Nerds, I need help!

[JVO]

Hey first time on the nerd forum! I feel smarter already.

Anyway here is my dilema. I am in the process of composing a 2000 page proposal for a university that we are submitting a bid too. As part of the specs I am required to post our menus (month by month) on an independant website, so that students can access the information on-line. Now these menus are extraordinarily complicated so imputing the information would take a considerable amount of time. Is there a web host that would allow me to transfer excel files into a site that I could use to host our menus. My goal would be to have an address I can put in the proposal that the administrators could type in and immediately see our menus. We do the same thing with surveys that we post using Formsite.com. I have no clue when it comes to webhosting.

Any suggestions? Is there a way to easily do this, or should I have our Design company do it?

Thanks for any suggestions!

[larryhead]

What up JVO, welcome to the nerd forum. :expert:

I guess we need some more info... what do you mean by month-by-month menus?.. the only menus I know are site navigation menus and the Red Lobster menu. But if you already have all your info entered into an Excel file, I *think* there is a way to output that file into html format so you can put it on the web. Can you tell us what info yer trying to publish online (if it's not secret). :)

[slam]

you're not going to find a simple plug-n-play solution for this. you'll probably end up needing to outsource this to some web development people. of primary concern will be 1) how often the excel spreadsheet changes, and how often the website needs to be updated with new data, 2) whether the information will be freely available to everyone, or whether people will need to log in to view things, and 3) how complicated your excel spreadsheet is.

building a calendar on a web page is fairly trivial... it's migrating the data that's going to be tricky. if you all have some money to throw around, i'd be willing to help you out with this. i've got a little tiny amount of free time in my life. i don't think the project is all that complicated, but i'd imagine you'll end up paying at least a few grand to any consultants that would take this on.

(wrangling data is pretty much what i do 40 hours a week, so at the very least, i could let you know whether any proposed solutions you receive are any good)

[JVO]

Thanks. I decided to go ahead and outsource it to our design company. They are going to add a "Menu" section to our corporate site where students can check on menus at the various schools.

Thanks though, I feel less guilty about outsorcing it.

Are you all familiar with Formsite.com? I use it on a daily basis and absolutely love it. Very user friendly (obviously so, if I can use it!) and not very expensive.

[slam]

of course i'm not familiar with it! last thing i need to do is convince my bosses to outsource my job for me!

i'm a fan of developing everything in house, in archaic code, with sparce/misleading comments. that's called job security, baby!

[larryhead]

A little defensive there eh? JVO, the truth is slam actually outsources all his work to formsite.com and spends all day playing MUDs. :D

[JVO]

He, He, He, LH! I know that's true. I don't think Slam acutally knows anything about computers. The entire thing is just a con to pick up on pale faced girls.

[slam]

it works, too, lemme tell ya!