MySpace.com clone using Ruby on Rails. Is it possible?

Hi, I wanna know wich of the well known frameworks is the best choice for myspace-clone community website.

CakePHP ? Zend Framework? Symfony?

RubyOnRails :)?

Django?

or maybe Kohana? Prado? or something else?

Is it better to use PHP or Ruby or Python? I will pay a webdesigner for this job, but I want to know which lang and framework is in your opinion the best for this kind of application. I expect about 10 000 or more unique visitors each day so I want to know words from You, the professionals.

It is important that the user can change the css, like on myspace.com.

Then I want to know if is it better to provide for users profile page this URL /I have 4 letters in my domain name./

Lekvarnik Lekvarnik wrote:

Hi, I wanna know wich of the well known frameworks is the best choice for myspace-clone community website.

Does the world really need another myspace??

Is it better to use PHP or Ruby or Python? I will pay a webdesigner for this job, but I want to know which lang and framework is in your opinion the best for this kind of application.

The best choice is the one that whomever you choose as as web designer knows. Period, end of story. If your not building the application yourself, then it's not really in your best interest to choose the tools for building it.

I expect about 10 000 or more unique visitors each day so I want to know words from You, the professionals.

This is a meaningless specification... There's no way to determine load based on this.

You don't have a scaling problem yet:

It is important that the user can change the css, like on myspace.com.

Is it important to "you" that your users can change the css? If you don't know your audience your application is doomed before you even begin development.

I realize this sounds cynical, but I'm just trying to be straight with you. I've used many different frameworks, some by choice, and others forced upon me.

One of the worst possible scenarios is when business people attempt to impose a set of tools on the technical people. Let technical people make technical decisions and business people make business decision. Attempts to cross that boundary is a primary cause of project failure.

Thx for your quick reply, but the most important thing for me personally is that, if for example chosing Drupal 6.x with CivicSpace extension is better than building app from scratch using Ruby on Rails or other framework.

Its important the loading of the page, core files, libs aso. Is drupal faster , in generall than ruby on rails or Symfony?

And I want to know if Ruby on Rails is good for myspace.clone /my site is a community website for people with the same interest - for these kind of people people there is in my country no alternative on the net yet/

Lekvarnik Lekvarnik wrote:

Thx for your quick reply, but the most important thing for me personally is that, if for example chosing Drupal 6.x with CivicSpace extension is better than building app from scratch using Ruby on Rails or other framework.

Its important the loading of the page, core files, libs aso. Is drupal faster , in generall than ruby on rails or Symfony?

And I want to know if Ruby on Rails is good for myspace.clone /my site is a community website for people with the same interest - for these kind of people people there is in my country no alternative on the net yet/

Understood. I just wanted to try to guide your thinking a little bit away from the technical and help you to focus on the needs of your audience.

As for me, I'm a developer so I tend to ignore canned solutions to problems. Unless there exist a canned solution that does exactly what I want. From my experience it's often easier to build everything myself as opposed to attempting to extend something to suit my particular needs.

I can give you no feedback on Drupal. I've never used it, nor even seen it. I've never had the need and I tend to ignore things I don't need.

The whole "built-it" or "buy-it/use-it" question is always tough. At least in my experience. I don't think there is a black-and-white answer to this question. The systems I'm involved in a so large in scale that we end up with a combination of all of that. I use some plugins and gems to take care of some common solutions. But, they almost never do things exactly as I would like. Sometimes I can live with it, and work around it. Other times I end up throwing them out and rolling my own solution.

If you're looking for a definitive answer on this forum, I'm afraid you're not going to be satisfied with any answer. The only truthful answer is that "it depends." In order to answer these seemingly simple questions would require extensive details of you application's specifications.

It just seems to me like you're "putting the cart before the horse." You need a clear understanding of your requirements, and a clear understanding of the needs of you audience. Next you need to find out who will be building your application. Choosing that person, or company, should be done independently of what framework they may prefer. Only then should you work with your developers to figure out what the best solution should be.

Thank you for this response. Ii helps me a lot.

Thx for your quick reply, but the most important thing for me personally is that, if for example chosing Drupal 6.x with CivicSpace extension is better than building app from scratch using Ruby on Rails or other framework.

You can do a lot of stuff with Drupal, but I think if you're looking to recreate Myspace, you're going to be very restricted with it. That's not to say that it couldn't be done, but you are better off having someone build it from scratch to your specifications with Rails, Django, or whatever. You'll get a better end product.

Robert is right - look for a good developer you and worry less about the tools he/she uses.

Lekvarnik Lekvarnik wrote:

Hi, I wanna know wich of the well known frameworks is the best choice for myspace-clone community website.

I would suggest Rails of course. I just purchased these books:

Both of them have you build a myspace clone. I know the first one i listed actually has a section on user driven themes using css. I am about to read those after I finish the one below, which has me building a digg clone.

If you are new to Rails i would suggest this book before the others.

M

thx for the links merrick