TraceyCarter

Hi,

My name is Tracey. I know I need a programmer but I don't know what skills I need to ask for when advertising the job in the near future.

Basically I want a programmer to develop a platform where my website members/visitors can copy and paste in URL's they find that they think of of use. [my niche market has a bad habit of 're-inventing the wheel'].

I need these URL's to go into a searchable database where new visitors can type in their search keywords/categories and find the URL's (with a short snippet of information) that have already been entered into the database (also manage double-ups of URL submissions).

I invisage members being able to enter their username, private details (optional), the URL they found, snippet outlining what they found so great about the URL, date found, etc.

Question: What sort of skills does a programmer have to have for this type of job?

Hey, thanks for your time. If you can help me out, that would be great.
You will save me from looking like a right twit

Cheers

Tracey

PS: Is there a piece of software freely available that already does this?

TristanPerry

Hi Travey,
You'll be looking for a coder who knows PHP and MySQL. It can be done in (say) Perl or ASP instead of PHP, but PHP/MySQL knowledge is mainstream.

PHP is for the actual server-side coding (to get it to work) and MySQL is for the database (where the details will be stored)

The coder will also need to know HTML (to create the web-page and form where the user enters the data), but this is a trivial point since everyone who knows PHP/MySQL would know HTML too.

Hope this helps; feel free to PM me if you have any further queries (since I *may* forget to check back here)

Thanks,
Tristan

"If you are clear where you are going and you take several steps in that direction every day, you eventually have to get there."

mywebwork

Aloha Tracey and welcome to the forum!

The functions you describe can be implemented in a number of ways, some of them using existing Open Source code (as opposed to having a custom program written).

One way that comes to mind would be to use Joomla, which is an Open Source CMS (Content Management System) along with the Community Builder component. Both of these are free pieces of software that you or a programmer could use to construct your site.

Joomla information can be found at Joomla!

Community Builder is an add-in component for Joomla that lets you build online "communities" and allow your users to post content. More information can be found at Joomlapolis - The home of Community Builder.

This is just one way to go, no doubt there are plugins for WordPress that can also do this.

Your programmer will need the skills that Tristan mentioned (PHP & MySQL) , along with familiarity with Joomla (or WordPress if you choose to go that route).

Hope this helps, please let me know if I can be of any assistance with this.

Bill

radio

Best thing you can do on your end is have a VERY clear idea of what you want to accomplish, spell it out in writing ahead of time, find a programmer who is highly regarded for their programming AND communication abilities and start the discussion.