Restaurant Menu Directory Site

[davecuse]

I'm getting really tired of having 155324239 take out and delivery menus in my drawer, and I would like to set up a PHP and MySQL based directory of all the local restaurants with their menus in a searchable format. I'm not looking to really make any money from this, I just want it there so that I can use it.

Ideally I would like to start an open source project on sourceforge so that other people can easily implement this idea. If anyone is interested in lending their time and programming skills I think this could be a cool project. I'm sure it won't be hard to find someone to host this free, and I want to make sure that the end product is user maintainable, so that I don't have to do any long term work.

Anyone interested in helping out?

 

[mnkeybsness]

in a few weeks i would be able to give help with HTML and CSS!

 

[davecuse]

in a few weeks i would be able to give help with HTML and CSS!

Great! The more the merrier.

 

[rendezvouscp]

I'm a little unsure about how this is different from Sherlock. It sounds the same, but I'm guessing I'm missing something. I would be glad to do some XHTML or CSS work if you need another developer.
–Chase

 

[ExoticFish]

i have a similar problem with bookmarks. i like to have my bookmarks anywhere i go so i'm setting up a database of bookmarks so i can access it anywhere. but i think that the code difference of the two would be minimal. but i'm using perl and mysql.

 

[davecuse]

I'm a little unsure about how this is different from Sherlock. It sounds the same, but I'm guessing I'm missing something. I would be glad to do some XHTML or CSS work if you need another developer.
–Chase

I would like to do something that is totally web based, and does not require any special software to use it (i.e. Sherlock). There are very few restaurants here that actually have websites much less menus online, I want to give them a place where they can centrally (and easily) put up and maintain their menus, hours, phone numbers, etc etc etc. I'm also looking to have a user comment section with ratings so that the locals can recommend something they liked, and tell you to stay away from something bad. This way if you're looking for a meal you just go to the website, decide what type of a meal you are in the mood for and you get back a list of what restaurants offer those dishes, prices, hours, directions, if they deliver, if someone else thought it was good and so on.

 

[davecuse]

i have a similar problem with bookmarks. i like to have my bookmarks anywhere i go so i'm setting up a database of bookmarks so i can access it anywhere. but i think that the code difference of the two would be minimal. but i'm using perl and mysql.

Kind of like a .mac account with iSync?

 

[jeremy.king]

i have a similar problem with bookmarks. i like to have my bookmarks anywhere i go so i'm setting up a database of bookmarks so i can access it anywhere. but i think that the code difference of the two would be minimal. but i'm using perl and mysql.

And I was thinking to myself this morning, how it would be cool if I could manage my bookmarks on one site so I can access from home/work/client/etc...Would be even cooler if you could add a plugin to a browser and add bookmarks to your Db instead of the browser managed sites.

Is this for personal use, or were you looking to open it up to everyone?

 

[whfsdude]

And I was thinking to myself this morning, how it would be cool if I could manage my bookmarks on one site so I can access from home/work/client/etc...Would be even cooler if you could add a plugin to a browser and add bookmarks to your Db instead of the browser managed sites.

Is this for personal use, or were you looking to open it up to everyone?

There are some sites that offer this and I can tell you, it sucks. Who likes to have to go to a website to add a new bookmark?

If someone could create a site and some software that uploads your bookmarks every week to a site, reads it and then if you away from your home machine you can veiw a site if you forgot a URL.

 

[ExoticFish]

And I was thinking to myself this morning, how it would be cool if I could manage my bookmarks on one site so I can access from home/work/client/etc...Would be even cooler if you could add a plugin to a browser and add bookmarks to your Db instead of the browser managed sites.

Is this for personal use, or were you looking to open it up to everyone?

well i started because it's something that i can really use but i'm planning on making the code available on my web site whenever i get it up. (this project is helping me learn more web development to use on my site as well). when i get it done i'll post the code on MacRumors if you want.

edit:

yeah i guess like .mac for people like me who don't want to pay for it.

 

[ExoticFish]

There are some sites that offer this and I can tell you, it sucks. Who likes to have to go to a website to add a new bookmark?

If someone could create a site and some software that uploads your bookmarks every week to a site, reads it and then if you away from your home machine you can veiw a site if you forgot a URL.

i thought about this as well and while this is mostly for the sites that i visit most frequently so i can always have access to them i've also thought about such functionality and looking at the mozilla bookmark file i'd like to dd the functionality to import/export but first things first... getting the basics done!

 

[rendezvouscp]

I would like to do something that is totally web based, and does not require any special software to use it (i.e. Sherlock). There are very few restaurants here that actually have websites much less menus online, I want to give them a place where they can centrally (and easily) put up and maintain their menus, hours, phone numbers, etc etc etc. I'm also looking to have a user comment section with ratings so that the locals can recommend something they liked, and tell you to stay away from something bad. This way if you're looking for a meal you just go to the website, decide what type of a meal you are in the mood for and you get back a list of what restaurants offer those dishes, prices, hours, directions, if they deliver, if someone else thought it was good and so on.

