>All,
>
>I have a friend who has an idea / specification & funding for a new website. He aims to deliver to the textile industry a parts ordering / cataloguing service for which there are many interested / potential customers. The problem is that he does not know what solutions is available. I was wondering how we go about selecting the right database type to use i.e. SQL / Foxpro / Oracle , the right questions to ask and also what the front end should be designed in i.e. ASP, HTML etc. We would like to know who could host the site etc
>
>Can anybody point me in the right direction please?
>
>Many Thanks in Advance

Everything depends on his preferences and knowledge.
We are Microsoft Certified Partner and our experience show that we get best results with ASP.Net, C# and SQLServer.If he couldn't aford, he can use freeware MSDE, which is cut SQLServer and I suppose, that he will be not able to afford VS.Net, in this case and recoment to use freeware WebMatrix.
Both webMatrix and MSDE he can download at http://www.asp.net/webmatrix/download.aspx?tabindex=4