Building an interactive community

funky

Hi,

I'm a newbie and have very limited experience in PHP. I want to ask about a project I'm going to do and get opinions.

Ok, here it is:
I want to create a dynamic community on my site. I want instant messaging, a message board, a photo gallery, journals, an agenda, polls, and the most important focus will be on the user profile.

I have checked out phpNuke and the other's similar, but I find them too restricting for my taste because I want something very customizable as far as the design goes. So, the question is: Will it be possible to use different scripts for each feature I want and use the same authentification for all and the next question is: Is it possible to find a script for user profiles that I can customize, so that I can ask for the information from the user that which I choose with a photo or two and then post the info on their profile?

I hope this is clear, but I understand that this may be quite complex, but the problem is that I don't have enough time to do all of the code myself. I'm not looking for a complex answer, but does anyone have suggestion that can steer me on the right path.

Thanks a lot for any help

Tekron-X

It is acctually possible to do any of that stuff you just need to properly understand the PHP language to do it. Basically any thing can be done to make a dynamic community with the combination of HTML, JavaScript, and PHP with CSS for colors and style.

If you know Javascript you should know it does a few things here and there that php can't do like the alert() function in JavaScript to bring up a dialog box.

PHP is used for the brunt of the webpage as u should know.

Also HTML is needed to make the webpage, which 96% of the time you echo() it out with PHP.

I hope this helps you a bit.

funky

ok, that helps me a bit. I have another few questions if you don't mind. I am just starting to learn PHP, but I find it a little bit intimidating. I have heard that it is quite easy to learn, but I don't have any programming experience besides HTML.

So, how long do you think it might take more or less to learn php well enough to do something like this? I know this is kind of vague and differs from person to person.

I asked a person the same question that has a site very much like what I want and he said that a project like this could take 4 years. I think that seems like a really long time. Do you think it would be possible for me to do all of this in like 3 months at the most if I use pre-made scripts?

Thanks a lot for your help, I really appreciate it 🙂

Pig

Yes, you can do that with different scripts, and use the same authentication, but it is a pain in the butt to dig into the guts of each script and change their authentication system.

If you feel comfortable with PHP, this may be a valid option. Otherwise I think you are just left with learning php more, or paying someone to set it up.

Tekron-X

Acctually it is best to do a site like this yourself because like pig said it is a pain to set the scripts up for your server. As for learning PHP it is easy to learn even with no programming experiance. HTML is very important still and PHP depending on how good of a learner you are can take anywhere from 3months up to 1 year or more. If you want to learn PHP faster buy a book on php and don't use web tutorials until you get your PHP foundation up because web tutorials are hard to follow with out a solid foundation.

A good book to get is Begging PHP4 by wrox publishing.
there are other good books that you might want too look into because that book is outdated and you need to make changes to all of there examples because Register Globals is off anymore but that is not too hard.

Well That is all I can say right now but learn php and get to know it before you start and your prodject may only take 3- 5 months.

funky

great! thank you very much. You guys have been immensely helpful. It's good to get opinions because I didn't know if I was being realistic or not. Thanks again 😃

Tekron-X

No Problem at all and good luck with learning PHP.😃