Full-Stack Developer for UK Pub Rating & Review Platform.

# The Pub Index — Website Development Brief ## Project overview The Pub Index is a new UK pub discovery and rating platform. I currently maintain my own database of pubs that I have personally visited and rated. The aim is to develop this into a scalable website where users can discover pubs throughout England, view official Pub Index reviews, create accounts and submit their own ratings. A key requirement is that **The Pub Index's own editorial rating must always remain separate from the public/community rating.** The platform should initially focus on England but be designed so it could eventually expand across the whole UK. ## Core concept Every pub should be capable of having a page on the website. There will be two types of pub: **Pub Index Reviewed** These are pubs personally reviewed by The Pub Index. Their page should display the official Pub Index score, individual category scores, written review and additional pub information. **Community Only** These are pubs that have not yet been officially reviewed. Users should still be able to find these pubs and submit ratings. Until The Pub Index visits the pub, the page should display something such as: **Pub Index Rating: Not Yet Rated** alongside the separate: **Community Rating: 7.8/10 — Based on 42 ratings** ## Pub database I would like a scalable database containing pubs throughout England rather than manually creating every pub page individually. I am open to the developer recommending the most appropriate legally usable data source/API. Each pub record should ideally contain information such as pub name, town/city, county, postcode and geographical coordinates. There also needs to be an easy way for me to manually add a pub if it is missing. Duplicate pubs need to be prevented wherever possible. ## Website navigation The main navigation should include: * Home * Explore Pubs * Rankings * Reviews * About / How We Rate * Login / My Account Users should be able to find pubs either through search or by browsing geographical areas. For example: **Explore Pubs → Surrey → Reigate → Pub** ## Search and filtering Users should be able to search by pub name, town, postcode or location. Eventually I would like filtering for features such as food, beer garden, parking, chain/independent, price, Pub Index rating and community rating. Location-based searches such as pubs near the user would also be useful, although this does not necessarily need to be included in the first version. ## Individual pub pages Each pub should have its own permanent page. A Pub Index reviewed pub could include: **Official Pub Index Rating** Overall score plus category scores such as Atmosphere, Beer Garden, Cleanliness, Comfort, Location, Pint Quality, Price, Selection, Service and Pub Character. **Pub Index Review** Editorial written review. **Community Rating** Average score calculated from registered-user ratings. **Pub Information** Town, county, chain/independent, food availability, parking, website, facilities and opening hours. **Drink Prices** Prices recorded when the pub was reviewed, including the date checked. The design should clearly distinguish official information provided by The Pub Index from community-generated ratings. ## User accounts Users should be able to create an account and log in. A registered user should be able to submit a rating for a pub. Ideally a user should only have one active rating per pub, although they should be able to edit/update it later. The system should calculate the community rating automatically. Basic protections against spam/fake accounts should be considered. ## Community ratings I would like the developer's recommendation on the best rating system. Initially users could either: Rate the pub overall out of 10 or Rate selected categories and have an overall community score calculated automatically. The database should retain individual user ratings so averages automatically change as new ratings are submitted. ## Rankings The website should automatically generate ranking pages from the database. Examples include: Best Pubs Overall Best Beer Gardens Best Service Best Value Best Pint Quality Best Pub Character Highest Community Rated Rankings should ideally be filterable geographically in the future. For example: **Best Pubs in England** **Best Pubs in Surrey** **Best Pubs in Reigate** ## Administration This is extremely important. I am not a web developer, so I need an easy admin interface where I can manage the platform myself. I should be able to add/edit pubs, enter Pub Index scores, publish reviews, update pub information, enter drink prices, mark pubs as officially reviewed, remove inappropriate community content and manage users. I currently store my ratings in Microsoft Excel. If practical, I would also like the ability to initially import my existing pub database from Excel/CSV rather than manually entering everything again. ## Scalability The website should not be built as a collection of manually created pages. The pub pages should be dynamically created from a central database so the platform can eventually support thousands or tens of thousands of pubs. The architecture should also leave room for later features such as pub owners claiming profiles, photos, favourites, personalised recommendations, badges/achievements, following reviewers, mobile apps and expansion to Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. These features do not need to be developed in Version 1. ## Mobile The website must work extremely well on mobile phones. I expect a large proportion of users to search for pubs and submit ratings while they are out, so mobile usability is particularly important. ## Ownership I need to retain ownership/control of the domain, website code, database, accounts and data. Any third-party hosting/database/API accounts should ideally be created in my name rather than remaining permanently controlled by the developer. I also need access to the source code and administrator credentials once development is complete. ## What I would like from the developer I would like you to recommend the technology you would use, how the England-wide pub database would be created, how user accounts and ratings would work, how I would manage the site after launch, estimated development cost, estimated ongoing hosting/API costs, an approximate development structure/milestones, and examples of previous database-driven or review/community websites you have built. The initial objective is not to build every possible feature. I want to build a strong **Version 1 of The Pub Index** that can launch, attract users and then be expanded as the project grows.