Need an off the shelf web directory software package

June 7, 2007 7:25 AM

Looking for off the shelf web directory type software that allows for ratings/comments etc...

Sorry if this is an easy question to answer, just couldn't think what to search for in Google, and i spent a while on it!

A client needs a web directory for a low budget. It will be broken down in categories (eg. places to stay, places to eat etc), be browsable by categories and text searches.

Each entry needs to be able to givena photo, 1-5 star ratings and comments (for either registered or anonymous users, not sure yet). The comments may need to be moderated before they appear on the site as well.

Ideally it would be ASP/MSSQL based but anything that runs on Windows2003 would be fine. Easy customisation of the HTML would be nice as well. It would also need an easy to use back-end system whereby the client can add venues, moderate and edit comments and ratings as well.

Open source would be ideal, although i don't mind paying a few hundred bucks, but it really does need to be as off-the-shelf as possible, ideally needing no more than just a bit of tinkering with the HTML/CSS to make it look nice.

Thanks!

posted by derbs to computers & internet (4 comments total)

How about free? Wordpress + Star Rating for Reviews. You can set it up in less than 30 minutes.
posted by planetkyoto at 7:36 AM on June 7, 2007

Could also probably do it in Drupal with a few plugins. You can run PHP apps on IIS, but I think Drupal requires either mySQL or Postgres for the DB.
posted by Good Brain at 9:56 AM on June 7, 2007

You could install Apache and MySQL on Windows 2003 and run Drupal or any other Content Management System (google for that and you'll find loads...)

You're more than likely going to find that php/mysql based systems are more widely used, free, and have more plugin support, etc, so if you want something cheap and likely to be maintained well into the future, I'd consider going that route.
posted by twiggy at 5:54 PM on June 7, 2007

Not an endorsement, because I do not like that they have changed their license to annual for updates, but http://www.review-script.com/
posted by bystander at 7:43 PM on June 7, 2007