Database Question

Hi guys! I am new to web design/programming.

I want to build a site that will be a search engine of sorts. I want a user to be able to search for specific information across pre-existing websites. Instead of just saying "jazz music" for instance and seeing a whole slew of links in the average search, I want to give the user options like "region", "country", "style", "instrument", etc to give them more specific information. How do I build my site to intergrate the keys of sites already in existence?

Thanks!

OB

You can't do this overnight, so here's my first and most important question:
Are you doing this to make money or just for fun?

If you're doing it just for fun:
Forget about the websites to start with. Just concentrate on designing an functional website and building a database that works.

If you want to make money from this:
Don't expect to make any money for at least a year (or even two, depending on how quickly you pick it up).

Either way, this is what you need to learn:
Database design - so you can build a database to store the data (Access, MSSQL or MySQL)
SQL - So you can update/retrieve the data from the database
ASP/PHP - So you can fetch the data from the database and create a webpage
HTML - so you can create a webpage that represents the information on your database

If you want to read data from other websites:
This will most likely be done in the form of RSS feeds or another XML based format.

Plus, but not required:
CSS - to control the appearance of your webpages
Javascript - to improve the functionality of your webpages

To sum up:
You will not learn this overnight.
But if you really want to get there, you better get started...

Wow ... quite the "little" project you got there. Probably not the best way to start ... especially if you know next to nothing in server-side programming (whether it be PHP, .NET or Perl).

To me it's quite simple, if you come on a forum asking for people to tell you how to start, what language you should be using, etc... then ... you're off to a really bad start.

Like spinall007 said, forget this idea for now. Concentrate on create a website using the proper technologies (HTML and CSS). Learn those well. Then use PHP to enhance the site. Using custom functions to do stuff. Create your own CMS. Then maybe you can start thinking of doing a serach engine.

My 0,02 cents worth.

Hi guys,

Thanks for the response! I definitely want to create the site (I know it will take time.) But even though I am interested in web design/site creation I am a complete novice and do know my limits. I always planned to obtain/hire help with this but I was unfamiliar with the terms to use to express what I desire. Hence the post. You guys have at least articulated what I need and since I have a slim overview of the terminalogy used, I see how it will interplay. And now I know at least the ballpark of what I need to ask for/about. I still intend to work on this site but am personally "cutting my teeth" on another site that is much smaller in scale.

Thanks again! I'm sure I will be back for other points of clarification.

OB

That all makes sense. I wish you the best of luck.
And if you need help along the way, our forums is the best place to 'get some'...