Large site vB integrated
 

Hello all,
I need to build a large community site that shall consist of many useful features (CMS, forum, dating, chat, classifieds - to name a few). I am also willing to dedicate a certain budget for this task. Since I can't post into any other forum (don't have licence yet, still doing research) - I'm asking if that's doable and how much would it cost me.

Open for advise, suggestions, quotes, donations :)

CMS -> Depends on which CMS you want to use. Some (Typo3, Mambo, etc.) are free, others cost a fair amount of money
Forum -> vBulletin license :)
Dating -> Hmm ... don't know
Chat -> I use an IRC-Applet which works quite well. There are several integrations available for vB3. The integration-scripts are mostly free, but the chat software/applet (JPilot for example) costs some money - approx. 50 $

For your server it depends on how large your community will be.

KirbyDE - I can add myself :) The catch here is to make them all work from same user database and that's what will require custom coding. That's what have been a culprit so far.

I'm not sure if I made myself clear. The trick here is to use same user database, meaning - once user logs into any component (like forum) - he's automatically logged into the rest of components (like dating, classifieds, photo gallery and such).

I understand it's quite a bit of work, but I don't expect to get it for free. Just need to find person knowledgeable enough to work on this system.

Forum: Vbulletin
Chat: Vbulletin Chat 1.0
Photos: Photopost
Dating: not sure,

Thanks for info. Still looking to acquire the complete solution...

vBulletin's main rival, Invision Power has a gallery, topsites, chat all intergrated with their forums using a system called "converge".

vBulletin, esp v3 as I found out is much more flexible than IPB, well, IPB 1.x.x, not sure about the new version 2, as they stopped offering free unlimited "trials". I'm not sure about dating/classifieds, but I use vbulletin - forums, coppermine - images, cgiirc - chat (most people, like myself, dislike Java Applets).

Edit:. For CMS I'm sure vBAdvanced would work pretty well. ^^

> most people, like myself, dislike Java Applets
Hmm ... why?
Using JAVA-Applets with a dedicated (irc) chat daemon IMHO is much more powerful and less server intensive then a using an http-chat.

CGIIRC is a cgi executeable that connects to IRC networks, not your regular http-chat weaklings ^^ I've had my fair share of those. Well, it is more server intensive but java applets give me this bloated, I-want-to-close-you feeling :ninja:

Hmm ... how can a CGI executable hold a connection to an IRC server?
AFAIK a CGI application only gets invoked upon processing an HTTP request ...