ok so lets say I want to copy the core components of myspace (Even though im not.), what languages do I need to use? Myspace has many other things, but what i am asking about is the main parts, such as your own "space"/webpage, as well as the personal message systems. What languages make this possible?

the next thing is eBay, i notice it is somewhat similar to MySpace as you can use html to create your own page on which your listing the item. But as far as it automatically updating listings and such, as well as being able to apply templates.. again what language?

my next question is for forums. I know alot of people use other software to manage their forums. What is the best way to do this for a professional webpage? do people just do it by code? if so what languages, or software work the best? and are there good, free alternatives? i meen, a forums a forum, right?

ok so, i know theres obveously html and css involved for ebay/myspace, some form of database.. MySQL?, and scripting.. javascript? php? which is best? are both used? anything else?


what am i missing? what do these websites use?
the more specific you are the more i'll appreciate it.
ty

I would use and do use SQL

The MySpace backend is code on .net. All MySpace is when you take it down to basics is a multi-user CMS.

What languages make this possible?

Assuming you mean server side languages. All of them, if you know how to code whatever you need to do in whatever you are going to use.

At the end of the day it comes down to what you or your developer are proficient in.

hmm alright then. my worries were mainly around the whole deal where users can imput their own html coding and such, ads are added, and its somewhat auto-formatted, then a new page is made. I just figured it could only be made with something i have not learned. What can make that possible then?

could i do the whole site with html, css, javascript, php, and mysql?

For something along the lines of what you are hinting at, you could create a page framework and only allow the users to meddle with certain areas of the page using a management UI (control panel). Potential security risks (javascript, iframes) can be nulled fuctionally or stripped out of the user generated code before sending it to the database.

What can make that possible then?

could i do the whole site with html, css, javascript, php, and mysql?

Yep. If that is what your forte is.
I chose to code my system using ASP and MySQL as the backend because that is what I code in mainly.

The front end is always going to be HTML, CSS and javascript because that is what UAs such as browsers and search engines understand, and of course you can also output in XML and use XSL/XSLT for UAs that can handle it.

ok ty