I am.. confused
 

So confused, so very confused. Unbelievingly confused. I'm yet to start an application I got an idea for, it's rather big. But, what I'm so very confused about is:

Which framework should I use?
Should I do my own framework? (I don't even know how I should do that)
Is rails the way to go if I'm even thinking about Frameworks?
Should I even use a framework?

... I have no idea where I should start. Just hardcoding it all is of course the easy solution, but not the best of course - that's why I'm so confused, I have no idea how I'm gonna start it. I need some help deciding. Also, I am sure doing this mostly to learn.

The project is this.

I can't comment on framework since I don't use any.

For starting, do not just start coding off the bat. A project of that size will take careful planning unless you want it to be a jumbles mess. Go to each application and start thinking of how you are going to make it. Make each individual one separately, but remember that they will be integrated. When they are done start integrating them together. If there are portions that will be needed in many apps, code those as you go (as soon as you need it, code it).

Here is a question for you: Do you think you can maintain motivation throughout this project? A common problem with people who take projects this large on is that they loose motivation and dump it after about a month (sometimes two).

I think I can keep motivation, as long as I know that the way I'm programming is not useless, and can be upgraded later etc. and I see everything going neatly forward.

Which is indeed why I want to know how I should code this. As I don't have the experience to know this myself, unfortunately.

You should code it however you feel comfortable right now. If you're happy enough coding everything from scratch then do so! If you've never used a PHP (or other language) framework then do you want to spend the time learning the ins and outs of that framework (or in worst case, many frameworks if one doesn't suit you very well) before getting down to work with your applications? Probably not.

Frameworks, by their very nature, speed up development time by providing building blocks. If you have never played with these blocks, don't expect to be building a house (or in this case, a small village!) right away; you'll only end up wondering why your house isn't weatherproof come winter (due to some particular quirk of the framework you choose)!

If you are dead set on using a framework, there are some which are easier to get moving quickly with which you might prefer. Things like CakePHP are targeted towards PHP users of "all levels" (to quote the Cake homepage), for instance. But to be honest, that would be more initial work for you without building anything useful for your applications and, in my view, would skip an essential learning process of doing everything yourself—learning how to keep things separated, to refactor your code out into your own libraries/framework, etc..

Hi,

I think you should break down your project into smaller parts and release it after a part is complete.

This will take care of your motivational problem for a long project.

Being a long project, I advice you to rope in a friend. You can motivate eachother for the rest of the project lifecycle.

Besides, here is a link that I found interesting on Motivation and Goals.

Art of Motivation

Achieve Goals

Hope this helps.

Regards,
Suniil

The big problem is not the motivation actually, but more how I should start the coding and how I should do that, thanks for the interesting articles though.

I actually like that you guys think that I should not use a framework, but do it from scratch because it will learn me a lot more, and I do agree! :) What I though wanna know before I begin would be, should I code some kind of MVC framework to work after?

And also, how should I manage clean urls? Clean urls was actually what really got me into those frameworks, was very easy with those. :)

Building your own MVC framework will really help - as you will have to think a lot before you write your code. Since you know what you want to build - you will be in a position to work on MVC features that you need for the project.

Once your project expands - you will also know how to tweak it for performance and additional features.

I dont understand the meaning of clean URLs. If you are referring to SEO URLs - then its done through .htaccess. I have made extensive use of it on my site www.careercurry.com. Let me know if you need any help with regards to .htaccess

Regards,
Suniil

Mmh, I think that's my plan then. Find out how to make a rather simple MVC framework, which I can expand later on, as my experience grows. Anyone got something to add? :) I'd love more input!

Are you planning to look at products already out there? I mean for like the blogging platform will be a bit of work, but going through WordPress' code may help