Hi all, I was hoping to get a few questions answered about the two projects some friends approached me about recently. Some quick background about myself: I am a senior computer-science major in my last semester of school before graduating with my bachelors (well in a few weeks anyway). My school focuses mostly on Java and I haven't done a ton of side projects. Though this past semester I messed around a bit with PHP, python, C, and ruby though it was by no means enough to truly learn the ins and the outs of the language. I have very little SQL experience, though I've at least seen what it looks like and I have an outstanding PHP / SQL book as a reference / guide to work with.

Project 1: A friend approached me recently asking if I could help her set up a website for her business. She's in the process of getting me an inventory (it's a toy store with probably 100 + different items, all containing pictures, descriptions, etc.), I guess via spreadsheet, and is asking me to develop a functional site where people can log on, purchase items, and then I guess alert her to mail them. In thinking about this, there are a few things I can think of that I'll need to develop.
  • Shopping Cart (probably linked to paypal)
  • Main page, as well as dynamic item page
  • Inventory database

Now in thinking about this, I'm not exactly sure how most sites handle this kind of business. Is there a different 'portal' website that the store owner could log on to and check to see if there are any orders, see shipping, payment, and any other additional information in most cases? Or would I have paypal / my shopping cart email the seller? Are there any other things you can think of that I would want to add to the site? I'm getting paid a couple hundred bucks for this, which I know is way less than I should be charging. Though I'm definitely a novice at web development, and I'm trying to help a friend out. Also, is PHP going to be the go to language here? Should I consider anything else?

Project 2: Another friend asked me to help him write an app. Essentially, several people could be set up in a household for certain chores. When someone does a chore, it marks it on their phone and pushes a notification to all others in that the database recognizes under that household (that have the app obviously) that the chore is complete. All he wanted me to do is set up the push notification system, and he mentioned he was developing the app for iOS, android, and windows mobile I guess in PHP. Is there anything special I need to know?

thanks for your help!