Ruby on Rails, PHP or C++ for web social network

Question

Hello,

I have chosen diploma work in university. It's a mini social network. But now I am really stuck with which technology I should stick. I am average at C++ ISAPI web services development, below average PHP(had few projects with it) and new to Ruby and its framework RAILS. I have a deadline 1.5 month to develop it(about 5 hours every day after my full time job). Also I heard that its very easy to learn and develop with Ruby on Rails. Considering C++ I know that I have to do lots of coding and work by myself and PHP looks almost the same to me. So I am looking for you skilled developers advise what would you do in my position? Learn RoR, stick with C++ or PHP or maybe use something else?

Answer 1

I've worked with C++ a lot, and also with RoR (1 released project). I would advise against using C++ for any web development, it's really not meant for it. Ruby on Rails is easy to learn if you have prior experience with web development. But if you already have some experience with PHP, I'd suggest sticking with it. There are some fairly decent PHP frameworks.

Answer 2

I would recommend Ruby on Rails given the time lines. The development in rails is really fast...and interesting too.

Additional stuff which you might want to learn would be some basic javascripts. Given that you already know C++, it wouldn't be difficult to learn.

Answer 3

yes, use rails - the following books will help you:

1 - RailsSpace by Michael Hartl and Aurelius Prochazka - the first Rails book I ever read, and it's a beauty. It takes you through the process of creating your own social network site. Nuff said... http://www.amazon.co.uk/Railsspace-Building-Networking-Addison-Wesley-Professional/dp/0321480791?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1209116263&sr=8-1

For more info, go to the website: http://railsspace.com/ - one thing to be aware of though is that the book was written when rails was at version 1.x so it's really geared towards users of that version BUT there is a zip file of the code for Rails 2.x users and I can assure you that it works just fine. if you do buy this book, it might be worth just following along doing everything by the book (i.e. using rails 1.x)

2 - Practical Rails Social Networking Sites - I bought this one too, and it's also very helpful http://www.amazon.co.uk/Practical-Rails-Social-Networking-Experts/dp/1590598415

Jim Neath wrote a nice article about Social Networking sites and gives some valuable advie on how to do it - http://jimneath.org/2008/04/25/building-a-social-network-site-in-rails/ - a word of warning though, some of the plugins/gems that he recommends are no longer advised (like restful_authentication) so just double google around before you use anything

With Rails, there are many many social networking plugins/template apps that you can download, modify and use - look at Insoshi http://github.com/insoshi/insoshi (created by the Michale hartl who wrote the first book that I linked to up top) - here's the projects homepage - http://dogfood.insoshi.com/

Also, i think this one looks REALLY impressive - it's called community engine - http://communityengine.org/

Good luck

Answer 4

Definitely not C++.

I work with C++, Ruby, PHP, Ruby on Rails, CakePHP, CodeIgniter and Kohana.

Since C++ is more similar to PHP than Ruby and you have little time to learn, I would go with a PHP framework. Every now and then I like to make little social networks in my local machine , I would recommend that you got with codeigniter simply because it can provide everything I can think of that a social network would need and it's the easiest of all to learn and master.

Am sure these codeigniter screencasts will help you.

Answer 5

Stick to what you know (or at least are better at). Your C++ knowledge will help you in PHP. Don't think it will help you that much with ROR.

I am not saying anything bad about ruby or ror. Just saying that if you have a time limit and you have previous knowledge in C++ and PHP then why complicate your life?

As suggested use a php framework.

Good luck!