How hard is PHP?

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980
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I realise that's a somewhat difficult question but here's some background.

I have an idea that may well be a reasonable attempt at a commercial success (there's optimism for ya). I can't discuss it in detail as I appear to be the first at present to have the idea.

Some catchy domain names are free which is a good start but I need a website. I currently have a hosting package for other stuff but that is all static HTML or 3rd party apps such as Gallery and Wordpress.

I need the site to have a user system so the usual sign up, members area and email subscriptions etc.

I need users to be able to maintain lists of items in categories that they can browse relatively quickly. They should be able to edit the items very easily and delete them quickly.

A front page should know who they are and show some of the items on their list as specified by my own criteria.

I need to be able to email them about items on their lists at fairly regular intervals but not spam, the emails will be part of the service they require from me.

So, my background. Ex DBA and hobbyist programmer. Always VB based so VB6, VB.NET and ASP.NET in it's VB incarnation. Done a little straight ASP and am happy with XML, XHTML, XSL, XSLT, HTML and CSS.

Rubbish at javascript but doubt it'd be too much trouble.

Later I'd want at least a firefox plugin but preferably an IE plugin too. These would just let you select a bit of text on a web page and save it to one of your lists with some additional info to be entered at the same time.

Now my host is really PHP and MySQL only, do you think I would be asking too much of myself to get something working in PHP, should I get someone else involved to code for me?


Ta.
 
PHP is merely a tool, like a spanner to a mechanic, a plane to a carpenter. It is not the tool that creates the product, it is the engineer behind it :)

In other words, as above - you sound capable of creating such a site.
 
Thanks chaps, I think what I'm nervous about is the security and how to implement.

I've never done anything secure in ASP.NET except for intranet apps that benefit from NT Authentication.

Any open source security modules I can pilfer? Is that how it works in PHP, pinch a bit here, tweak a bit there or do you tend to write from scratch?
 
Depends. If you go full OO you can use one of the many (3rd party) frameworks available. However you will need to be at a level of familiarity with PHP to make the decision..

Security in PHP is simply put: There is none. You have to do everything yourself.

So, in light of that - just remember the basic(s): Don't trust a single thing from any source and 'prep' everything for it's designated use. :)
 
You're obviously a competent programmer, so you just need to learn PHP's syntax and idiosyncrasies, both of which are pretty easy to get to grips with.

PHP makes it obscenely easy to write insecure programs, though, so be wary.
 
Hey, 8 months! Surely not lol.

Idea came on pretty well but between work and family stalled at around Christmas time. Might well start up soon.

One of my two ideas was released by someone else in the meantime as www.ononemap.com. Bums.

I did like PHP in the end but I'm back to doing a paid piece of work on asp.net now which steals all of my time and reminds me just how far PHP has to go to be "enterprise"

Sorry if others don't agree but I just don't think it is.
 
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