First, my site is hosted by hostpc.com. They have one of the best valued packages around and have an EXCELLENT support system. Check them out at
www.hostpc.com. If you choose to use them based on my referral please put '
www.wheelingpokerclub.com' in the comments/referred by section on the signup form.
The main software used to create the site is called Mambo(
http://www.mamboserver.com). It is free to the public. (Hostpc has an installatron that will install the software to your website.) Mambo is a content management system that allows you to to create content for your site without any web programming knowledge. There are plenty of content management solutions on the web but I chose Mambo for the following reasons:
- Hostpc had an installatron for Mambo that made setting up much easier.
- There are a ton of Mambo templates out there. Templates create the look and feel for the website.
- There are quite a few addons that have been written to work with Mambo. Such as forums, calendars, registration systems that all integrate with Mambo.
I am a programmer by trade although not a web developer. I was able to take some of the components already created for certain purposes and 'tweak' them to suit my needs. Below are the components / addons that were used for this site:
- Poker tournament registration
- Taken from a party registration component and modified to add fields related to poker events.
- Added waiting list feature to allow members to register for an event even though it was full. If a registered player unregisters, the first person on the waiting list is moved into the event and notified via email.
- Forum
- Used from www.simplemachines.org.
- They have a great integration to Mambo to allow the forum to work with existing Mambo user database and to work within the template of the rest of the Mambo site.
- Corner of Fame Flash animation
- Created using some flash code I downloaded.
- It has a configuration file that I modified to display two sets of images. The top image which is the photo of the player, and the bottom image that is the text and picture of the award.
If you have further questions please feel free to post them here and I will try to answer as best as I can!
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