Custom membership site with contests and affiliate program... by January!

[eluser]Kevin Smith[/eluser]
So I've been using and really impressed with ExpressionEngine for about a year now, and I'm eagerly awaiting the new version built on CI!

I'm considering my first foray into CI because of a sudden project. A potential client that we met with back in the Spring has suddenly reappeared and is ready to go. Great! But he's fine-tuned his request, and where I was going to originally try to hack out a solution in EE or Drupal, I've decided that the best thing would probably be a custom rolled solution. Now, I know this will be much more time-intensive, but I think in the long run it'll work the best. (But I'm totally open to criticism and suggestion, so feel free to let me have it!)

I'm familiar with PHP in that I can read, troubleshoot, and modify PHP, but I'm not fluent yet. Never really had a reason to need it. But we're seeing our two-man company's workload shift, and the writing on the wall tells me to start getting deeper into programming with something like PHP. I've heard that CodeIgniter is brilliant for beginners, and in taking my own look, it appears to make perfect sense to me. I'm just worried that CI might not be powerful enough to handle my ultimate task, so that's where you guys come in. Help me out here. Is it reasonable to expect that by January I can build a tiered membership site with contests, judges, groups and content that is localized yet available for all to see (aka The Nashville Songwriters' Group) along with an affiliate program? And is CI the framework to use? What about Symfony or any of the other PHP frameworks? (And for extra fun, Ruby on Rails? And no, I don't know Ruby at all.)

[eluser]Kevin Smith[/eluser]
Oh, and if anyone wants to give me a quick boost by suggesting which plugins, libraries, etc., I should look into to make this happen, that'd be super appreciated!

[eluser]Kevin Smith[/eluser]
The thought just occurred to me that if the next version of EE will be built on CI, then certainly it's powerful enough for what I want to do, right? Okay, but the rest of my questions still stand. Thanks for helping me think through that, Self.

[eluser]bigtimslim[/eluser]
It sounds like you want to get started right away on this. I'm pretty new to CI, but I think starting with a big project in any new framework, language, or what have you might not be the best idea. I've been playing with CI for months and I am constantly finding how I coulda/shoulda done something.

You should read through the whole documentation and then decide what you want to do. Its really not that long. From that you will learn about the libraries you need and anything else you can find in the wiki, forums, or ask about in the forums.

[eluser]dmiden[/eluser]
CI is more than capable of building what you want. The question is rather if YOU can build it.
Creating a big project as your first is good if it was for personal use. That way you could explore CI and learn how to write optimal code. For a commercial use, as your first, I wouldn't recommend it. The bugs/security issues are too many.

[eluser]Mellis[/eluser]
[quote author="dmiden" date="1225218533"]CI is more than capable of building what you want.
[/quote]
I completely agree.

The question is rather if YOU can build it.
Creating a big project as your first is good if it was for personal use. That way you could explore CI and learn how to write optimal code. For a commercial use, as your first, I wouldn't recommend it. The bugs/security issues are too many.

I agree, but also for another reason: I've been building some applications in php (I've got some experience - not too much though) and I think I've changed the way I handle stuff about 3 - 4 times. I think you will encounter the same "problem", since you constantly get new insights etc. So programming the application you have in mind by January is possible, but I don't think you will be satisfied with the result or you will change things along the way because you want to handle things the right way (for you - there is no universal right way) and you will never finish in time.
This shouldn't stop you from proving us all wrong off course.

[eluser]Kevin Smith[/eluser]
[quote author="Mellis" date="1225222700"]This shouldn't stop you from proving us all wrong off course.[/quote]

Oh no! Now you've set a challenge. My ego might take over now...

What about subcontracting the CI work to someone on these forums who is particularly adept and could finish the project in the right time using the "right" methods? What information might a CI programmer need in order to give an accurate estimate?

[eluser]Mellis[/eluser]
[quote author="hearsay" date="1225223689"][quote author="Mellis" date="1225222700"]This shouldn't stop you from proving us all wrong off course.[/quote]

Oh no! Now you've set a challenge. My ego might take over now...
[/quote]

That wasn't my intention. Sorry.
I was just saying: it's possible that you get the hang of it right away and that us being careful is not necessary at all.

What about subcontracting the CI work to someone on these forums who is particularly adept and could finish the project in the right time using the "right" methods? What information might a CI programmer need in order to give an accurate estimate?

As I said: I doubt there is A right way to do something in CI. But I think this is not such a bad idea.

[eluser]dmiden[/eluser]
[quote author="hearsay" date="1225223689"]What about subcontracting the CI work to someone on these forums who is particularly adept and could finish the project in the right time using the "right" methods? What information might a CI programmer need in order to give an accurate estimate?[/quote]

You should post in the "Job Board" category

[eluser]Kevin Smith[/eluser]
Well I know I'm a quick study, always have been -- especially with things like this -- but I don't want to overwhelm myself either. The holidays are coming up, and I can't be completely dead come January. But I digress...

I'll post in the Job Board category for this one, but I don't want to post something that's doesn't have enough information for a programmer to make a decision. What would you all need to know about a job to properly estimate the cost?