Ask HN: Ok, I want to create a site this weekend, which framework/platform/tech?

3 points by drudru11 ↗ HN
Ok, I want to create a working site this weekend. A minimum viable product. I have a few ideas, but they could all be done as a simple web app in front of a mongo database. No need for comet or exotic stuff. I want to write the least amount of code, deployment headache, etc.

which tech/platform/framework should I use?

It should have the concept of users and authentication already built-in (facebook connect) It should have an admin interface to the persistent objects in the system

I'll start with two extremes: Is node.js ready yet? Should I just install wordpress?

7 comments

[ 4.8 ms ] story [ 30.8 ms ] thread
Whatever you already know.
Bottle + MongoDB + Google App Engine works for me.
how do you run mongodb on GAE?
Maybe he uses a third party ?
rhizome's correct. It will take more than a weekend with any tech platform to get to the point that you know enough to deploy an app in a week.

That said, with those rather sketchy specs, and no specification of what you already know, Django's on the short list, thanks to its rather nice and integrated admin interface.

For the MVP, if you're serious about the weekend timeframe, I'd suggest considering just sticking with Django's default SQL DB integration and where you see fit, slam some JSON blobs into the database and call it a day. I do mean "considering", it could go either way, but on that timeframe the extra several hours it could take to get something else running starts becoming significant percentages.

If you're willing to loosen up on the time frame a lot of other stuff becomes viable, but in terms of slamming it out now it's going to be difficult to beat Django... tie it, perhaps, but not beat it.

You should probably help us out by telling us what you already know at least a little, in terms of languages at the very least.

Hi,

Yeah, you are right. I thought I would ask since I'm always on the lookout for a fresh magic bullet :-)

I know Ruby/Rails, PHP, Python, Javascript, Java, Scala, Clojure, C, and C++. All languages require an investment in some kind of framework in order to pull off a real site.

As bad as it sounds, I'll probably just go with PHP and mongo for now because I already have an easy setup for that.