Suggestions for building an app

Very simple, but would increase productivity ...

[lZakl]

What I am looking at doing, is creating a simple application to run on OSX that will increase productivity here at the office. What this app needs to accomplish is very simple. Moving files from one folder on a server to a folder on another server. Let me elaborate:

We have 1 "Inbox" here where all FTP ads go. There are 8 teams here which have access to this folder and all have ads FTP'd to them. Then we have 8 "Outbox"'s. 1 per team. So each team every day, multiple times, opens these two folders and drag their ads to their respective "Outbox". So I have decided to create an application that will list the contents on the "Inbox" and allow you to move items to the "Outbox" from a small window that will resemble a stripped-down and limited (It will only show the inbox's contents and the outbox's -- And will not give the option of changing directories) version of an FTP program.

There will be 8 elements on this small window:
1) Inbox panel
2) Team directory drop-down
3) Outbox panel
4) >>> Button to move from inbox to outbox
5) <<< Button to move from outbox to inbox
6) X Button to delete ads out when necessary
7) Set of 2 radio buttons to list contents by date modified or alphabetical

Really a pretty simple application, however I have researched Developer Tools to no end it seems and am no closer to starting other than creating a project in XCode and building the interface. I am an experienced C++ programmer with Borland, and I've also used Visual Basic so I have a good understanding of OOP, and building a GUI ... But XCode is set up so differently, and there are no good tutorials that explain how classes and modules are handled.

I suppose what I am asking is:

Is XCode the best way to go about this? Are there any other options? And if XCode is the best way, are there any good (real world -- and relevant to looking up and listing directories -- moving files etc.) tutorials to get me started? Or would anyone be willing to take the time to give me a few pointers as to where to get started with those items?

ANYTHING would be helpful!

Thanks!

-- Zak

[solly]

Take a look at RealBasic from RealSoftware. I have used it many times for stuff like you describe. Very easy to program in--much like Visual Basic.

[lZakl]

solly,

Thanks for your input! I bought RealBasic standard, and it is about as close to VB on a Mac as you're going to get! Having a few problems (I am a bit rusty with my VB).. but I'm getting them ironed out! Thanks again!

-- Zak

[moltar]

Check Perl/Tk. Perl has lots of libraries that work with FTP.

[timster]

You can leverage web technology skills if you build this as a Widget, using HTML/XHMTL, CSS, and JavaScript to do the interface. (The interface seems simple enough for a Widget.)

You could do the backend filemoving/FTP stuff in Shell which wouldn't require any software packages being installed on the machine.

(Anyone: I'm not sure, would you need to install Net::FTP to use Perl, or is that included "out of the box"?)