Hello, We're going to make a web-site for insurance company (err, more like portal for several companies) and the problem is that ( I think ) it's going to be our biggest and most complex site we've ever done AND we're going to use some new stuff we've never used. So I'd be very happy if you can give me some points what to look at, what are real no-no's and what are go-go's.
1. We're going to switch from mysql to postgresql, because we need transactions, triggers and all other stuff that mysql doesn't support. What could be possible problems going from mysql to postgres, if any? 2. We will use Template-Toolkit and Apache/mod_perl. Problem is that 2 out of 3 people have never used TT or programmed mod_perl and OO Perl. Only I've made sites this way, they've used Embperl til now. How can I make this switch for them a little easier? I know I must spend a lot of time teaching them, but may-be there are some kinda switchover tutorials or something? 3. Authorization. Is cookie based auth most reasonable or are there some other ways too? .htaccess will not do, I think, because all data is in the same directory and authorized access/login is needed only on some parts of site. Which data should I send with cookie? Only some random key which is also stored in dbase and this key is used to find real data from dbase? (I guess I must read again this thread about cookies). 4. How is most reasonable to store(and use too) complex formulas and coefficients? Problem is that there are 4 companies and each of them has different way to calculate same thing eg. insurance for travelling, car insurance etc. Unfortunately they are all quite different, because every company uses even different things to calculate final result. So if we use different formula for every company and insurance type we end up with ~50 formulas and none understands afterwards which is which. Are there any guidelines to generalize formulas? Ok, let's say we even somehow make these formulas general enough to use, but where shall the calculation take place? Postgres stored procs or in perl code/module (i think this) or even in TT? Constans will be in db. 5. Any other things to look out when creating large site and/or running it over SSL and/or using above described configuration? P.S. I hope that in about few months I can write about this project to success stories ;-) Thanks for your attention, Viljo
