Never programmed - Need to build a facebook like website in PHP within 4 months!

Gurukid

So longer story short I said I was able to code a basic website such as facebook for someone. I never programmed before but really want to know how so i can deliver.

I have four months to accomplish this project. Is it possible for me to learn php in time to build a basic version of facebook within that time period? Again, I have no programming experience although I do know the very (and I mean very) basics of HTML (pretty much everything on W3 schools tutorial). If I do the W3 schoosl php tutorial should that suffice in get me started?

laserlight

Gurukid wrote:
I said I was able to code a basic website such as facebook for someone. I never programmed before but really want to know how so i can deliver.

Unfortunately, Facebook is not "a basic website" in its current form.

Gurukid wrote:
I have four months to accomplish this project. Is it possible for me to learn php in time to build a basic version of facebook within that time period? Again, I have no programming experience although I do know the very (and I mean very) basics of HTML (pretty much everything on W3 schools tutorial).

It depends on your requirements. You should specify precisely what is this "basic version of facebook". I hope that it is really basic, because if you have zero knowledge of PHP and Javascript, and even need to learn more of HTML and CSS, then four months requires you to be a serious optimist if this is supposed to be a commercial website rather than a throwaway school project.

Gurukid wrote:
If I do the W3 schoosl php tutorial should that suffice in get me started?

Yes. There is also the online book Practical PHP Programming.

Krik

Wow, not to throw cold water on you but you may have bitten off more than you know.

For myself I would be very hesitant to give a 4 month time frame. That type of project is so hugh I would spend a few weeks just to figure out the cost and time estimates. And then I would still way over shoot the time estimate, as you never know what you may have overlooked in your original evaluation of the project. I would likely be more inclined to break the project into many different parts and give them a time frame for each segment. This way the clients testing and changes gets done, in a time frame not part of your estimate, after you have completed a segment, then once a segment is good on to the next. So even if all the various segments combined time breaks down to be 4 months, the extra time for testing and afterthought changes, by the client, after a segments delivery, could extend it to double the original combined time estimate.

Now, off the top of my head to build exactly what facebook has I would think it would take even the best programmers much longer than 4 months, by themselves. Maybe a full programing team could do it in a few months.

If you wish to just have something simple, like where a user posts on a "wall" and then "friends" can be approved to see it, you maybe able to do that in 4 months.

But before you can do even that, you need to know HTML and CSS inside and out, first. You should be able to, from memory, do 80% to 90% of all your HTML and CSS. I see a lot of new programmers trying to learn both php and html at the same time and they run into a lot of trouble when they don't understand the differences between them and how they each work, independent of the other.

After HTML and CSS you will need to have a moderate knowledge of PHP, Javascript and MySQL. But even at a moderate knowledge you will still have to learn some.

As for any tutorial it will get you started with php but that is all. The level of knowledge you need for this project is well beyond that of any tutorial and mostly comes through experience.

Best of luck in the project. Whether you complete in time of not I am sure you will learn a lot.

A quick tip. You should start by making a plan. I usually make an outline (point, sub-point, sub-sub-point, ect) and for large project a diagram of the sites architecture. These helps a ton in knowing, in advance, all the parts you will need to assemble and how they will interact with other parts so you can write the code for the parts not yet made and not have to come back and completely redo what you thought you had finished.

Res

You might want to take a look at something like ning.com and invest your time making it look how they want.

Bluntly put, even with lots of experience 4 months is pushing it. Simple ideas can be deviously complex.

Gurukid

laserlight;10961091 wrote:
Unfortunately, Facebook is not "a basic website" in its current form.

It depends on your requirements. You should specify precisely what is this "basic version of facebook". I hope that it is really basic, because if you have zero knowledge of PHP and Javascript, and even need to learn more of HTML and CSS, then four months requires you to be a serious optimist if this is supposed to be a commercial website rather than a throwaway school project.

Yes. There is also the online book Practical PHP Programming.

Oh yes it will be extremely basic. Definitely not Facebooks current form. But will be commercial.

Thanks for the online book! How comprehensive is the book? Will it give me enough information to build the website?

Gurukid

Krik;10961104 wrote:
Wow, not to throw cold water on you but you may have bitten off more than you know.

For myself I would be very hesitant to give a 4 month time frame. That type of project is so hugh I would spend a few weeks just to figure out the cost and time estimates. And then I would still way over shoot the time estimate, as you never know what you may have overlooked in your original evaluation of the project. I would likely be more inclined to break the project into many different parts and give them a time frame for each segment. This way the clients testing and changes gets done, in a time frame not part of your estimate, after you have completed a segment, then once a segment is good on to the next. So even if all the various segments combined time breaks down to be 4 months, the extra time for testing and afterthought changes, by the client, after a segments delivery, could extend it to double the original combined time estimate.

Now, off the top of my head to build exactly what facebook has I would think it would take even the best programmers much longer than 4 months, by themselves. Maybe a full programing team could do it in a few months.

If you wish to just have something simple, like where a user posts on a "wall" and then "friends" can be approved to see it, you maybe able to do that in 4 months.

But before you can do even that, you need to know HTML and CSS inside and out, first. You should be able to, from memory, do 80% to 90% of all your HTML and CSS. I see a lot of new programmers trying to learn both php and html at the same time and they run into a lot of trouble when they don't understand the differences between them and how they each work, independent of the other.

After HTML and CSS you will need to have a moderate knowledge of PHP, Javascript and MySQL. But even at a moderate knowledge you will still have to learn some.

As for any tutorial it will get you started with php but that is all. The level of knowledge you need for this project is well beyond that of any tutorial and mostly comes through experience.

Best of luck in the project. Whether you complete in time of not I am sure you will learn a lot.

A quick tip. You should start by making a plan. I usually make an outline (point, sub-point, sub-sub-point, ect) and for large project a diagram of the sites architecture. These helps a ton in knowing, in advance, all the parts you will need to assemble and how they will interact with other parts so you can write the code for the parts not yet made and not have to come back and completely redo what you thought you had finished.

Thanks for the instructions!

You mentioned "If you wish to just have something simple, like where a user posts on a "wall" and then "friends" can be approved to see it, you maybe able to do that in 4 months". So is HTML and CSS sufficient to build the above? How long do you suggest it would take to learn both CSS and HTML inside out?

Krik

HTML has about 90 tags and CSS has about 70 elements. If you know about 20 of each you can build a very basic web site. If you have a basic understanding of both just get a quick reference guide. I have seen them, combined in one book, at my local Borders for $10. I still have one I bought when HTML 4 came out, and all its page edges are a thoroughly worn, I even dug it out 2 days ago to look up something. You never will remember it all but you eventually get to a point that for the most common tags and elements you will not have to look them up.

But you will need a bit more than HTML and CSS to build even the most basic facebook type site. You have to be able to store user login info as well as user access permissions and the "wall" posts. To do this you will need to use both PHP and MySQL.