I would start on that with some sort of relational database, and its corresponding DBI module. You could have the contact info, description, email addresses, and any other necessary info, and store it in said database. Then, for the registry part of the site, it would be very easy to search through the database with some simple sql calls based on selected criteria. Relational databases are an excellent route to go when information you have needs to be searched, sorted, and/or grouped often, as the routines to do so are already implemented, and designed to be as efficient as possible. In addition to that, if you want consumers and/or suppliers to have passwords with which to log in to the site, I'd take a look at storing this info in the database as well. Then, take a look at the AuthDBI module at CPAN (which I've used and works very well), for Authentication/Authorization out of the database. Having all this information would then enable things such as easily sorting things by user, letting users have configurable preferences, etc., all with just a few hairy sql statements.

In reply to Re: where to start? by plaid
in thread where to start? by chrisharris

Title:
Use:  <p> text here (a paragraph) </p>
and:  <code> code here </code>
to format your post, it's "PerlMonks-approved HTML":


  • Posts are HTML formatted. Put <p> </p> tags around your paragraphs. Put <code> </code> tags around your code and data!
  • Titles consisting of a single word are discouraged, and in most cases are disallowed outright.
  • Read Where should I post X? if you're not absolutely sure you're posting in the right place.
  • Please read these before you post! —
  • Posts may use any of the Perl Monks Approved HTML tags:
    a, abbr, b, big, blockquote, br, caption, center, col, colgroup, dd, del, details, div, dl, dt, em, font, h1, h2, h3, h4, h5, h6, hr, i, ins, li, ol, p, pre, readmore, small, span, spoiler, strike, strong, sub, summary, sup, table, tbody, td, tfoot, th, thead, tr, tt, u, ul, wbr
  • You may need to use entities for some characters, as follows. (Exception: Within code tags, you can put the characters literally.)
            For:     Use:
    & &amp;
    < &lt;
    > &gt;
    [ &#91;
    ] &#93;
  • Link using PerlMonks shortcuts! What shortcuts can I use for linking?
  • See Writeup Formatting Tips and other pages linked from there for more info.