Developing a Matchmaking website.

Divine

Hi there i am a third year 'computing with multimedia student'. For my third year project i have opted to create a matchmaking website.

Now i am fine and handy at creating your usual website with graphics, flash etc and i have already completed a rather long set of user requirements. However i seriously do not have a clue as to where i even start when it comes to setting up a database so people can register and log on. Also i want it to be possible to look at differant members and have the database store their details and throw each member out randomly.

If anyone would be able to give me some information in this field or perhaps some links to where there is good solid information i would realy really appreciate it.

Thats all for now and thanks again!

dahamsta

First of all, is this going to be something you'll have a few weeks to throw at between lectures, or will you be able to put a lot of work into it? I ask because a proper dating site can be pretty complex in the backend, but if you have a good amount of time to put into this, there's a lot to be said for going the whole hog and developing a real service for general release. Not only would you have a nice project for presentation, you'd also be developing an aptitude for the business side of, uh, the business, and there's a fair chance you could make a few quid on the side do.

As to the technical side of things, you'll have to decide the platform, languages and backend for yourself. Have you any experience with Linux or other Unix variants? Have you done any coding? Done any work with databases? The latter is going to be critical, the first thing you're going to have to do is get to grips with is a good RDBMS, most likely SQL Server on Windows or MySQL (or PostgreSQL) on Linux.

Throw a little detail at me on the above and we'll see where it takes us.

adam

Divine

Hey man thanks for the reply, sounds like you have a good idea what you are talking about. OK i have 7 months in which to do this project with about 8 hours allocated per week to it but absolutey loads of free time to work away on it aswell. I mose certainly am planning ot do the whole hog on it as you say and yeah my plans for making money will come into it later.

Ok i have the usual knowlwdge of web languages such as HTML, DHTML, JavaScript and quite a good knowledge of Visual Basic. You see as i said i am capable of building a reasonably good website but a matchmaking site is a complete differant story which i am well aware of.

I have a small knowledge of MySQL but not enough to really do anything with. I realy dont have a clue as to even go about setting up a database for a website so please please help!

Thanks.

dahamsta

Are you allowed collaborate on projects? I ask because the two technologies you've mentioned (VB & MySQL) aren't really compatible with each other, so you're going to need to settle on a platform (Windows or *nix) and stick with it. With respect, this is going to be very difficult for you unless you're in a position to collaborate with someone else.

adam