Which to choose? db, cgi?

[samuel_piecer]

Heya group!

I'm setting up a site and I would like to automate it as much as possible - right now I've got a concept and lay-out, but it would require me to monitor 24/7; there must be another way..

The situation:

- I need to create a site that allows guests to either post sets of 5 links or 5 thumbnail-links to images (they choose by going to two different submit forms.)

- Their content is then to appear in preformatted tables (with background images in different cells) that they can't alter.

- The posts should be saved individually as HTML pages with automatically generated IDs.

- The newest 5 posts should appear on the main page.

- There should be an option to search through all the entries.

- I have to be able to edit and/or remove these posts.

- Very important is that it doesn't look like a message board - I don't want to show how many users are online, no PM system is needed, and the ability to comment on posts is not necessary either.

- Preferably, all this should be accomplished with minimal scripting and little to no funds.

Can it be done? And if so, what should I use to create this with? php, mysql, perl, it's a big techy jungle out there. I would really appreciate some help.

[Pig]

That wouldn't be very difficult with a php/mysql app. The crucial piece would be getting your database designed properly. After that everything would be simple queries.

You create a table for each user to be entered in. The page that shows the content would be the same one for each user, you would simply change the content based off of their id. This would eliminate the need for saving individual html pages (a bad idea no matter how you slice it).

If you give each profile a create date column, and populate it when the profile is created, then you can run a simple query to get the 5 most recent entries (you could do this without a create date column but it wouldn't be as reliable).

Searching would be simple, and editing the posts could be done by building a little program, or by editing the raw data itself.

It could look like anything you want, since the data is separate from the format.

It would cost $10 to activate a mysql account on powweb. Scripting wouldn't be too hard. The whole thing could be very light weight. If you plan on paying someone else, this is really a custom type job. I don't know of any scripts that are quite this specialized, so it would have to be done up by hand. I'd do it for ~$150 USD depending on how quickly it is needed.

HTH. Good luck with your project.

[bdoc]

Well, that seems like a pretty specific list of requirements, thus I'm not sure if you'll find anything pre-coded or made if that's what you're looking for.

I'd recommend using PHP with a MySQL backend. The PHP wouldn't be all that messy or complicated for a setup like the one you've described.

To start, I'd visit PHP's website and do a bit of reading on the various aspects of your program or maybe reverse-engineer something premade. Here's a great site for some pre-made items:

http://php.resourceindex.com

I hope this helps a little bit.....