Hi,
I have been asked by one of my clients to develop a 'simple' website for a local chamber of commerce for which he is the 'Marketing Director'. He is willing for me to spend 'his' time on the work but wants to minimise other costs.
My main role is general IT support, my web design and programming experience is pretty basic (although I have a background programming in BAL on IBM 360 mainframes a long time ago)but I have successfully implemented two sites using the Microsoft small business template for Visual Web Developer.
Unfortunately, there does not appear to be a suitable template in the Microsoft Template bundle for a chamber of commerce.
Does anyone know of a free (or very cheap) template that I could use as a base? My design capability is virtually zero so I need a firm foundation on which to build. A database of businesses with search tool is essential so that visitors can enter say 'coffee' and get back all the stores in the town that offer coffee in any form (Costa, supermarket, sandwich shop....)
 
OR....
A database/search module that I can 'plug-in' to an existing template that would enable me to build a database of businesses and incorporate a search within the website.
 
_____________
Geoff

Have you seen this before?  Please check, maybe you can find what you want,
http://www.asp.net/community/projects/
Hong-Gang Chen
Microsoft Online Community Support
Please remember to mark the replies as answers if they help and unmark them if they provide no help.

 Hong-Gang Chen - MSFT:
 
Have you seen this before?  Please check, maybe you can find what you want,
http://www.asp.net/community/projects/

Nope!!  But it looks like it does the business - now bookmarked 
_____________
Geoff

Great!
I still want to you know what do you want exactly.
Do you want a website template?  Or some other things?
Hong-Gang Chen
Microsoft Online Community Support
Please remember to mark the replies as answers if they help and unmark them if they provide no help.

Thanks for your interest:
I want to build a simple (4 to 10 page) website.
The site will have a general home page, a page or two covering events, maybe a news page, and a Directory of Members page.
On the directory page, visitors must be able to find each member by name of business, type of business and by a keyword search of their database record. The search should display a results showing key information about each business matching the search and from the results, a link to the member's own web site and/or a link to a directory page with morte information about the business.
eg:
www.midhurstchamber.org.uk   http://www.haslemerechamber.co.uk/
neither of these are sites I have provided but they do show the functionality required.
I am fine with producing the base site using one of the Microsoft asp.net templates but have no experience of using databases (i.e. for the directory of businesses) within a site. Actually, on closer inspection I am not sure that any of the templates on the site you gave me meet the bill. I am playing with Gridview and similar elements in VWD and am reasonably confident about getting data displayed from a database. I am still floundering around figuring out how to put in place a search page and displaying only records that meet the criteria. Then of course, I need someway for an administrator to maintain the records within the database!
It has also been suggested that we should enable members to sign up and pay for their membership (Paypal??) and donate to specific events. Perhaps when signed up and paid for, for them to be able to log-in and manage the data within their record.!!!!
 All very simple stuff for an IT manager with no specific web skills but some programming expertise that is essentially 40+ years old (BAL on IBM mainframes!!!!) 
 
_____________
Geoff

Well I would say that you should break this into tasks, alone the line of
1) Define site and features
2) Define where and how this site will run - Database type will be? MS SQL?
3) Start and build a website, Define a masterpage with the style design you need.
4) Define and build database
5) Build the data driven pages
6) Add membership (If needed)
7) Add admin section and data input/management forms.
8) Test and go live.
The above are very simple steps but hope they help to define whats needed.
As for the search and database bits take a look at 
http://www.maconstateit.net/tutorials/ASPNET20/default.htm
and
http://imar.spaanjaars.com/
You will be needing to use the Sql command Where to define the search results.
http://www.w3schools.com/Sql/sql_where.asp
And also order yourself a copy of
Beginning ASP.NET 3.5 in C# and VB.NET
by Imar Spaanjaars
http://www.wrox.com/WileyCDA/WroxTitle/productCd-047018759X.html
Very good book and will be a big help to you to build the site you need.
Hope it helps, and we be happy to help you alone the way if you get stuck.
Good luck.
Regards
Jeremy
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That way future readers will know which post solved your issue.

Good advice Jeremyh
Thanks for your input. I have taken a brief look at the resources you indicated and they look very helpful. I'll be taking a more detailed look next week.
_____________
Geoff