Hey there... I'll try to provide some pointers in the right direction...
1st, you probably want to locate a local ISP type company that will
rent you XXX number Mbytes/Gbytes of space on their webserver so that
you can host and develop your website/webpage. That way, all the
expense for maintining the server, applying patches, doing viruse
scans, backups, etc is on them, and not you... and all you have to
worry about is the actual webpage-development. Check your local yellow
pages under Internet, for something like web-host services. You will
have to pay for this service, similar to phone or cable bill. If you
cant find such a service, get on the Internet, try to find a website
for a local church or civic group. Then contact their leader, and ask
them who they use for web-page hosting.
2nd, you are going to need to hire/acquire a website developer. You
have a couple options, You can hire a "professional grade" web
developer, that is, someone who is already making a living doing this
type thing, and runs their own business. You can expect to pay a
professional grade fee for such a resource. OR you can try to hire a
college student, say, someone already studying Computer Science or
Computer Engineering at your local College, University, or Tech
School. You could try writing up some 'help wanted' type messages, and
posting them around the Computer Science Dept, or if you can locate
the email addresses of the Computer Science, or Computer Engineering
professors, you might just email them, and ask if any of their
students would like some extra part time work. OR, you could just put
an AD in the local city newspaper, asking for part time help to do
some serious website-development.
Before you hire such a person, you'll want to meet them, talk to them
and feel them out. If they tell you they've been doing this type work
for a while, go ahead and ask for 3 references to other customers.
Then call those customers and talk to them, and see how they felt,
before you commit.
Another important thing is to let them know you are hiring them to
perform the services - develop the website technically - but that the
end products of their labor - webpages, the scripts, the programs, the
datafiles, and the interfaces will belong to you, the customer. That
way, there wont be a big mess if you decide to switch to a different
web-developer person. Also, as with any business arrangement, its
always good to put it in writing first, then go over it, then commit.
That way, both parties know what they are agreeing to do.
Along this same line, when you make up the arrangement, make sure that
you specify that you (the customer) will get both the open "source
code" as well as "binary" code. If your developer programs in a
language like C++, when he compiles it, the executable code is in
binary form. That means it runs, but a human being cannot go in there
and adjust it, modify it, fix it, add to it, and further develop it.
You have to have the source code to do all that. if the developer
keeps the source code, and gives you just the binary code, it will
run, but the next developer/maintainer will have nothing to work with.
Something else you need to think about up front is Computer Security
for the data that is going to be put in. It sounds like, from what
you've described, that all youre storing is basic company information,
and that goes in a database. You need to put some careful thought
into just how "tight" or how "open" you want the permissions (or,
access) to be on this information. Do you want access to be wide open,
to every soul on the Internet? Would the people whose profile is going
into the database want that? Would they care?
If your site morphs to the point where you start putting truly
sensitive information into the database, then thats when computer
security really becomes an issue.
When you talk to the prospective developer, see how much they know
about these specific ares:
<> HTML webpage codeing
<> Cascading Style Sheets
<> Perl programming
<> Java programming
<> CGI programming
<> database structure & tables
<> authentication & logins
<> report generation
Things like that... you'll want to listen to see if they feel
comfortable in these areas, and also, are they knowlegable enough in
these areas to at least understand the concepts of what you want to
accomplish.
Here is a big picture view to your Task:
1. Define Project Specifications
2. Locate & Acquire Developer
3. Project Development Phase
4. Beta Test Phase
5. Production Use Phase
6. Re-eval & Modification
In Part 1, you must sit down and spend some quality time thinking
through what it is you want this site to do and be. Then you must
translate these ideas into clear specific specifications for the site.
Here are just 3 examples of clear specifications...
"The Website will be accessible through W.W.W using IE 6 or greater."
"The Website will force the user to authenticate with unique ID & p/w."
"The Website will keep a text based log of every succesful user login."
Everything that you want the website to do and be needs to be specfied
clearly like this.
Next, in Part 2, you take the project specifications, and you talk to
prospective developers. Talk to them about the specifications, and
get a real good feel on 1) can they really develop the features, and
2) can they be trusted with the task. Any agreements that are settled
upon should be documented in writing and signed.
In part3, the developer actually sits down and does the technical
development work. Whats important to remember is that different
developers have different styles, different approaches, different
preferences, strengths, weaknesses. Its also important to remember -
there is no single "right way" to develop the underlying technical
features that make the website run. At just about every point in the
development process, there are multiple ways to accomplish the setup.
