Click to See Complete Forum and Search --> : What technologies should I use for this project?


sjpeer
06-12-2010, 07:40 PM
To give you a quick idea of my background, I am an experienced web developer, but not necessarily a trained coder. I've dabbled and can make my way around and modify existing code very well. I just don't write my own PHP code from scratch for example. I've also had experience with word press and extensively modifying themes and installations.

I want to put together a website that will do the following:

- In general I'm looking to create a "ratings" web site and need medium to advanced rating and rating-management capabilities. Here are some specifics.
- Allow for items to be rated by any user according to several different factors (probably around 12 max)
- A user could see the average rating the public has awarded any given item across all factors.
- There would be a separate rating from an "expert" reviewer that rates the same factors as the public ratings but would be shown in addition to the public ratings.
- Registered user management (for expert raters vs. general raters, for example)
- Paid membership capabilities to allow paying users to have access to paid content. For example, paying members may have access to additional review information or see more rating factors than non-paying users.
- The ability to categorize the items being rated and to search or browse based on the categories.

That gives a good general idea of what I'm looking for. It seems from what I've heard about Drupal that it would be a good choice but could I get all the functionality I've listed natively from drupal and existing plugins or am I looking at custom development?

What other technologies should I consider?

Jarrod1937
06-12-2010, 10:17 PM
What other technologies should I consider?
Any and all the above... :D
Just about any programming language out there has the capability to do what you need. So its not so much a question of what technologies are more appropriate, but instead which ones you're most comfortable with. Now considering your past experience (the little bit you provided) i'd say php and mysql would be right up your alley. As you mentioned it would probably be best to start with an existing cms and modify it from there... and trust me, no matter what your choice is, you will be doing some custom coding (barring some crazy coincidence that a module fitting all your needs exist). As for what the best cms to start with would be, i don't quite know, but it would probably depend highly on what the user's are actually rating (which you never mentioned).