Tiny request: tips on building a website for a research laboratory

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Hey gals and guys!

Let me introduce myself, I am Mohamed and I am new to web development (you probably have heard this cliché a thousand times; alas, I couldn’t avoid it). I just started to learn a bit of the well-known HTML/CSS/JS combo and I can manage to build a simple static webpage with what I’ve learnt. I am also a student at a not-really-known university, and, ironically, I am studying subjects too far to meet up with web development at any point; mechanical engineering.
As I wanted to apply my newly-honed skills to a real-life (pain-staking) project, I volunteered to develop a website for the research laboratory where one of my professors is the head. Yes, I know… I shouldn’t have aimed way high, but I can’t back up now, can I?
So, I really need your help to get on the right path with this first project: any piece of advice that pops up in your mind will be much appreciated.

Website specs:

  • Front page for visitors: the usual About Us, Contact, etc.
  • ‘Backstage’ web portal for students and staff: messaging system, shared calendar and documents, etc.
  • Expected traffic: <100 visits per day (lab is relatively small - no. of students less than 30 and staff less than 10)
  • Design: the lab’s main field is Renewable Energy and Sustainable Transportation, so the design must be along the lines of this topic
  • Content Administrator: Only one, the head; he will be managing the front page’s content, but he will also manage membership in the web portal (he will send invitations to new students and remove graduates, etc.). He’s a non-techie (obviously) and relatively busy, so the interface must be very easy to handle.

Well, to meet these specs, I put my brain juices to work and I’ve come up with a few ideas: I thought why not a CMS (like WordPress or Joomla or Drupal)? Then I fell in the whirlpool of choosing between one of these platforms! WordPress? No, it’s for blogs and its vulnerable. Joomla? A bit shabby. Drupal? Too complex. I don’t know if it’s even necessary to go with a CMS. I even looked through the plugins for each CMS and thought it wouldn’t do any good for the web portal. I though maybe an alternative was to go for a plain old HTML/CSS static for the front page and a dynamic PHP+MySQL web app for the portal. But, on second thought, the administration is going to be handled by sir the head, so, it has to be easy stuff; going for the second option isn’t going to help.

This is all what have to say right now about my issue, so please go ahead and share your advice and/or opinion.
Thanks!

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Hi, @mohamedbensalah. Welcome to SitePoint. You have a big job ahead of you in terms of the amount of learning you are going to need to get this project off the ground. I just have a couple of comments to get you thinking:

  1. If you are ever going to want the Content Administrator to actually be able to update the content on the front page, you should probably go for a CMS.

  2. Drupal can get complex, but for this type of site it shouldn’t be too bad even though the learning curve is quite steep. You don’t have to use all of the possible features.

  3. Where did you hear that Joomla is shabby? I personally don’t like it, but it could probably do the job.

  4. WordPress has long since graduated from being just ‘for blogs’. It powers a good number of content management systems for quite large sites. A number of years ago I helped (in a minor way) a local college switch to WordPress and their site is quite large. And all the open-source CMSs are ‘vulnerable’.

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Hi mohamedbensalah welcome to the forum

Thank You for listing specs, Really, Thanks.

OK, an About and Contact - 2 pages. Simple. With luck the Admin will know how to read comments in the code, stick to edited copy, and be able to FTP - meh, maybe.

What jumps out at me is

web portal for students and staff: messaging system, shared calendar and documents, etc.

So much for a 2+page site.
You certainly don’t want to rely on a Site Admin to not shoot himself in the foot.

What are the Backstage things? Are you subcontracting out / delegating to a team the various “pieces and etcs”

Having a good understanding of how you’re planning to get that stuff there, how much responsibility you want take on and for how long will likely affect your decision.

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Thank you so much @WebMachine for your answers.

  1. Yeah you’re probably right…
  2. Can you suggest a resource that will flatten the learning curve a bit for me?
  3. Joomla and Drupal don’t look good as WordPress when it comes to available themes…
  4. Should I go for WordPress for this job? Can it help me build the web portal?
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@Mittineague I really like your sense of humour!

Well to answer your spot-on question:

[quote=“Mittineague, post:3, topic:229638, full:false”]
What are the Backstage things? Are you subcontracting out / delegating to a team the various “pieces and etcs” [/quote]
What I mean by:

is something like a restricted access area where only the students or staff can meet or retrieve documents they need. It should be like a dashboard sort of thingie…
I hope you get what I mean…
Maybe there’s something out there that is ‘packed and ready-to-go’ and that could do the job fairly well… I don’t know…

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I was checking out if Drupal can help me with the student portal, and I found this then I was directed to the OpenAltrium website then this. Will OpenAtrium + Drupal do the job? How long will it take for me to learn all this (if I am a fast learner…)?
Thanks again!

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