Website design question

I am planning on creating a not-for-profit website in the near future. I need some help with the mechanics of it. I have created HTML pages before with static articles, images and links so it is not all unfamiliar to me.

What I need help understanding is how to set up a database and a login system.

Essentially - without giving away details - I want a select group of people or organizations to to be able to create an account and populate or edit a series of fixed-answer questions. (for example; age, favorite color, how many cars you own, education level, phone, etc.)

I then want that data available for unregistered people to be able to perform a search.

It is not an employment site (or anything even similar) - but it would have many design elements in common with a resume-posting type of website.

The limited HTML stuff I've done does not include anything to do with logins, passwords, database searches, etc. I've tried to Google it but found only basic HTML static web page stuff.

Can anyone here guide me to a place where I can find more information about doing this? I have MSOffice with Excel and Publisher - I suspect that'll be useful with the database. I also have an iMac with pages. I have no idea where to begin.

Any help and guidance would be appreciated.

Thanks

Re: Website design question

What you're asking for is beyond basic website development. Office, Excel and Publisher will not help you here.

There are DB-based content management systems out there that can handle the user management features, but you may need to roll your own solution to do everything you want (having not spent more than a few minutes thinking about what you are trying to do). You'll need knowledge in server-side scripting such as PHP or ASP, and your hosting will need to have a database available to you on the server.

Re: Website design question

I was afraid it'd be more complex than I thought. I had hoped there were some 'solutions in a box' for this sort of thing.

So be it. This is something I'd determined to complete.

My DSL connection is presently 2.5mbps/710kbps. I had hoped to use an offsite host. It'd likely be a while before the traffic was enough to be problematic - especially if I am building the software from the ground up... ugh.. I have a spare computer and can build another if I need. I have done basic programming in the past (built a cash register / inventory control program for a very small business I ran years ago)

Will this be one of those things that is way more complicated than a hack like me should ponder? If not - where do I begin?

Re: Website design question

I am surly not an expert - the only experience I have is my website in my sig. I do think you are in way over you head if you start from scratch. My site I modified templates that someone else created and is a mix of HTML, PHP, Ajax, and CSS. It updates its self with out the visitor input. I would think that a website that is as interactive as you are looking for would be even more complex. It sounds like it would require a behind the scenes database that it could parse and that data base would be changing.

What I would suggest is to find a website that does pretty much what you are looking for or close. If you look at the footer they might have the software they use listed. If not "right click" and choose "View Page Source". This will show you some of the code used for that site. Here again the software used is listed sometimes in the header section or at bottom of the page.

Re: Website design question

While drobbins isn't an expert, I am. Web development is what I do for a living (while my toddler daughter is napping during the day). :-)

Just realize that viewing source won't help you with what you want beyond figuring out if some pre-written software is being used that might do what you want. All server-side scripting code is hidden from the end-user because it is executed on the server, not in the browser.

The type of site you want is complex compared to what you have done, but is on the easier end of the scale. You just need to learn some PHP scripting and MySQL database queries (or whatever server-side scripting and database your hosting provides). When I got started in the field 10 years ago, I bought a couple books on PHP/MySQL, picked a project to try out and dug in.

Re: Website design question

My guess is a content management system like Drupal or Mambo can be made to do what you want. That stuff is very flexible.

Re: Website design question

thanks everyone. This is a project I want to do for my church - so people can look up various locations based on zip code and find times of services, phone, missions, etc.