TOPIC: Is Hotspots the right tool for my needs?

I would really appreciate the gurus' advice on whether I am on the right path. Would really hate to spend weeks or months coding before hitting a showstopper that would have been obvious from the start to anyone with more experience.
What I am trying to create: a web site built around a map showing certain objects (buildings). Each object has an information page containing some hypertext decription, a few images, maybe a video (optional). Each object will also have a few attributes/fields linking it to other tables/entities like Architect, Style, etc. When looking at an object page it should be possible to click on the architect name and get to a page dedicated to that architect containg some hypertext info about him AND the list of the buildings by that architect, and the map should show or somehow highlight those buildings. The map pane and the "text" pane where all the lists and individual object pages are shown should be side-by-side.
The web site should support multiple languages - the textual info on all objects should be stored in different languages and upon the current user's choice all the text should be displayed in the requested language.
Ideally, the web site back end should support multiple admins with geographically restricted privileges: for example I might entrust someone with filling the database for Argentina but he should not be able to mess with objects in the UK or Russia.
At this moment the project exists as a Google MyMaps map which allows to very easily implement many of the features without any programming at all but unfortunately more advanced featurers just cannot be implemented there at all.
I must say that at this moment I know absolutely NOTHING about Joomla and contemporary web site development in general (I do understand basic HTML and Javascript though) but I am positive I can pick up necessary skills if someone confirms this is indeed the way to go
I have taken a brief look at Hotspots and it seems like it can easily cover MOST of my requirements but I really need someone to confirm or deny whether the following can be done at all and if yes then how hard it's going to be:
1. I would like the map and "text" panes to be resizable by simply dragging the divider line left or right. Possible?
2. Will I be able to achieve filtering objects by Architect or Style etc as I described above?
3. I don't like the default functionality where the list of objects on the right is limited to what lies within the current map boundaries. For example, if I am currently working with the buildings by a specific architect, I would like the list to continue showing all buildings by the architect even if the user zoomed into a specific building.
4. Would it be possible to implement admin privileges by country/city?
5. Can I store text in multiple languages for any object? I noticed the Language field in the hotspot form but frankly haven't figured out how it works yet.
6. Can images be hosted elsewhere (they are on smugmug currently) or I am supposed to move it to where Joomla is?
Many thanks to anyone who has made it to the end and will be able to provide any advice!

Hey Andrei,

Only your imagination is the limit. With that said I think that you should spend some time learning joomla and learning to program joomla extensions before you go further. No tool out there will fulfill your requirements 100%. But having an understanding how Joomla works, how Joomla extensions are programmed will help you modify those extensions to achieve what you want. Whether modifying or creating an extension for your specific needs is better is up to you.

You can' t do a lot of the things in your description with Hotspots. You can modify Hotspots to do those things, but I don't know if it is worth it. As I said - first learn joomla and coding joomla extensions and after that come back, grab the core version of hotspots and see if you can modify it or not. If you can't, then don't use it.

Regards,
Daniel

Thank you Daniel, just a couple more dumb questions:
1. Do I get it right that Hotspots comes with full source code and I am free to modify it in any way once I buy the license?
2. Is the PRO license lifetime or does it expire after a year? I do realize that I can't expect to get lifetime support if I only pay once, but suppose I am happy with the end result and don't need support after some point - can I expect that my site will continue to run fine with no further payments?
Regards,
Andrei

Hey Andrei,

Hotpsots is open source, so yes - you get the source code and you can do whatever you want with it.

2. No, we don't offer lifetime license. We have yearly subscriptions that will give you access to support and updates for an year. After that year expires you won't get access to new updates and you won't receive support, but the extension will continue to work as long as Joomla doesn't make a change to a function that we use and we have to update hotspots again. Normally that doesn't happen very often, but sometimes with updates things break. I can't do anything about that.