What is the best web solution for the following scenario?

Dear All,

If given the following scenario, what is the best web solution?:

A company has information of pieces of land around the world. This information is not in a database of any sort. The company would like to have a setup to where their prospective customers would be able to visit the company's website and submit specific coordinates to search the company's records to see if the company has any information on that piece of land. The company's setup would then do a search through their records to see if they have information on that piece of land with those coordinates. If the company does, then that information would be fed back to the website to display to the inquirer. If not, then a message communicating this would be display to the user. How does the company go about setting this up?

I would first assume that all the information that could be searched through must be entered into some sort of database. Then a program would have to be written for the company's website for visitors to interact with.

What kind of people does the company need to hire to complete this job? What are their titles in the web development world?

What languages would all this be written in? Java? C++? VB?

What kind/type of database would be best for this information to be stored for the website program to access and query?

Advice/suggestions appreciated.

Thanks.

Quote: What kind of people does the company need to hire to complete this job? What are their titles in the web development world? What languages would all this be written in? Java? C++? VB? What kind/type of database would be best for this information to be stored for the website program to access and query?

You would basically need to hire either a PHP or Perl Programmer... which also answers the second question- the languages it should probably be written would be PHP or PERL -- both are very popular on the web. As far as the data base goes, I'd recommend mysql. Good luck!

Brian

Surely this would be holding a hell of a lot of data, I thought that mySQL (I know little about it) doesn;t handle huge amounts of data too well?

Welcome to TWF, JerseyBrennan!

I would recommend using ASP and Microsoft SQL Server if your on a NT box, and PHP and mySQL if your on a *nix box.

The positions you'd be looking for would be along the lines of 'Web Developer' or 'Web Programmer'. I think that one freelancer could do the job, but there is also the option of hiring a company to do it.

This seems like a fairly simple job. You've made no mention of permissions, so I'm assuming that anyone can query for anything. Perhaps a small protected admin area for the addition/maintainence of properties.

If the amount of data is below 2Gig and at least 4N (normalized, somebody with database-design experience will know...) mySQL shouldn't have any problem.

I (well, we) usually switch to DB/2 when we hit the 2Gig barrier. You can actually "feel" the system getting slow.

I expect the number of queries to be quite low (<5000hits/hour), so PHP or Perl is fine.

One thing to (always) keep in mind:
The performance of a DB system is memory bound !!!
(read: Invest the money in RAM not in a faster CPU.)

Any experienced Web-Developer can do this job. DB knowledge is a must, scripting would help. Design _should_ be done by a second person.
(Never let the designer script or the developer design.
And please don't start a flameware about this. We seem to be talking serious business here, not small scale "just4fun" sites.)

just my 2cents
anti

(This thread has been merged from to seperate areas, so don't start wondering why I answered twice ...)

I strongly recommend a analysis of the problem, before you decide on the system/software you use.

If you find that the system will never get "big", go with the NT box and ASP/Access. Development costs will be lower, since NT developers are generally cheaper.
But keep in mind that this won't scale. (Yes, there always is Wolfpack, but administering a NT cluster is a maintainance cost nightmare ...)

If you want to be safe, use mySQL and PHP.
This thing scalesfrom tiny (i386 base boxes) to big irons (zSeries). The initial development cost might be a bit higher (that might not even be true anymore), but keeping the system running will be so much cheaper.

As usual just my personal (experience based) thoughts and not measured facts.
(Don't want to be sued - again - for badmouthing a certain redmond based company.)

Quote: Originally posted by anti
Any experienced Web-Developer can do this job. DB knowledge is a must, scripting would help. Design _should_ be done by a second person.
(Never let the designer script or the developer design.
And please don't start a flameware about this. We seem to be talking serious business here, not small scale "just4fun" sites.)

I whole heartedly agree about the splitting of design and scripting.

Quote: The performance of a DB system is memory bound !!!

DB systems also rely hugely on disk heads.

DB programmers love scsi drives for that reason, normally more expesive, better performers, and more heads.

Memory is one part of the sweet spot of a db system.

Well, yes DB system rely on disk speed.
But in this case I assummed the DB would be under 2Gig and that would make the whole thing cacheble in RAM anyway.

If you need disk-speed you should consider looking at the 3ware escalade series.
I got one at home and with a bunch of (good) IDE disks you beat a SCSI system by far and still have some money left over.

good ide disk beat a scsi disk system?

My lvds put out 160 mbs a second.

good ide disks put out 40?

K