Help with a project - where to start looking

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mrcaraco
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Posts: 1
Joined: Sat Apr 02, 2011 12:40 pm

Help with a project - where to start looking

Post by mrcaraco »

Hello,

I've been watching lots of Lynda.com tutorials (my school has account there, FANTASTIC), but am unsure what pieces I even need to get this site working, or specifically what to search for.

I'm planning a multi-page website in which users would be able to submit their information, be led to a questionnaire which would, based on their answers, determine whether they are a GOD or a HERO, and then upload their information to the site main page which would have a running list of both GODS and HEROES with their submitted information. Users would then be allowed to "like" each one which would just increment a number beside their info.

here are links to some .jpg mocks.
http://pomo.cca.edu/~acaraco/webmock_open.jpg
http://pomo.cca.edu/~acaraco/webmock_qui.jpg
http://pomo.cca.edu/~acaraco/webmock_test.jpg

The first is the main page in which people would have their info placed, the center circle button takes them to the second page, where the info submission is, when they submit, they then go to the test, which is a series of six questions, all designed like the one there which would then keep track of your answers and upload your data under the list "gods" or "heroes"
while taking them to another page (similar in design to the test) which would have a different video for the gods and a another one for the heroes.

Thanks for your time, as you can see this is pretty complex, and Lynda.com can only take me so far...
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social_experiment
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Joined: Sun Feb 15, 2009 11:08 am
Location: .za

Re: Help with a project - where to start looking

Post by social_experiment »

mrcaraco wrote:but am unsure what pieces I even need to get this site working, or specifically what to search for.
You need information on databases and how to manipulate data (input, display, delete).
“Don’t worry if it doesn’t work right. If everything did, you’d be out of a job.” - Mosher’s Law of Software Engineering
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califdon
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Joined: Thu Nov 09, 2006 8:30 pm
Location: California, USA

Re: Help with a project - where to start looking

Post by califdon »

I agree with social_experiment's recommendation. You are starting with an attractive layout and what could be an appealing concept, but you must understand that there will be a lot of "systems analysis" work to be done to implement your concept and display it as you wish. This, of course, is what you are learning and why you are doing this, I assume. You will have to get V-E-R-Y specific about the logic of each and every step, from the input of user data, to how it is processed to determine your categories, to how a returning user will be recognized, to how you wish to display the results of your categorization of users. This is the heart and blood of every dynamic web design.

It appears that you are already familiar with HTML and CSS. You will need to learn server-side scripting, presumably PHP, and database concepts, presumably MySQL. Each of these has its learning curve, and my advice is Don't make the mistake of thinking that you can just ask a few questions or copy a few scripts to accomplish this. It will take a relatively good understanding of the principles of server-side scripting and database practices to result in success.
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