help with making a website for my local temple

[DCP]

Hi
I've been assigned the task of making a website for the members of my local temple. We are planning to freelance this work out and I have a few questions.

It's not all mapped out yet, but the outline requirements are:

a) basic informational pages 4 or 5.
b) good photo album facility
c) ability to install a 'custom calender' (it's not gregorian) which shows on all pages
d) news/announcements feature
e) directory for members contact details

f) member login area which has member profiles. subscription status, payment reminders and some other private information.

g) adminstrator login which allows upload of profile information. e.g. attendance history to meets through the year which is currently logged via barcodes unique to each member.

We want to make this on a platform which can be easily picked up by a wide base of freelancers in case we want to make further enhancements (i.e. don't want it custom coded).Based on this outline plan, I have two main questions:

1) which platform would best suit such a site i.e. I've been reading up on options like wordpress, joomla, drupal but i'm not sure.

2) what hosting requirements would we need. our temple has approximately 150 members and these will be the main users of the site.

 

[Rags]

I'd recommend Wordpress for sure. You'll need Linux hosting (preferably with Cpanel or other 'one-click install' functionality) for WP to function.

 

[LicensedToTrade]

I'd second wordpress, it is a peace of cake to set-up and would meet all of your requirements. As for you requiring a linux server, this isn't true. Wordpress works on either a linux or windows server.

 

[Faevilangel]

1) WordPress will do what you want out of the box, with a plugin or two to do the subscriptions.

2) Any bog standard Linux (or Windows Hosting which has php enabled). WordPress works better on Linux and linux is generally cheaper than a Windows host. There is a link in my signature for a UK based web host (also UKBF members). Their basic package of £17+vat will be enough to run your website IMHO.

 

[fisicx]

Wordpress will do most of this for you but not the payment reminder thing.

Not sure how the calender will work either as wordpress gets a bit wonky over bolt on code. There is a solution but it really all depends on how you intend to get it built. I tried a freelancer a while back and they were rubbish at anything other than standard coding. Anything bespoke and they failed.

Installing and setting up wordpress is normally a matter of pressing a button on the screen, it's all automatic. You could be up and running minutes after the hosting has been configured.

 

[RX Host]

Im not sure any of the out of the box solutions will help you with scanning barcodes or registering attendance.
Although most of them have additional plugins you can install to add membership functionality, but it may need a fair bit of tweaking to do exactly what you want.

Wordpress definitely has a low learning curve and a lot of developers are familiar with PHP and should be able to help.

As for hosting, go for a shared plan. Anything above 250mb disk space should suffice. Nearly all hosts will let you upgrade as and when you need to by only paying the difference.
Obviously if you go for more images etc you'll need more space.

I would advise against unlimited hosts as you may find yourself bound by some stricter than normal terms of service and reliability *may* be an issue.

If you need more help please let me know. I would be happy to recommend some developers and hosting companies (other than our own) that will be able to support you with wordpress / joomla / drupal or other software you may use.

 

[DesignerNick]

1) WordPress will do what you want out of the box, with a plugin or two to do the subscriptions.

2) Any bog standard Linux (or Windows Hosting which has php enabled). WordPress works better on Linux and linux is generally cheaper than a Windows host. There is a link in my signature for a UK based web host (also UKBF members). Their basic package of £17+vat will be enough to run your website IMHO.

Will Wordpress deal with barcodes?

 

[Faevilangel]

Will Wordpress deal with barcodes?

I didn't see that part, I skim read the post... It will depend on the end functionality for the barcodes and how they are entered into the website

 

[DesignerNick]

If Wp is used, it will be packed out with addons to the point it might not be the easiest to manage or even not work properly!

 

[LicensedToTrade]

If Wp is used, it will be packed out with addons to the point it might not be the easiest to manage or even not work properly!

That's certainly a possibility. Conflicting plugins are not unheard of.