I think that EE (especially after the CI integration) is perfect for building a storefront application framework as a first-party module. Storefront in the sense of a small business tool.
You guys build (and sell) the framework, third party developers take that and build storefront applications. Security is delivered over secure connections using a Firefox extension to perform updates, for instance.
The incorporation of a magnetic card module would be compelling, one which potentially wrote to cards as well, and operated as an intranet-accessible (or internet, for the brave) application.
$50 ID reader:
Think of the uses:
- Small-to-medium music store, with charge card application
- Health club member application, with card-writing capability
- Driver’s rental tool for fleet management
- Restaurant application
Some complexities:
* A full-screen terminal-type (maybe even with finger-point navigation capability)
* Command-line tool may need to be built to forward the message packet off the card to EE
I think with some of the designer’s using EE out there, plus some of the CI folks with 2.0, this could make some good software, with updating capabilities (especially for localhost), or the website tunnels to a third-party VPN vendor over SSH on a secured server.
Running lighttpd/apache or a vmware application running on a vm-hosted Debian Etch virtual machine. Who knows if there’s any EE developer out there brave enough to put together that kind of beast.
This may not sound like a great idea tomorrow, but at the moment (since I have a need), it sure does right now.
