December 17, 200817 yr Hello all, I am looking to create a website with many features similar to that of a social network. I am wondering how you would suggest I go about doing so. I would prefer to do so using some sort of CMS where I can add my own features to the social network, instead of a ready-made, non-customizable solution. If you have any suggestions, they'd be GREATLY appreciated!!! Looking forward to any responses Regards, Brendan
December 17, 200817 yr Hello all, I am looking to create a website with many features similar to that of a social network. I am wondering how you would suggest I go about doing so. I would prefer to do so using some sort of CMS where I can add my own features to the social network, instead of a ready-made, non-customizable solution. If you have any suggestions, they'd be GREATLY appreciated!!! Looking forward to any responses Regards, Brendan Hello, There are a few questions which you can ask yourself to get an idea of the website you want to create. 1) What kind of social networking website are you looking forward to? Would that be for personal networking site like (facebook, orkut) or business networking site like (linkedin) ? 2) What technology would you like to use to develop it? 3) What kind of features would you like to add in your site? 4) After selecting all this you would have to see whether you have man power to develop and maintain your site. 5) Then you would have to decide the finance you would be able to pull in to get your site developed and maintained. Once you have the answers to this question, contact me so that i can help you further. P.S. You can always get a customised CMS developed for you if need arises. Regards, Nilay
December 17, 200817 yr Author Thank you Nilay I will consider these questions later today when I have time and get back to you
December 20, 200817 yr Author Does anybody else have suggestions/tips/anything to help me? Please...? BTW I want to code it in php. Regards, Brendan
December 20, 200817 yr The biggest question you gotta ask is who is going to use your site, and for what main purpose. There are literally 100's of features you can add, (not to mention 100's of other sites offering the same thing) but each takes time to develop, and possibly even time for maintenance in the future. If you support relationships to other sites, you have to keep in mind that things change over time, and nothings worse than falling out of date or style. Come up with a website plan as if it were a real business. Will it generate profit and how? Market Research. The second biggest question is, do you have the skills to plan it out and then design it according to plan. If you dont have a clear cut plan, with confidence that it can be executed - well...there is no end to it. It's better to have a simple plan that works, than a complex plan that will never work. Treat it like a project. Also, keep in mind that the term social network has been around for several years now...people are somewhat worn out by it. So before writing a single line of code/functionality, have the entire concept and interface designed - both in Photoshop and a prototype layout. Ask yourself why this is going to work. Planning. ...keep in mind that it will not have EVERY feature for launch. You need to separate features into launch phases, set priority for features and decide what gets made first.
December 20, 200817 yr Author Thank you! I have that part pretty much covered. What I am really looking for is some technical advice... frameworks or something. Any ideas how I can go about coding it? Or creating with a CMS or something similar. Any advice is appreciated Regards, Brendan
December 20, 200817 yr Here is an example of how I might do it. 1. Separate User Data from the System - make a Folder for any physical files that are irreplacable. 2. Create a folder for XML data that is generated / to speed up performance...instead of connecting to the database for everything. 3. Create a folder for CSS or Themes if you intend to have multiple themes. Chances are 1 css file will get so long that it will be hard to find anything. 4. Folder for all your PHP classes... 5. Folder for all your process files - things on the visual layer call specific processes to run, which in turn use functions from classes. Map out all the processes in flow charts. Then use them to program the processes. Getting a physical directory structure designed is important because it will hardly ever change. Types of subsystems that you might create class functions and processes for for. 1. User System - registration, authentication, security 2. Search System - site wide search algorithm 3. Input Validation - for cleaning inputs etc... 4. Page View System - for rendering page views... This is all assuming you do it from scratch...which I probably would do for the sake of complete control. It's hard for me to elaborate further...not enough experience
December 21, 200817 yr Author Here is an example of how I might do it. 1. Separate User Data from the System - make a Folder for any physical files that are irreplacable. 2. Create a folder for XML data that is generated / to speed up performance...instead of connecting to the database for everything. 3. Create a folder for CSS or Themes if you intend to have multiple themes. Chances are 1 css file will get so long that it will be hard to find anything. 4. Folder for all your PHP classes... 5. Folder for all your process files - things on the visual layer call specific processes to run, which in turn use functions from classes. Map out all the processes in flow charts. Then use them to program the processes. Getting a physical directory structure designed is important because it will hardly ever change. Types of subsystems that you might create class functions and processes for for. 1. User System - registration, authentication, security 2. Search System - site wide search algorithm 3. Input Validation - for cleaning inputs etc... 4. Page View System - for rendering page views... This is all assuming you do it from scratch...which I probably would do for the sake of complete control. It's hard for me to elaborate further...not enough experience Thank you, this is also very helpful However, I guess I have not been clear enough, as this is still not what I thought I had made clear that I was asking. I am looking for ways to learn how to code a social network site. Maybe tutorials that would teach me what is needed, places to learn what kind of data queries I'll need etc.... Really, I need help with the CODING aspect of it Regards, Brendan
December 30, 200817 yr Try Wordpress MU (Multi-user). If you don't want to build it from scratch, try Buddypress.
January 3, 200917 yr Author Try Wordpress MU (Multi-user). If you don't want to build it from scratch, try Buddypress. Thanks, I'll take a look
January 3, 200917 yr Isn't phpFox kind of de facto script for creating small social networks? You might want to try it out.
January 3, 200917 yr Author Isn't phpFox kind of de facto script for creating small social networks? You might want to try it out. Thanks, but I"m looking for something less expensive than that.
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