A2 Hosting Forums

I've been using a2hosting.com for awhile now and have loved it. Now I have a client and he's wanting to search for an affordable starter shared hosting plan for now, and then grow it. THE CATCH: he wants me to build a PHP/MySQL based job seeker site there. His income source will be in ad revenue initially, which he'll then reinvest into the site's development and hosting plans, moving up the chain until he finally can move into dedicated hosting or perhaps even a fractional T1 into his home office. He also plans to have alternative revenue sources added on for the site such as extra features that customers pay for, and then he'll use that money for reinvestment into the site.

THE PROBLEM: The problem is that he wants to start with a shared hosting plan but he and I are both worried about the search engine aspect of this. You see, MySQL5 has this MATCH/AGAINST sql syntax, but unfortunately it only takes you so far. We've been thinking we need to go to a higher level. Some friends have mentioned Sphinx, but it requires installation power on the server and that's something you don't get with a shared hosting plan I don't think.

What is a good solution for hosting such a PHP site on a2hosting.com? Do you recommend we use a database or the file system for storing the resumes and job listings? (Note if we use a file system, we'll be wanting to integrate either Google Search or some other search engine. The problem with Google, however, is that you end up hosting their ads instead of your own.) Some people also warn me about using the file system to store stuff, rather than a database -- they said it could expose the site to hacking attacks. Now, granted I would be researching how to prevent that a great deal before implementing a file system kind of storage, but I am not perfect.

I am just clarifying here, but I think you are referring to a Search function on the website you are going to build. I would definitely use MySQL.  Without a doubt.  Performance would really stink on 10Million rows in a flat file.  We built a job seeker site in PostgreSQL with over 40million rows doing really crazy matches and it flies.  

Also, making crazy search functions means you need a good SQL programmer, or go XML for flexibility.

Jer

Jeremy,

I think you meant to say here *NOT* to use MySQL for a job seeker site and, instead, use PostgreSQL. Yeah, I've used PostgreSQL previously and loved it. The thing just runs and runs and runs. The scalability numbers are better than MySQL. I'll have to see if my client will let me run with it.

You might want to consider a VPS package for the flexibility it sounds like you may need.  Of course, you can always try a shared plan and see how it suits you and upgrade from there.  Good luck with the project!