implementation and hosting questions for elance like site?

[shenbo]

I plan to build a services marketplace like elance.com. I am working on the specifications of site, and searching for hosting plans.

Though my site may only gain a small number of users in the early stage, I hope it will become very popular eventually. I really appreciate it if you could give me some suggestion about the following:

1. Among cgi, perl and php, which one is better to implement the site? I don't know much about MySQL. Is it difficult to customize the site to use MySQL?

2. Subscribers of my site will only have text descriptions of their profiles. All project information and private messages will be kept for certain period of time, then be removed from the system. Basing on that, what kind of hosting plan is good for the site?

Thanks a lot.

[jatar_k]

hey shenbo,

as far perl or php goes

which one is available to you with your host?
are you more familiar with one more than the other?

Aside from that take a look and see which looks simpler for you to learn.

Is it difficult to customize the site to use MySQL?

Hard to answer, I don't know how familiar you are with db structure and design but it is fast and fairly easy to pick up.

resource
[mysql.com...]

For hosting, if you are thinking growth and scalable look at packages that offer sufficient storage and transfer. Also look into how much it is to upgrade to a larger package.

[shenbo]

jatar_k, thanks for the reply.

Most of the hosting plans I have checked support both Perl and PHP. Actually I am familiar with neither of them:-)

Maybe I will post the project on some freelance site to find someone to do it for me.

Is Perl or PHP more popular?

Thanks for the link to MySQL.

[jatar_k]

Is Perl or PHP more popular?

I would probably say perl because it has been around much longer. Which one will be more popular in the years to come? I have no idea, they are very similar but both have their own strengths.

Have you ever done any programming before? It would definitely help you learn either one. Maybe you should try looking at hotscripts.com, sourceforge.net or another online script resource. You may try finding a premade package that offers something like what you are looking for. The language one you like is written may be the kay to picking one or the other.

Essentially you are looking for a CMS (Content Management System) that will handle the type of site you want to make.

[shenbo]

I had some experience programming in C++, Java, and javascript.

You are right, it would be wise to pick the one I like. I think it's a must for me to understand the scripts even though I will find somebody else to do the work for me.

[rainplanet]

Shenbo, I want to build such website as well but I could not figure out the implementation from the management side.

Here is my problem: Such site will always avoid the sharing of contact details among the members, how could we ensure that? I could monitor all messages sent by any member but when a provider (developer) show his/her website as a portfolio, it is much likely that the project owner could see the contact details of the developer. How could we solve this problem?

Could you (or anyone here) suggest me a solution? Thanks.

[shenbo]

Hi Rainplane, welcome to the forum.

I agree it is very hard to avoid sharing contact info 100%, even for big sites like elance.com and scriptlance.com. I would be interested to know how to do that too. Please let me know if you find a proper solution.