n0c Posted June 11, 2011 Share Posted June 11, 2011 I want to build a website where a small number of users (30-40 at the most) can have the following abilities and functionalities: 1) User login (obviously) (no register option, explained below) 2) User Page with: - A short profile section (very minimum, maybe a picture, a short bio) - Blog (updated either through an rss feed from somewhere else or updated through user posts) - Audio Archive & Player (explained below) 3) Archive Database - Users upload large (100-200 MB) mp3's via a site uploader - Site Uploader includes text fields to add additional information (which may or may not be automatically filled in from the user's profile information) regarding the associated mp3 (basically extra metadata) - Uploaded mp3's become available in that user's archive player, which is basically an mp3 web player 4) User Page can be viewable by non-users (site visitors), but non-users cannot upload mp3's or sign-up for an account. Accounts are given/created individually by the administrator. There are a few other features that I'd like to have, but they are secondary to these very important features. I have very little experience with databases. I attempted to learn a few years ago, but became too complex for me. I know this is beyond my skill set currently, so I need help on where to look for answers. I'd like to know your advice on whether or not this is possible, the best course of action I should take in order to make this a reality, and if this MUST be a custom job, how much you think it would cost. Regarding design, and the rest of website, I can do that, I would just need help with the database, and some of the functionality of the user uploading. I'm just looking for advice on how to proceed right now. Thanks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eilios Posted June 11, 2011 Share Posted June 11, 2011 First - what's your web host? If you don't know, you can't accomplish anything. This is actually not that hard to do with MySQL and PHP, or Rails, or whatever you want to do. The blog itself would be a bit harder, but still manageable. The archive database would be a bit harder, though. Account processing would be considerably easier than the latter, which kinda messed up the pattern and made me sad. But knowing that this all can be done is irrelevant if we don't know what kind of web host you have. Many simply will not allow you to upload 100MB files as a whim. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
drake7707 Posted June 11, 2011 Share Posted June 11, 2011 For basic database access and quick setup ASP.NET with Entity framework is very easy to setup. This depends largely on your host though, ASP hosting requires an IIS and windows server set up, and windows based servers are generally more expensive to hire than linux based servers (unless you have a dedicated server). I recently watched tutorials on ASP.NET MVC (because I only knew webforms before) on http://www.asp.net/mvc and it's aimed at someone who has no experience with web development, database access, etc whatsoever (but still tackles more advanced topics). I might be biased though, I've only worked with ASP.NET. Side note: I wouldn't store 100-200mb files in a blob in a database, but as a file and then save the path in the database, it's a lot easier not having to take it in account on every query related to such a blob. Edit: I would also compress the files for the player server-side too, I doubt a lot of people can manage streaming 100mb files, let alone the huge amount of bandwidth requirements. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nabeel Ansari Posted June 12, 2011 Share Posted June 12, 2011 Why do you need 100MB mp3's? Are these 45 minute 320kbps full orchestration medleys or something? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KyleJCrb Posted June 12, 2011 Share Posted June 12, 2011 Why do you need 100MB mp3's? Are these 45 minute 320kbps full orchestration medleys or something? No, these are multi-hour podcasts. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nabeel Ansari Posted June 12, 2011 Share Posted June 12, 2011 No, these are multi-hour podcasts. Oh, I see. I gave that a thought but I didn't think a podcast would take that much space. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KyleJCrb Posted June 12, 2011 Share Posted June 12, 2011 Well, with non-music podcasts, they probably wouldn't take up as much space as they could be encoded at a lower bitrate. But, since these are music podcasts, it's preferable to maintain a decent level of quality. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
n0c Posted June 12, 2011 Author Share Posted June 12, 2011 lol, thanks for replying kyle. As far as my web host, I don't know alot, but I know that it's a linux server, I have unlimited space, and unlimited bandwidth. Currently I already have an archive player that plays these podcasts from a playlist (read from an xml file), but the player is in flash, and a real pain to update. Users seem to be able to handle streaming these files perfectly fine. They are mp3's at 128/160/192 kbps (mostly 128), but they can be as long as 3-4 hours, so that why they can be very large, but still streamable. As far as MYSQL, PHP, Rails, and ASP.NET is concerned, I literally have 0 knowledge. I know that my server had MYSQL on it for a previously cancelled forum I had on there, but again, I don't know a thing about it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FireSlash Posted June 12, 2011 Share Posted June 12, 2011 Your best bet is going to be PHP/MySQL. ASP.net is an option but it limits your hosting a lot more, and many hosts charge am premium for ASP.net. You'll also find fewer ASP.net developers than you will PHP. As for the actual system, it's fairly straightforward to code. It's mostly just busy work... there's nothing radical or difficult about it. How much you end up paying for such a project would depend on the coder you go with, and how much polish you need in the code (admin systems, etc) I use a flash streaming script on http://ocrwip.fireslash.net/ and it works just fine. Very easy to implement. However a large quantity of people streaming those 100+mb files WILL be taxing on a server, so you should factor that in and either relegate the files to a separate server, or serve them with something lightweight like lighttpd. tl;dr version: Yes, it's doable. It's a fairly decent amount of code though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
n0c Posted June 13, 2011 Author Share Posted June 13, 2011 Your best bet is going to be PHP/MySQL. ASP.net is an option but it limits your hosting a lot more, and many hosts charge am premium for ASP.net. You'll also find fewer ASP.net developers than you will PHP.As for the actual system, it's fairly straightforward to code. It's mostly just busy work... there's nothing radical or difficult about it. How much you end up paying for such a project would depend on the coder you go with, and how much polish you need in the code (admin systems, etc) I use a flash streaming script on http://ocrwip.fireslash.net/ and it works just fine. Very easy to implement. However a large quantity of people streaming those 100+mb files WILL be taxing on a server, so you should factor that in and either relegate the files to a separate server, or serve them with something lightweight like lighttpd. tl;dr version: Yes, it's doable. It's a fairly decent amount of code though. Thanks for the advice. Do you think you could give me a quote on how much you think something like this would cost? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.