Web Hosting Talk : Web Hosting Main Forums : Programming Discussion : building a social network site - how to?

[FG-alex]

Hello,

I have got a really great idea for a new social network site. The main thing I'm struggling with at the moment is how to get e-mail notifications working.

Say I create a "Post a comment about this member" button and I want it to e-mail that member with "You got a new comment". How do they do this? Any help would be much appreciated.

Also - are there any coding guides out there for building a social network? I am doing it from scratch so it's going to be quite basic to start with, but I do not want to risk dilluting this great concept with "pre-packaged" scripts.


Thank you.

[Dan L]

If you can't get email notifications working, you oughta hire a real programmer to make the site - it'll save you a headache down the line.

If you're using PHP: http://php.net/mail

[FG-alex]

If I had money to hire someone for the site, I wouldn't be making the site

I think I can get most stuff working, the main things I am concerned about are drag-and-drop widgets, some ajax stuff and the email sendouts.

If you post a new notification on someone's profile then what function would e-mail that? Is it like a cron job or something? How hard is this to set up?

[Xlusive]

Your first concern is to make the website work - think about ajax, widget and other "eye" looking features when you are more advanced - otherwise you will stay stuck.

[FG-alex]

Yeah I think that's a good idea - keeping things simple first. But the e-mail notifications is a must for any social site I think. I've just never learned how to do it though. What class would you take to learn that kind of thing? Php, CGI??

[psp7492]

have you tried some standard CMSs like drupal, joomla, xoops....? latter two are easier to learn.

[RN-Chris]

IMO if your still at this early stage.. You shouldn't be worrying about email notifications yet either.

[FG-alex]

I figured it out ... thanks . I'm just going to use phpmail function. But will worry about aggregating email notifications later. when the network is successful I should be able to hire someone to work on it full time, but for now I'm trying to get the basic idea down in code.

Thanks for the info.

[kalesh]

the best thing to use for email is php mailer sourceforge.net/projects/phpmailer/ (and use smtp, not sendmail)
You will also need a function on top of that with a cron that staggers the email(send in small batches) also add ability to use multiple smtp servers(in case your site gets a few hundred thousand members) I know its early but its much easier to add the functionality now and switch it on when needed then to add it when needed.
I can help you with a lot of small stuff like this
pm me your msn/ym/icq/gtalk if you wish.

[jalner]

be careful about your mailer function you don't want to get it abused from spammers

[djorgensen]

I run a social network website.

The sending an email is a good idea, however you also dont want to be sending people too much of the same. If they get 50 people adding a comment to their profile they shouldnt get 50 email alerts.

Personal message syes, comments on like a guestbook, no