Project Management Project

[DavH27]

I have been studying hard these past monthes with JavaScript and vb6 (I know you can't use vb6 for this but you can VBScript =] )

Although I am still pretty novice (damn PlayStation distration) I really want to have a crack at coding a website system that I can sell onto clients.

Brief
* Target web area is centered on publishing articles / stories.
* Database driven website to store the articles.
* Admin can log into thier 'Admin' section and change settings such as how long an article is shown as being 'new', what articles to loop on the 'featured' or 'recommended' list on homepage for example.
[ This one above can be done by using an array to loop but I want the admin to be able to change the actual articles within the array being looped and how often it is changed. ]
* Admin can input text directly into the webpage to be shown in select places such as the home page's 'News' section.


I understand these kind of things can be changed easily but only if you know a little bit about the language they are wired with. I want this product to be as user friendly as possible.

This was an idea I had suddenly on way home on train earlier on today and it hasn't had much thought as you could probably tell...

So what?
But I guess my point of this topic is to ask the guys that know what languages I will need to use and to what level?

Want to help?
Thanks for your time and please suggest more features if you like. Also feel free to critisize, enquire and offer additional help with this project if you can offer it!

Thanks again.

[sde]

well, .. i always recommend learning php/mysql since it is such a powerful combination, and there is a wealth of information all over to help you.

you are describing a cms, or content management system. it is a tall task for your first project, but definately a good goal.

php syntax is a lot like javascript. i would recommend setting up a mysql databse and learning how to query and get results from the database.

you can install it all on pretty much any platform, and develop locally, .. or get some cheap webspace somewhere so the rest of the world can see it.

let us know if you need an idea where to start =)

have fun! .. and put down that playstation .. coding is more fun ( and pays better too )

[DavH27]

I am my own company sde called Bowyer IT Solutions (BITS) and so far all we (I) do is develop basic vb6 apps to practice and design webpages. I have yet to find my first client because of lack of skills.

I am looking for 'staff' to help me.

let us know if you need an idea where to start =)

Was that you saying you would like to offer any help?

CMS - have you or anybody else on this site ever developed a working format of these? It appears quite easy but then so did my Alarm Radio developed in vb6 using nothing but the standard Timer control. That I put straight into my C:\MY SCREW UPS\TITANIC ......

[Belisarius]

I don't know, I've thrown away about 30+ hours on Disgaea (PS2 Game) in the past week alone. I love coding, but Java just isn't quite the same as leveling up your characters . . .

Anyways, there is a reason people don't use VB for the web. You really should learn either ASP if you want to stay with Microsoft, or PHP if you want a real scripting language (hey, Java fanboy, remember? I'm not allowed to like Microsoft). JSP is also cool, think of it like ASP only in Java. But I think it might be a bit heavy at this point.

Perl, PHP, ASP, JSP are the technologies that run the web. Perl is fading in favor of PHP, ASP is a Microsoft-centric solution, and as I said JSP is cool but a bit much for your purposes.

Now, backend. I can't speak for ASP, but I know PHP will hook into just about any DB. I know MySQL is the standard DB, but I'd suggest you look at Postgresql. It's open source (BSD-style), and supports more advanced functionality than MySQL. For instance, in MySQL, transactions aren't implemented by default. I will admit my bias towards Postgresql, but I truly think it's a very good alternative to MySQL with it's greater functionality.

[DavH27]

Hmm I just hope it's smaller than the 21meg MySQL download size.

I'm on 56k :'(

[sde]

i have done a lot of work on similar things, but not exactly as you describe your project.

i would be more than happy to help you learn in this forum, but i have no time to devote to anymore projects. i consider php my strongest language, although i really like java and c# too.

http://ocsclan.com/ is a community i run which uses vbulletin for the forums, however i've created a management system for the rest of the site which includes downloads, all the site info, player ranks, etc. i have scheduled jobs that run in the morning to sync our game server with the web site as far as individual stats. i 'borrowed' the hotmail look for the back-end, and here is some screen shots of it:

i've also dabbled with amx plugins for counter-strike. http://mystatus.ocsclan.com/ is a plugin i wrote which writes player status' to mysql, .. then there is a php web interface to display the data. it is complete with a web installer and back-end interface to setup the site info and look. this was written over a year ago, so i'd probably not be too proud if a re-looked over the code.

at work i have developed web apps to track product support calls and customers with php/mysql. currently i'm porting it over to jsp interfacing with our db2 database which resides on our as/400. that's my day job, on the side i have my own business too. primarily building and maintaining database driven sites/apps.

it's all similar though, web technologies i mean. just html forms sending data to a script that talks to a database. php/mysql is by far the most elegant for me to work with for web design though.

there's quite a few people who know php very well here, so if this is what you decide to start on, .. don't hold back any questions .. maybe i'll get some ideas for more tutorials.

