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Author Topic: Website design and coding question.  (Read 1300 times)

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Offline Phedran

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Website design and coding question.
« on: Tue, 24 September 2013, 13:35:07 »
Hopefully this is in the right place...

I'm starting a new website, but I can only do very basic HTML and CSS so I plan on commissioning/bartering with someone to do the coding for me.. Since I'm not versed on advanced coding what I want to ask you guys is this:

How workable / feasible are my following proposed design element ideas? And if my ideas are too hard to implement in code, how could I design / implement the features I want in a more plausible way?

The basis of the website will be to organize and display data points, in a couple ways.
I want the main page to display the current  information for "this week" and "this month".
I want people to be able to toggle/switch/select/flip to different time periods (other weeks, other months).
I need a search function for people to find specific data points.
I need to be able to input a great deal of data in the system easily.

I want the site to look professional and sleek, and I only really need one page with the main highlights, most of the additional functionality is in being able to browse and search for the data points. I'll be inputting all of the data myself so I can work around having to input it in a certain way to make the system work.

Is this possible?

I know if nothing else I could just have a massive excel-like spreadsheet or something, but I'm looking for something a little more aesthetically pleasing for the public, and accessible--huge charts of data can be a little overwhelming for some. I want to be able to present the data in an easily digestible way, while still enabling people to wander through the data points, or pinpoint something they need.

Any input is welcome and appreciated!
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Offline mr. rampage

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Re: Website design and coding question.
« Reply #1 on: Tue, 24 September 2013, 13:51:29 »
Doable...

1) You could use a CMS tool like Drupal to do all the coding for you and install the modules that you want to display/capture the information.
2) You could potentially use the Google Docs API and just use HTML/CSS/JS to read from the Google Spreadsheet and use Google Calendars, Google Forms as the datasources
3) Otherwise, if you want to program from scratch, you'll need a database and time.. InfoVis would be nice to satisfy your graph requirements.

Good luck!
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Offline Krogenar

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Re: Website design and coding question.
« Reply #2 on: Tue, 24 September 2013, 14:07:49 »
Quote from: mr. rampage on Tue, 24 September 2013, 13:51:29
Doable...

1) You could use a CMS tool like Drupal to do all the coding for you and install the modules that you want to display/capture the information.
2) You could potentially use the Google Docs API and just use HTML/CSS/JS to read from the Google Spreadsheet and use Google Calendars, Google Forms as the datasources


^ These two. There may be a Drupal module that will display the data points, or it could be created -- Drupal is pretty good in my opinion.
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Offline iri

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Re: Website design and coding question.
« Reply #3 on: Tue, 24 September 2013, 14:13:54 »
you may want to use this: http://www.sencha.com/products/extjs. it requires some expertise, though.
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Offline Phedran

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Re: Website design and coding question.
« Reply #4 on: Wed, 25 September 2013, 01:16:18 »
Oh wow! I knew you guys would have the answers. From what I can see those all look like incredible tools that could absolutely do what I needed... with many hours of research. Phew. Wish me luck! (Tips and suggestions still very much loved!)
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Offline iri

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Re: Website design and coding question.
« Reply #5 on: Wed, 25 September 2013, 02:42:18 »
drupal does not require many hours of research.
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(...)Whereas back then I wrote about the tyranny of the majority, today I'd combine that with the tyranny of the minorities. These days, you have to be careful of both. They both want to control you. The first group, by making you do the same thing over and over again. The second group is indicated by the letters I get from the Vassar girls who want me to put more women's lib in The Martian Chronicles, or from blacks who want more black people in Dandelion Wine.
I say to both bunches, Whether you're a majority or minority, bug off! To hell with anybody who wants to tell me what to write. Their society breaks down into subsections of minorities who then, in effect, burn books by banning them. All this political correctness that's rampant on campuses is b.s.
-Ray Bradbury

Offline daerid

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Re: Website design and coding question.
« Reply #6 on: Wed, 25 September 2013, 10:54:19 »
Quote from: mr. rampage on Tue, 24 September 2013, 13:51:29
Doable...

1) You could use a CMS tool like Drupal to do all the coding for you and install the modules that you want to display/capture the information.

Please, please, please do NOT make the claim that something like Drupal (or whatever CMS you choose) will "do all the coding for you". This is completely wrong, in so many ways.

I would suggest working with a developer you trust, and having him do it from scratch. From your requirements it doesn't sound like you need anything too crazy. As far as mass import of data, there's a few options. I've had success providing Excel upload functionality. A CMS for this kind of thing is overkill. WAY overkill. You'll waste much more time ****ing around with the CMS system itself than it would take a decent dev to code what you need from the ground up.

A simple DB back end (something like MySQL), and something like High Charts for the front end (and possibly moving to D3.js for more specific needs) should get you 99% of the way there.
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