web app development and such

[evu]

Hi!

So I finally had this great idea for a cool new Web app. The thing is, I’m just a front end Dev|designer by trade and have practicality zero experience with back end development.

The basic premise for this app is a user signs in/registers ( or with social accounts), they fill in a form and it’s saved to their account. Then the form needs to be able to be edited and be sendable as a pdf via email.

Not that complicated, I know.

so the questions are:

is there any recommendations for server side technologies a front end Dev like me can learn relatively quickly to develop something like this?

Otherwise, if I was to hire a Dev to do the backend database stuff for me, how do I stop said developer from just running off with my idea? without paying a legal guy an arm and a leg for a document.

hopefully questions like this are cool here on css tricks :)

looking forward to hearing any advice!

Cheers,
John.

[chrisburton]

>how do I stop said developer from just running off with my idea?

You would need a contract and non-disclosure agreement. Personally, I would recommend a Lawyer otherwise that person might be able to take advantage of loopholes.

Edit: You may be able to save money if you contact a law student (preferably a 3L).

[evu]

Hi Chris, Cheers for the reply.

Do you know where I might find a law student for hire? and what would 3L mean? 3rd year?

On the other hand, if I was to go down the route of building it myself, would people say php/mysql be the easiest/most well documented route?

php is the only server side technology im even remotely familiar with.

Cheers.

[chrisburton]

> Do you know where I might find a law student for hire? and what would 3L mean? 3rd year?

Perhaps your local University? And yes, 3L means 3rd year law student.

> On the other hand, if I was to go down the route of building it myself, would people say php/mysql be the easiest/most well documented route?

I think Ruby is also very popular for web apps.

[__]

here’s a good example of a [nondisclosure agreement](http://www.hbs.edu/entrepreneurship/pdf/Sample_NDA.pdf)

[evu]

Cheers Chris.

Hi Traq, it’s funny you mentioned that. I contacted a legal firm yesterday and I was told that if I had a tight budget I should probably go with an off the shelf contract and nda.

Does anyone have experience using said contracts? The site in question seemed to look decent and relatively inexpensive when compared to legal fees for a bespoke contract. I know it’s not going to be as water tight as a bespoke piece but something had got to give huh.

I’ve realised it’s going to take to long to go down the route of building it myself.

Cheers.

[simoncmason]

Docracy is your friend:

http://www.docracy.com/

Andy Clarke has written a contract used by a lot of web devs, he recently added an NDA which is also written in plain english. Both of these are on Docracy or you can look here:

http://stuffandnonsense.co.uk/projects/contract-killer/

http://stuffandnonsense.co.uk/projects/three-wise-monkeys/

Good luck with your project

[Author]

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