[DavH27]

( bloody showoff... )

That looks like the sort of thing I'm talking about right there!

It is obvious that this sort of thing has been done before so I should have no problems morally to describe the steps in which it took to complete (seeing as I'm not commercial yet) so maybe I could make this project a tutorial aided kinda thing?

for instance:
CMS Lesson 1: design twice, code once.

I explain why designing a complex system such as this would be 10 times more successful with planning. I would use my project throughout the SERIES of tutorials as I progress and use my project for the example themselves.

Obviously the first project won't be a commercial quality but it will be done to teach both myself and others though my own learning.

As I progress and learn a new step, I use my learning and progress to teach others.

I hope I'm communicating my ideas here properlly!

<IMHO>Off topic a bit here but I've noticed that none of the tutorials have any 'What is SQL?' or 'What is CSS?' tutorials. This is meant to be a NEWBIE helping site so maybe we outta answer thier first questions before they start getting onto the other stuff that we've attempted to explain.

The tutorials here are all good but they are kind of random and the site offers no learning curve. </IMHO>

[Belisarius]

Well, if it's design insight you're looking for, you might want to read up on MVC

[sde]

As I progress and learn a new step, I use my learning and progress to teach others.

i think that is a great approach. we are only 'newbies' at a language for a short period of time and sometimes as our skills mature, it is easy to forget exactly how much of a mystery a lot of a subject can be for someone starting from scratch.

I myself need to spend more time planning projects. It is too easy to get a hair-brained idea and jump-in from the immediate excitement of the project .. You may notice that OCS clan is on version 7. lol .. although it has matured as my coding has over the years.

[idx]

I didn't have time to respond this morning, but it seems that you just stated that you're looking to learn from this cms project.

Sounds like a great idea and while my first post was going to mention that there are hundreds or thousands of php/mysql CMS systems, learning PHP is as good excuse as any.

Let me know if you want some links, although looking at the code of a medium-to-large CMS can be a daunting task for a newbie. (no fun for the rest of us either. )

I'll also echo the use of MVC. Or at the least some kind of structured setup where you're not mixing the business logic with the display logic.

Some links:

http://phpmvc.net - looks interesting, but I haven't the time to look at it.

http://bombusbee.com/ - fusebox for PHP. Again, seemed interesting, but I never had time to really get into it.

http://smarty.php.net - smarty templating engine. Not exactly on the MVC path itself, but its a nice template engine that I use in specific situations. (mostly when I have a complex page to cache)

...I have a number of other links somewhere, but they escape me right now.

-r

[DavH27]

Yeah I've been doing some research and there are some pretty damn complex professional cms' already out there.

I was just looking at one that uses a word style input editor and makes every page search friendly.

Firstly I wouldn't know where to start with search friendlyness and secondly, word style?!! Ack...

I'm thinking I could gear my cms more towards Bloggers. They could even add entries by means of PDA or even SMS. I could give viewers the option to view the blog by using a WAP enabled phone even.

Maybe ambitous but like you guys say - gotta give yourself a goal before you try and teach yourself the steps. Of course it would still be the CMS I was talking about but with a more focused audience

Upon completion of first Beta versions, I will be looking to sell it on RentACoder.com as a customizable cms

Probably won't get me far but never mind. Best case scenario after rentacoder.com failure is to get a job that pays me regardless of how much...

echo ("I suck");

[idx]

Check out htmlarea (or here - authors site) for a pretty nice javascript word-like editor.

I've integrated it into a few php projects and its pretty easy to work with. (mishoo's calendar js script is nice too)

-r

[DavH27]

wow great tool! Can integrate it into [mfp] for instant professionalismgism heh heh ...

Thank you idx.

Ooohs now this is my vision as somebody else's reality
http://www.interactivetools.com/prod...rticlemanager/

Just look at that little red number *drool*

[Phaedrus]

You can use your Coding Abilities to make Bots to level your characters up for you that the admin cant detect

[DavH27]

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