CMS and Hosting

k.p.h

So I know from the charter we are not allowed discuss specifics on hosting and CMS, but as a total noob in this area I would do with some advice which options to look at.

I'm looking to to set up and company web page with all the usual business related details, also I need to set up an on-line shop which would manage payment and details on about 100 + technical products.

What I need to know is which options I need to be looking at in regard to the CMS/hosting and payment options. Apparently from Googling there are lots of options, its a little easy get lost in these and I would appreciate any advice I could get from anyone who is involved in this type of activity.

As per the charter I understand some stuff info related to this topic is not allowed but would appreciate any advice I could get, we have two servers on site, one for company infrastructure so that's not available and another running Windows with XAMPP on it also handling some data management, both servers are near there limits so I would also like to know if were would be better installing another server or just going to cloud/outside hosting with this.

First time stepping into this side of development so any advice would be appreciated, and if anything is not allowed as er charter please feel free to pop me a pm. Some smart people on here so this forum is a great resource

Oh and also what are the general costing involved with this type of activity..?

k.p.h

Anyone ..? Or is just quite here tonight .?

mneylon

CMS - depends on how comfortable you are with PHP or ASP / ASP.net (or another language)

If you're going to be selling online you probably need to get some form of shopping cart software ..

Depending on the volumes / values you'll also need a way to process payments. Paypal is the simplest to start with, but isn't economical, so you'd need to talk to your bank about getting a merchant account if you don't have one already

Hosting - prices vary a lot, but you probably need to focus on the other parts of the project first. Once you've defined them then you'll probably be in a better position to discuss hosting

dahamsta

Hosting on-site is nearly always a recipe for disaster.

I can't see why you'd need anything more complex than a WordPress site at the outset, with an ecommerce plugin and PayPal for payments.

I'm on mobile at the moment and linking is a pain in the ass, stick wordpress.com in your browser and set up and account to see what it's like. If you're happy with it, go get yourself some Irish hosting and install it from wordpress.org. If you get stuck, ask here or post in the work wanted for paid help.

Have fun!

k.p.h

dahamsta wrote: »

If you get stuck, ask here or post in the work wanted for paid help.

I am the paid help..! :eek: Or actually the occasionally paid help or maybe not at all ... But I'm happy once I'm getting some experience so probably not best to dwell on that.

dahamsta wrote: »

Hosting on-site is nearly always a recipe for disaster.

I just wanted to know why this is ..? So I am still currently at the research stage of this, but at the moment I could potentially have a new shared server in a good location e.g. off site but not hosted etc..

Just looking at Joomla/Wordpress/OpenCart/Magento ..

How hard would it be to set some arrangement of these on our own server.? And could they potentially work properly (without excessive amounts of hair pulling and aggravation ) ..?

Trojan

Is the ecommerce facility a primary or secondary consideration for the site? That's quite important in your decision of CMS and how the site will be structured.

Regards onsite/offsite hosting, established wisdom is that it's cheaper, more reliable and more cost effective to use dedicated hosting facilities for website hosting. (The experts above can give you more details on why that's the case.)

dahamsta

k.p.h wrote: »

I am the paid help..! Or actually the occasionally paid help or maybe not at all ... But I'm happy once I'm getting some experience so probably not best to dwell on that.

You can be paid help and still pay for help. It's called subcontracting.

I just wanted to know why this is ..? So I am still currently at the research stage of this, but at the moment I could potentially have a new shared server in a good location e.g. off site but not hosted etc..

Data centres spend millions building safety and redundancy in UPS systems, backup generators, dual power, redundant bandwidth, fire suppression, security, etc. You just can't replicate that in a self-hosted environment.

Just looking at Joomla/Wordpress/OpenCart/Magento

I'll only comment on WordPress and Magento, I can't stand Joomla or OpenCart. Magento is very complex for a small requirement, if you're not familiar with it and don't need multiple storefronts and detailed reporting, you're better off with something simpler, like a WordPress plugin. IMHO.

How hard would it be to set some arrangement of these on our own server.? And could they potentially work properly (without excessive amounts of hair pulling and aggravation ) ..?

They'll work anywhere. Will they stay up though?