On 9 Aug 2002 at 0:59, Oficina Digital wrote:

> Hello, I am new to the list and don't know how kind you are helping
> complete beginners in PHP. I intend to set a personals matchmaking site
> for people interested in entheogens (http://singlemates.yage.net) I
> don't know where to begin, I have some PHP cookbooks handy and am
> looking to do it the easy way but have no idea how much work and
> knowledge is needed. What I want is for people to log in (using
> sessions?), post and modify profile with uploading photos and search for
> personals based on location, desired place to live, age, kind of
> relationship, etc. I intend to do it it by steps adding features as my
> php knowledge increase but would appretiate very much some tips and
> hints on where to begin and how to design this project. Some tips on
> where and what I shall learn for this project would be of great help.

Well I think you've made a good first step by asking others.

Iike the idea of a "core". If you cannot create an application that can grow then imho 
you did not do it right. So the idea that you can start with a limited set of features 
and grow 
your application is, imho, a good idea that is possible.

Think. Sketch. Write .... don't code anything. Map it out in your mind, your 
imagination and on paper. It just so happens that I'm working on a singles type site; 
it is going to be 
one of those hot or not type sites. I've got the same idea you have. I'll start with 
something that people will find useful and then I'll grow it.

If you were to do it in Perl I could get you started rather quickly as I have an 
architecture for Perl apps but I don't, not yet, for PHP apps. Mind you, I develop in 
a virtual 
environment and so I cannot use a lot of established archtitectures which requires 
more than one usually gets on a virtual server.

Anyhow, think of the core of who your audience is and what they will do.

Audience

People
        will
                register
                login
                logout
                change preferences
                set preferences
                upload image(s)

People
        have
                name
                age
                preferences

etc. ... build up a data model here. Just think of them and what they will do and what 
you will need to know about them for them to do those things.

I'm just thinking of the top of my head here.

BY ALL MEANS do not re-write something someone else already wrote. Look into using 
modules from Pear and look for modules you can find here:

http://pear.php.net/

Oh heck, I was looking in my bookmarks to recommend some links and I found this:

http://www.cyber.com.au/users/clancy/phplib.html

I need to read that myself. The are saying the right thing here.

Lots of classes at this site:

http://www.phpclasses.org/mirrors.html?page=%2Findex.html

At least read, just read so later, in a few years perhaps, you will have only yourself 
to blame when you go back to code that was written on the wind:

http://pear.php.net/manual/en/standards.php


Whatever you do, don't just start coding. I'm working on someone else's PHP 
application right now. Files everywhere, tricks used to source differen files, I think 
the original 
programmer (seems that at least 2 had a hand in it) just gave up. I've refused to work 
on some old stuff I wrote. Better to re-write it I said. Not so much a rewrite as a 
reorganize. If 
you spend time thinking how to organize your code in the beginning you will find that 
growing your app will be a pleasure rather than a nightmare.


Peter

http://www.coremodules.com/
Web Development and Support  at Affordable Prices
901-757-8322    [EMAIL PROTECTED]




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