Hey good work as usual.

Keep in mind: if you can make this app more robust, scaleable and flexible, with more options, go for it, you need not ask, but of course give me a head's up on the fee. I may have to add another $500 or $1000 to the total project fee, which I think he would go for. I'll tell him this is important backend development that will be giving him as many options as possible.

So a few questions on fees and accompanying work that needs to be done ..

1) The $350 I sent you around Nov 24th, I'm assuming you have not used all of it yet seeing you had to rewrite the logic, etc? Meaning you had to stop work midstream so as to not write erroneous code, to correct the logic issues, right? You had some down time visiting your mom then recently said you were catching up this week? So how much of the $350 (or roughly 16 hours) have you tapped into so far? I just need to know how much of the $350 you have used on it's original purpose versus using it to rewrite new logic. No biggie, just as long as we keep making progress, which you're doing well.

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2) You mentioned (for now) there's no way of injecting new stats into the app other than directly, but in the future Russ can do it by the spreadsheet (ideally that's what he wants, the jist of the project, right?), OR in another area in the backend. Let's say you do the easier backend version .. you said the spreadsheet is then available for download after those changes are made. So my question is, will he always be downloading a BLANK spreadsheet, OR can he have the option of downloading a spreadsheet populated with data? I guess this is a good question I never thought of, regardless of what part of the project we are on. Having a master spreadsheet that is always populated with data might be useful to him, say, when he is flying and needs to go over data. Is this a big deal? I suppose it doesn't matter seeing he can just access stuff online, but being able to quickly scan a whole spreadsheet populated with data would be faster than finding stuff in the database having to go through all the dropdowns.

Related to this (the fee part), you said you can give him the option of generating a spreadsheet by position only? Meaning it would be a stripped down spreadsheet (for reference lets call it the 'stripped down spreadsheet', or SDS) where he selects what is on it? Also, how many different configurations would be available using this SDS method? Say another spreadsheet stripped down to some other criteria other than position only?

I can see advantages to this because in our last meeting we had in person he mentioned some pages on the site where he uses a special (much smaller) spreadsheet that only contains players for a once a year championship game. He wants to be able to upload it directly to a special page on the site and bypass the database. I had a hard time understanding why he couldn't just use the master spreadsheet to upload these values to this special page. I was trying to explain to him that any page on the site can extract any of the backend data he wants based on how the front end code of that particular page is written (what it calls in.) I was trying to explain to him that we could give him a front-end admin area of that all star page where he can enter in names of players and then the values of those players can be pulled up and posted on that page. (That's because every all star game is different every year, with different players.) On the front end I know we can somehow make this editable with an admin login for just that page (or any page.) But he was adamant about taking a tiny spreadsheet and with one fell swoop posting it directly to the all star page, BYPASSING THE DATABASE. I think he was referring to a WP plugin where he was able to do this in the past, or saw it done. I think he also mentioned it was a 'pain' to enter these all star players from his special little spreadsheet to the master spreadsheet. I really wasn't getting what the deal was because provided everything is on the master spreadsheet this data can be placed anywhere. Anywho .. I was trying to explain to him that if these players are included in the backend in the master spreadsheet, that the database is powerful enough to post anything .. on any page, provided it's entered into the database. We'll have to be patient with his lack of understanding and not being able to think in terms of code and the big picture of how databases work.

* SO .. would this relate in any way, shape or form to what you were just referring to, the 'stripped down spreadsheet'? That is, are we able to marry his need to upload smaller, specialized spreadsheets to specific pages with the option you want to give him, the 'stripped down spreadsheet' (and charge an extra fee)? And YES .. charge the fee if it makes the app more robust, scaleable and flexible.

I might have you talk to him on the phone in a conference call with us to make sure we are all on the same page with what he wants for all star type pages with specialized spreadsheets. In our last meeting he assured me 100% there would be no more major changes because we had moved forward to work on the UI now. But his 'little' request to be able to upload a smaller, specialized spreadsheet directly to a special all star page was the only thing he presented to me that I didn't understand .. or he didn't understand the power of a database (because he said he wanted it uploaded directly to the page.)

So to be clear:

1) The extra fee would be to give him the option to generate a special spreadsheet by a specific position only, correct? Like a quarterback spreadsheet? And when he is done with it and uploads it, all the data is seamlessly inserted into the database and overwrites nothing (seeing it's not the master)?

2) Likewise, I think what Russ was requesting was a spreadsheet option by specific player names and associated stats. Could this kind of spreadsheet be generated from the backend as well for his special once a year all star game deal? His method was for us to give him the ability to upload this little spreadsheet directly to the page, bypassing the database, which of course is absurd. He was referring to WP plugins able to do this, as reference only of course. BUT, if he could generate this kind of spreadsheet from the backend, populate it, then upload it .. presto, right? Can this be done?

This was the only issue I picked up on during our last meeting .. everything else was UI. And again, I'm going to request an additional $500-1000 be added to the total budget to give you the funds to get this done. Not that money is an issue, it's not, but I didn't foresee the complexities of the backend. Just tell me what you need and I'll get it.

Marcus