
It could also be used on private sites to provide pet registration service as a registry of lost and found pets.
Five years ago, if I'd been where I am right now in the learning process, I could have invented Blackboard.com using this program.
It's so flexible and amazing!
Profile Manager Premium
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