Forum Moderators: coopster
I am sorry that I have placed such a long post so I may resolve my dilemma once for all. I am an entrepreneur living in the USA and trying to develop a website like autotrader.com and cars.com. I will give a brief background for you to make sense of my dilemma.
My background is marketing and I have no technical knowledge of the web programming other than what I read online and hear from experts so to speak. Most of my internet experience is as an above average user.
I have my website "example.com" built about 5 years ago using the classic asp and MsSQL on the suggestion of then the developer company. It has been idled for the last few years after a short lived marketing attempt due to financial insufficiency.
Now I am ready to market the website again after some graphic and minor program changes. As I was searching for a company to make these changes I came across differences of opinions as to what platform I should have my website reprogrammed in instead of keeping it in classic asp.
Most of the developers seem to suggest php & MySQL for mainly being free and having many developers knowing the program.
Some are suggesting jsp for the stability and the cost effectiveness for the long term.
Some are suggesting .net platform.
I have read many articles on the internet and division seems to be along these lines.
Please give me your “unbiased” opinions for the below questions so I can make informed decision.
1- Would it be advisable that I continue with classic asp and convert it down the road to the most viable platform since this option would be the least expensive for the time being?
For the argument sake let's say that the website has 1 million ads with pictures in 2 years. Would it be even possible to transfer that many ads to let's say a jsp platform. If possible, how difficult and expensive would it be compare to if I convert it now without any ads on the website?
2- If I should change the platform right at the beginning should I decide between php and jsp since these platforms seem to be the most dominant?
What do you think is the better option between these 2 or among 3 including the classic asp?
3- This question is for those who works or has worked with all 3 platforms.
Which one do you think is most stable and cost effective? If the least expensive platform for this website would cost 100 units, what would the remaining two cost. (I am trying to get a sense of the cost of the platforms relative to the other two.)
Thank you so much for reading my post and trying to help. Please respond only if you feel expert in these areas.
Best wishes.
ErJohn
[edited by: coopster at 4:11 pm (utc) on Nov. 6, 2007]
[edit reason] removed personal url [/edit]
Please refer previous discussions here:
PHP Vs ASP [webmasterworld.com]
PHP, Perl, ASP, ColdFusion, JSP... Which one? [webmasterworld.com]
Habtom
Answers -
1- Would it be advisable that I continue with classic asp and convert it down the road to the most viable platform since this option would be the least expensive for the time being?
2- If I should change the platform right at the beginning should I decide between php and jsp since these platforms seem to be the most dominant?
3- This question is for those who works or has worked with all 3 platforms.
My reason for disliking anything related to a .net environment is the same reason that everyone complains about anything Microsoft related. Every month, or so, they seem to release a new 'security' update...I know that php bugs are getting sorted all the time, but there is just something about Microsoft and security that doesnt fill me with confidence.
The PHP vs ASP post that Happtom put up is a few years old and much has changed. Me, personally, I like .asp, but I use it on a limited basis. I recently have been using .php on some sites, but this was out of necessity since some of my customers' servers did not support .asp or asp.net. As for .net, there too is a support issue, but it very adaptable and, again in my humble opinion, the most versatile of all three.
Though some may call me a pro-Microsoft person, in this instance, I would suggest .php for your application. But I should emphasize that while my experience with .php has been positive, my knowledge is limited. And if it wasn't for some great coders out there (I'm a designer, not a coder) my knowledge would be even more limited.
Marshall
What you have are assets that are already built and tested.
Why would you want to start all over again?
That would be like having a fully built restaurant and deciding to tear it down and rebuild from scratch because you new fancy chef does not know how to turn on the stove you already have.
A lot of the advice that you got before coming here smacks of self interest on the part of the advisor.
example:
mechanic: I only know how to work on Volvo's so of course you should trade in your Audi R8 and buy a Volvo
Would it be even possible to transfer that many ads to let's say a jsp platform. If possible, how difficult and expensive would it be compare to if I convert it now without any ads on the website?
All this data is stored in an MsSQL database, yes? You should have little trouble migrating it to a new database if necessary (MySQL, Postgres, Oracle, etc). It's always easiest to start fresh and clean on your platform of choice, but migrating over several years of data is not that difficult or expensive of a challenge. A database-knowledgeable person should not take more than a day to do this, assuming you aren't using any proprietary database features (odds are, you aren't...but it's worth a check).
If I should change the platform right at the beginning should I decide between php and jsp since these platforms seem to be the most dominant?
It's not always a clear choice. For large, enterprise-level sites I would have said in the past to go with JSP to leverage Java, which has become a dominant language of business-class applications. But with the advent of PHP5 and its support for object-oriented programming, PHP is really getting to enterprise-worthy status. Of course, a huge debate could be had on that topic alone. But I think PHP is shedding its "hobbyist" image and has become a strong contender. It's also quite popular, supported by most hosts, and familiar to many programmers.
Which one do you think is most stable and cost effective?
I can't speak for ASP, but I'd give JSP the edge on stability, but PHP may be more cost-effective. If you are hiring programmers, I've got a perception (could be wrong) that JSP programmers are more expensive. Anyway, take with a grain of salt.
