Question

when people talk about having a server that receives request ( say to update tickets in DB, or fetch tickets..etc), what kind of server are we talking here? Is it just a webserver (say from host gator) and couple of PHP scripts handling requests or are we talking about specific kind of server (different than web hosting server)?

My intention is to have an android app that sends a ticket to server and track status. Kind of like bug tracker.
Thank you

Answer 1

(to add to Jasons detailed answer about “what servers are”)

Depending on your knowledge of running a server whether it be through an ssh connection to a shell or a control panel, I would suggest getting a very cheap low end server.

for example: ramhost.us offers low end servers with root access, or even cheaper solutions for shared servers where you have “limited” amounts of features like how many mysql databases if you want everything already setup and a basic control panel like host gator would give you.

Let’s assume you were doing bug tracking:
Tho I have not looked into it myself. If you wanted a cool framework for handling bugs and tracking them instead of writing your own php scripts you could install

Mantis bug tracking:
http://www.mantisbt.org/

and possibly hook into and create a simple php script using a public/private key encryption to create new bug reports

source: I’m a client of ramhost and have used their servers to run simialar setups and hooked into a “phpbb3” forum framework through a custom php script with public private key encryption to create user accounts externally