Cost of Materials and Service Calculator for website

[veighnerg]

Hello everyone! I usually just lurk around and read threads but now I could use some input from some users around here. I am designing a website for a small family business but I am lacking a crucial element. I am no web programmer so I don't know the specific terminology of what I am asking for. I need a calculator of some sort that could for example have different fields for measurements which would be added together then multiplied by a certain amount to come up with a total cost of materials with options to select different styles of material/color/reinforcements/etc. I know I can do this in an excel spreadsheet but I don't want something that looks like crap once on the website. I would like something that can be embedded in the site to give a customer a quote based on their input. I believe I am looking for something somewhat like the calculator on this site www.roofcalc.org/ with options and such but better looking such as this one http://www.homewyse.com/services/cos..._in_porch.html.

If anyone could tell me what I should be searching for to find the results I need or can point me to a tutorial/video/etc with the needed information to implement this I would greatly appreciate it.

[chazus]

Forms, tables, and math, pretty much. However it's a bit awkward to be doing work for someone's business, and take the work, and not know how to do it >.>

[veighnerg]

Forms, tables, and math, pretty much. However it's a bit awkward to be doing work for someone's business, and take the work, and not know how to do it >.>

Well I was hoping for a productive response but I suppose helping people is too much. As I mentioned before it is for a website for a family business. I'm not getting paid for my time and I already have the website based on wordpress nearly ready to go. I suppose I will just have to go learn HTML and CSS from scratch to achieve my desires.

[chazus]

Again, if you're using wordpress.. Forms and tables, pretty much. Drop down menus. Heck, you could probably do it inside a Contact Form setup to do the numbers. However, a specific answer is hard to do without both seeing and accessing the website. The administrator (you) need to know how to do this, or know someone who can either teach you, or do it.

I suppose I will just have to go learn HTML and CSS from scratch to achieve my desires.

That... no offense... kinda sounds like you have no idea what you're doing.

Just google 'how to do _____ in wordpress', if you want to skip learning anything. There are a billion guides out there, and it'll get you a more concise answer on what you're trying to do.

[Deleted]

Hello everyone! I usually just lurk around and read threads but now I could use some input from some users around here. I am designing a website

I'd see this as your designing a web page rather than a web site. These wordpress sites don't require extensive web development knowledge and rely on templates if I'm not mistaken. Unless there is a template that has been created to do what you need, your probably going to have to find a different service for your needs, weather that is finding a different site to design your page, or write your own website.

I have no experience with these sorts of "web site creating websites" So im not 100% on how wordpress functions and what tools are available. If your page was written in HTML/CSS or any other real languages this task would be fairly simple, as others have said, its all math. But without being able to reference figures from tables and menus, your going to have a bad time if your looking to have a site that will update prices dynamically.

My advice would be to find out if anyone else has managed to achieve what your trying to do on wordpress and use their templates/methods or learn a web development language and code a site yourself. But then you need to ask yourself, is it worth the time? as I'm assuming your not getting paid for this work.