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kiddbid

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Hello,First, let me say thank you to the hosts of this site. You have made something (web design) that to me seemed mysterious and almost magical a great deal clearer. Secondly, allow me apologize if this is in the wrong section; part of my question involves not knowing exactly what to ask.I work in education and have an idea for a related website that I am trying to create. I've read some tutorials, including the ones on this site, about html and css and they really opened my eyes as to how web pages are presented. I was hoping if I described my idea, someone could suggest to me what skills I need to gain an expertise in. Here goes:The idea might be most similar to a dating website. A Group 1 (high schools for example) member creates a profile using a simple questionnaire form. Group 2 (middle schools or universities) members may view the profile and uploaded file. The whole idea is to create a simple area for schools to exchange info about themselves. Group 3 (public) members have limited viewing rights but may join for a fee to gain full viewing rights.Group 1, which will number approximately 20,000, are the main account holders. They have the ability to create a simple standardized page which will be populated by a form that they fill out upon registration. They will have the ability to upload a single 200KB? PDF file. They will have the option of keeping some information viewable only to other Group 1 and 2 account holders. Creating an account is free but unique user names and passwords are required to sign in.Group 2, which may number between 2,000 and 30,000, must register to gain full viewing rights and download capability of any Group 1 page and PDF file. There must be a simple way to validate whether Group 2 members are actual members of an academic institution. I was thinking of doing it manually but that is probably because of my ignorance.Group 3 (public viewers), which may number between 1,000,000 and 5,000,000, will have limited viewing rights and no download rights. If the cost to host this website is too great, I would like the option of allowing a sub-group to create a viewer account with almost full viewing and download rights for a small fee. I would like to further limit this sub-group by only allowing access to Group 1 members who reside in a particular geographic location which can be chosen upon registration.Public viewers and all account holders should have the ability to search for a Group 1 account page. All account holders (Groups 1-3) should have the ability to create a favorites list and have forum membership.I would like a database or multiple databases from which I can generate statistics on main account holders and send informational emails. For instance, I would like the main page to display info such as: “There are currently 100 Group 1 users registered” or “10% of Group 1 users are from Utah”. Ideally this database is automatically updated upon the registration of an account holder.I'm not even sure if what I'm describing is considered a complex or a simple website. I have some database experience in that I maintain the database for my school but I use Microsoft Access and I'm sure that it is a very simplified database. I have use of Adobe Dreamweaver because of an academic discount program. Please be brutally honest, is this a website that can be designed by someone inexperienced but very willing to learn or is this something that is more advanced and better left to a professional? Also, what might be the cost to host such a site; is it something I can do as a hobby or is it so prohibitively expensive that it would need to be supported by some sort of revenue?Thank you in advance for reading and possibly responding.

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Not too complicated, I would use PHP and MySQL.000webhost.com is a free webhost that has PHP and MySQL on the free version that you could play around with and then ask questions here when you can't figure something out.http://www.w3schools.com/php/default.asp... this is the w3schools php tutorial, it will help you understand how to create code that will process forms and such

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It's not complicated if you break it into pieces, but you still have to master PHP. I doubt there's a way to detect if a person is from an institution or not.Depending on how much traffic your site gets, hosting could be cheaper or more expensive.

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Not too complicated, I would use PHP and MySQL.000webhost.com is a free webhost that has PHP and MySQL on the free version that you could play around with and then ask questions here when you can't figure something out.http://www.w3schools.com/php/default.asp... this is the w3schools php tutorial, it will help you understand how to create code that will process forms and such
Thanks for the links. I had a feeling PHP and MySQL would be in my future. I guess I'll get started on the tutorials and hopefully a starting point will become clear. Thanks Smerny.
It's not complicated if you break it into pieces, but you still have to master PHP. I doubt there's a way to detect if a person is from an institution or not.Depending on how much traffic your site gets, hosting could be cheaper or more expensive.
PHP seems to be an important skill. I'm glad to hear that it's not too complicated...gives me a little more confidence. Thanks Ingolme.
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