Wow, this is a huge project. To get this thing up and running would be fantastic. You could buy something like therestrauntfinder.com or whatever. I think some businesses would catch on to the service, and love it. But, I really think that this is a high end project, ie businesses pay you for coverage, you pay hosting costs, so on and so forth. I would really like to offer anything that I could to get this going.
–Chase

 

[Knox]

I would like to do something that is totally web based, and does not require any special software to use it (i.e. Sherlock). There are very few restaurants here that actually have websites much less menus online, I want to give them a place where they can centrally (and easily) put up and maintain their menus, hours, phone numbers, etc etc etc. I'm also looking to have a user comment section with ratings so that the locals can recommend something they liked, and tell you to stay away from something bad. This way if you're looking for a meal you just go to the website, decide what type of a meal you are in the mood for and you get back a list of what restaurants offer those dishes, prices, hours, directions, if they deliver, if someone else thought it was good and so on.

It sounds quite similar to a section I intend to add to one of my own sites (http://www.nightb4.com/), which currently does a similar thing for bars/pubs and nightclubs.

Unfortunately my paid work is priority at the moment so I haven't got around to writing it, and so I couldn't really offer time to this (at the moment at least), but I could give you hosting for it.

 

[davecuse]

It sounds quite similar to a section I intend to add to one of my own sites (http://www.nightb4.com/), which currently does a similar thing for bars/pubs and nightclubs.

Unfortunately my paid work is priority at the moment so I haven't got around to writing it, and so I couldn't really offer time to this (at the moment at least), but I could give you hosting for it.

Yea I did something similar in college it was called sunightlife.com, it was pretty popular and made me some excellent drinking money, it took me from Beast Ice to Grey Goose and Red Bull.

I really want to do this as a learning experience, that's why I want to open it up. My knowledge is mainly in xhtml and css, I've got a pretty good understanding of PHP and MySQL I just want to put this knowledge to real world use.

 

[davecuse]

Wow, this is a huge project. To get this thing up and running would be fantastic. You could buy something like therestrauntfinder.com or whatever. I think some businesses would catch on to the service, and love it. But, I really think that this is a high end project, ie businesses pay you for coverage, you pay hosting costs, so on and so forth. I would really like to offer anything that I could to get this going.
–Chase

I had the same thought originally, if there are a couple of people who would rather not make it open source and put together some type of contract I might be interested in propositions. I have a full time job though, and I don't want or need anymore stress in my life, it would have to be a very laid back schedule. And there wouldn't be any up front money unless the website started making something. Feel free to PM me if you want, or just post here.

 

[ExoticFish]

i was working last night and i got a couple things working. i can add/delete bookmarks and do a limited search (it'll only look at the site name not the url or description, for now anyway). i gotta implement categories, edit a bookmark, better search functionality, MUCH better layout! but here's a pic anyway for anyone who's interested.

 

[wordmunger]

Why reinvent the wheel? There are already lots of sites that offer this exact same service. You could just use their software to do it. For example, check out World66.com's New York Restaurants page. You can easily add restaurants, links to their Web sites, etc.

 

[ExoticFish]

i know i could download something to do this for me, but then i'd never learn how to do it now would i? plus if i write it myself then i can't complain about how "i wish were different" or "why can't i do that?"

i like to program. and although i'm a amateur i have to learn somehow, so why not with something that i'll actually use!

you have to learn to build a wheel before you understand how to build a car.

 

[wordmunger]

i know i could download something to do this for me, but then i'd never learn how to do it now would i? plus if i write it myself then i can't complain about how "i wish were different" or "why can't i do that?"

i like to program. and although i'm a amateur i have to learn somehow, so why not with something that i'll actually use!

you have to learn to build a wheel before you understand how to build a car.

Then another thing you might want to consider is working on an open source software project. For example, you could work with a system like Drupal to add the functionality you want, then contribute your code back to the project itself. That way, you learn something, and the world gets a better software product.

 

[ExoticFish]

i think that's a great idea and that sort of what i'm doing. i've always liked figuring out how things work for myself (hense the reinventing the wheel) and i'm already planning on give the code away for free once i've got a solid foundation. (heck i'd e-mail it to you now if you wanted) there's quite a few projects i'd love to contribute to... i'm just trying to learn enough to be able to!

 

[davecuse]

Just a little update on this, I've decided to use Mambo (or something similar) as a base, and I'm going to write a component or two to do what I want. Does anyone know of an open source CMS system that outputs some good looking standards compliant code? I've got Mambo up and running and after checking out the source I'm a little scared off by the nested tables. After reading through their forums it looks like that may change in the next version to some clean xhtml and css, but is there anything that would output clean code now? I don't really want to have to re-write the Mambo backend to get this done or wait half a year till they come out with the next version.

 

[davecuse]

Then another thing you might want to consider is working on an open source software project. For example, you could work with a system like Drupal to add the functionality you want, then contribute your code back to the project itself. That way, you learn something, and the world gets a better software product.

I just checked out Drupal, and I like it much better than Mambo. Does anyone else have any recommendations for open source CMS solutions?