Would This Be Too Hard? (New to PHP and CI)

[eluser]Unknown[/eluser]
I don't have too much PHP experience but I have used it and understand very little..

I would like to try something easy as my first CI project.. something similar to formspring.


Features
1. 3 different membership plans with additional features (Free (with ads), $1.99 (no adds/profile templates, $5.99 (no ads/profile templates/alter profile with custom css)
2. Custom URL (change domain.com/123 to domain.com/username)
3. Backend/Userpage would have a list of questions with an input field to answer them.
4. Users can add/answer their own questions
5. Display the questions/answers they want on their profile
6. Possibility to expand and add other users as friends (in the future)

Is this difficult for a first CI project? How long would this take and if I were to pay someone how much would something like this cost?

[eluser]regal2157[/eluser]
It would not be difficult, but it all depends on the complexity of the system you want to make.
1. Easily differentiated by an assigned rank or whatever you want to call it. You'll display the pages accordingly.
2. Usage of the routes config file makes this a breeze.
3. Most likely just stored and called from a database.
4. Forms to manipulate the database
5. Edit a field in your database to show it (designing your database will be part of the process)
6. In general, easy. Just again, stored info in a database.

It is very possible to do for your first CI project.
The length would depend on a few factors such as your skill level, and how long you code at a stretch.
I can't guess on an actual number of hours as it's pretty vague. If you were to pay someone, it could cost by the hour, or by the project as a whole.

If you are looking for someone else to code it, you should write up a summary of the project you want completed with all the features listed. If you want, send me a copy, and I'll see if I'll be able to help you out and build it.

[eluser]Unknown[/eluser]
[quote author="regal2157" date="1306891365"]It would not be difficult, but it all depends on the complexity of the system you want to make.
1. Easily differentiated by an assigned rank or whatever you want to call it. You'll display the pages accordingly.
2. Usage of the routes config file makes this a breeze.
3. Most likely just stored and called from a database.
4. Forms to manipulate the database
5. Edit a field in your database to show it (designing your database will be part of the process)
6. In general, easy. Just again, stored info in a database.

It is very possible to do for your first CI project.
The length would depend on a few factors such as your skill level, and how long you code at a stretch.
I can't guess on an actual number of hours as it's pretty vague. If you were to pay someone, it could cost by the hour, or by the project as a whole.

If you are looking for someone else to code it, you should write up a summary of the project you want completed with all the features listed. If you want, send me a copy, and I'll see if I'll be able to help you out and build it.[/quote]

I'll try to do it myself then.. since I probably need to learn some more PHP and CI where would be the best place to start? Any books I should read that will help me get a good understanding of everythin pretty quickly?

[eluser]regal2157[/eluser]
Well, for CI, start with the user guide. PHP, always reference php.net

There are some good tutorials out there, though some are slightly outdated, but still worth the time to watch to understand how CI works. Either search these forums, or google for Codeigniter tutorials. I know nettuts did a series, but they used v1.7 which means you need to do some changing to follow their tuts.

In the user guide, there is a link about upgrading from 1.7 to 2.x

I guess while learning CI, you'll learn PHP as well