The story continues...
I won't say who my client is in case I say something libellous (they're actually very nice people and I want to keep it that way) and the app could be used in a number of different situations. The app simply gives the current status of customers' jobs in a manufacturing process and allows an operator to redirect jobs from one machine to another or to another branch if total disaster has hit. Off the top of my head I can think of half a dozen uses: a quick copy or business card printer; various custom building products like garage doors or window frames; auditting a major organisation; an online grocery store; a fast food or table service restaurant chain. The list goes on and on.
The complication here is the client is moving from making/selling a single product to making/selling multiple products and they're also franchising the business and each franchisee will be able to customise the appearance of their web screens.
I've got the simplest part of the deal: modifying the webapp. The app uses xmlrpc calls to the manufacturing system and designing and modifying the interface to the machines is the hard part in my view.
Other developers here have raised the issue of making the system open source but the senior management hasn't made a decision yet.
