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Advice to a novice-moderate 'out of touch' PhP programmer on making a real-estate website ? 2

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c0deM0nK424

Programmer
Oct 28, 2007
126
GB
okay here is the situation - i've not dabbled with PhP since late 2010-mid 2012 and back then I was unemployed and trying to brush up on my web design/development/programming skills by writing interesting code snippets and functions with PhP - nothing amazing, just your usual PhP to pull data out of a MySQL DB and manipulate it some form or manner behind the scenes (server-side scripting). I also wrote php code that could traverse through complex XML files and 'pull' out certain child node values depending on what the user wanted to view, using a form - a form presented to a user. I used SimpleXML at the time heh


Fast foward to now - and i am being asked to design and build a website for a client who leases/sells properties in certain parts of London, to close business clients from abroad.

The aim here is to allow my client to be able to add, delete and update property information - which makes sense as some point down the line he will need to add new properties himself to the website if and when he aquires one.

What I'm being asked to do is have a simple real-easte search like facility - this will be a page on the website which is going to be similar to a lot of real-estate websites that have a search facility.

To begin with i want to try and keep it simple, meaning I want to offer the appropriate search criteria presented to them via checkboxes and/or drop down menus. preferably both.

when the user has selected his/her search criteria (price, no. of rooms, etc) and fires the 'search' button - only THOSE properties that meet and satisfy the users search criteria will be neatly displayed as results on the page.

Am I far off from thinking that the normal and most approached way of doing this is precisely using PHP and MYSQL ?

can i store images for the properties in a MySQL database folks ? would it be a 'blob' data type or something ??

never done that before hence why im asking.

How should I approach this one ?
 
@c0deM0nK424

Am I far off from thinking that the normal and most approached way of doing this is precisely using PHP and MYSQL ?

nope. Bang on the money.

can i store images for the properties in a MySQL database

yes. But don't.

How should I approach this one ?
an rdbs (mysql, sqlite, oracle, mssql etc) are fine. php is an industry standard and highly robust. So mysql + php are good choices.

beware guided search. doing it well is not as straightforward as providing a bunch of checkboxes.

I have a bunch of other feedback and suggestions but, unusually for me, I would rather not share them on line. If you can find my email I may be able to help further. Generally people can locate me via my website at rathercurious.net
 
OKAY It appears i'd be wasting too much time hand coding my own solution ( which i started already and it kind of works which is very sweet lol ) BUT its not nearly finished lol

I noticed there are HUNDREDS of 'real estate php scripts' - ready for you to buy online and embed/integrate onto your website.


I realise there is nothing wrong with this - as the scripts are pretty much offering what Im trying to code, which is a cumbersome task sicne my requirements are not unique or different in any way to these scripts offer.


So I gues im gonna go down the scripts route for now folks - thanks everyone for answering my thread, much appreciated.

Thanks for the drupal links too @ SpamJim lol


regards

C0deMonk
 
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