There are multiple ways to set up pages, and right scripts, and do
databases. At this point, the developer should be given all the
elbow-room he/she needs to accomplish the work - while adhering to the
specifications you gave. You should stay in touch with them by phone
or email, and ask for at least a weekly Progress-Status Report. If the
specifcations are clear, and the developer is adequate, and he has
access he needs to the website, progresss should be made fairly
steadily.
You reach Part 4, Beta Test phase, when the developer has accomplished
all the setups needed to meet all your specifications. It is a good
idea to have already developed a WebSite Test Profile, based on the
specifications, so that you, the owner, can go through the website and
test it adequately. In this phase, you are looking to see for yourself
whether or not the site really performs according to specifications.
The developer should be with you when y ou do this, so he can provide
helpfulk information and answer any questions. Also, at this point,
you may want him to show you some of the inner workings of the
website, such as the databases, the scripts, etc. If you are
satisfied with the website, and feel its ready to be give a "test
voyage", then you open the site up for users to access, and begin
limited advertising about the site. BUT you are still in test mode.
Only this time, the system is being tested with live users with live
data from the live world. At this point, make sure they have a way to
contact you to report any bugs they run into. And ask the to be clear
and specific when they report the bugs. Its a good idea to stay in
this Test Mode for at least 30-60 days. This is adequte time for any
bugs to show up.
If any bugs appear during the test phase, the developer should be
responsible to fix them, even if they were not apparent right off the
bat.
At the end of Beta Test Phase, if you are satisfied that the site is
performing correctly, gathering the needed information, providing just
the access you desire (and no more), and its ready... then you go into
live production use.
In Part 5, Live production Phase, this is where the website actually
begins serving the Internet Community and performing its role in the
Internet world. You still want to monitor your lines for any bug
reports. Any serious or critical bugs that impact functionaility will
need to be fixed ASAP. Non-critical or trivial bugs can be fixed in
the next "release" (ie, the next planned webpage maintenance
modification). You'll especially want to monitor all the system logs
to see just who's using it, who's logging in, level of traffic,
information requested, etc. You know, the practical stuff. Again, its
important that you advertise your site so that people know its there.
And its important that they have a way to contact you in case they
have a problem with your site. You should invite them to report any
feedback they have, positive or negative. Then, you can encorprate
those comments into future adjustements.
If I were you, I would plan to do maintenance modifications to the
website about every 2 months. Also, since people tend to stop going to
a website page that never changes, you should consider how you can
keep your pages "fresh", "new", "interesting" by adding new content,
rearranging things, adding some graphics, pictures, etc.
On a regular basis, you enter Part 6, where you stop and take stock of
the website, how its performing, how its gathering data, how its
meeting the expected needs, review all feedback ( + and - ),
encorporate new ideas and features. You want to turn all that into
positive maintenance in the website. The developer may not want to do
this part... he may be ready to move on to a different project. You
may have to get someone else to be the 'system manager' for the
website. Again, look around, talk to people, talk to their references,
go with your gut feeling.
As for Books, there are a couple really good books I can recemmend:
1. Creating Killer Web Sites, by David Siegel
This is a GREAT book on the artistic/graphical design part of website
development. (Just because your website is functional does NOT mean it
has to
be Boring or Stale). This book is well worth the $$$.
2. If you tend to like to program with scripts, check out this book:
PERL (How to Program) by Harvey M. Dietel
ISBN# 0-13-028418-1
Perl is a fantastic script language for working with any type of
text-based data, including text based database files, user input
screens, text inout, etc. You can think of it like a 300-bladed Swiss
Army Knife for text. Many website automate a lot of their web-access
functions using Perl scripts. The more you use it, the power you see
in it. You can get a free Windows-compatible version of the Perl
environment from http://www.activestate.com
2 other good Perl books are "Learning Perl" and "Programming Perl",
both from O'Reilly. The Dietel Perl book is the closest I've seen to
an actual textbook, and provides many examples, great explanations,
and real code. A number of the things you mentioned above are listed
as examples in this book.
3. If you plan to host the webserver at your own site, rather then
rent space on somebody else's site, there's another good book:
"How to Set Up and Maintain a Web-Site"
(cant remember the author!)
This book provides a broad-spectrum look at the basics of managing a
webserver from start to finish. I think Prentice-Hall is publisher.
I hope you find all this helpful, so that you can begin to take some
steps in the right direction.................. |
