[PHP] Cry for help
I need to learn PHP and databases. If I had those skills, I would be so much
more succesful with my web designs. What I usually do, is make the html
templates, and then hire someone, usually expensively, to do the PHP and
MySQL bankend.
Unfortunately, my programming skill is ZERO. Ok, maybe not zero, I do have a
little bit of PERL experience, but it mainly comes in the form of
downloading prewritten scripts, and lots of trial and error in editing them
using common sense and drawing on my experience of BASIC which I learned
when I was 6 years old!
I have browsed hours on the net looking for help in this sort of thing. I
have downloaded programs, I have read hours of documents and manuals, and
still, I am no further along than where I started. Programming and databases
are more of a mystery to me than women are. I'm absolutely CLUELESS.
So basically, I need to learn this stuff as soon as humanly possible, but I
have NO IDEA where to start. Let me tell you first what I have done thusfar.
First thing I did was download something called mySQL Max version 3.23.49
directly from the website of mysql. I was under the impression that this
program would be something along the lines of MS Access in the standpoint of
user interface, and it would allow you to create tables etc. (I do know how
to create some rudimentary tables in MS Access). So after I installed this
program, I clicked on the icon to start it, and to my surprise, the only
thing that happened was the an MS-Dos box popped up for about 2/10ths of a
second and then disappeared. So to me it was a waste of 2 hours of
downloading.
After a bit more of prodding I saw that there was some configuring to do.
For the life of me, I have no idea where to look, and even if I did, I
wouldnt have any idea what I need to configure anyways. Basically I want to
have this installed so that during my learning process of PHP, I can test
and run things on my local machine, and not have to connect to the internet,
upload files etc.
Secondly, I downloaded something similar, called Easy PHP. The website said
it would install this and that and then something else that would allow you
to run PHP scripts on your local machine as well as being an editor to help
you write scripts. So I downloaded this as well. So 27 MB and 3 hours later
I have yet another useless program with no interfaces nothing. Just
something that runs in the background.
So now I talked with my roommate and explained these issues to him. He
pointed me to a software called CodeCharge. So I downloaded that and spent
hours looking through the templates and what not, and although I can see
this is a step in the right direction, it still leaves me with more
questions than answers. It wants me to specify DNS or ODBC or ASPI etc etc
and I have no clue what that is, what it means or what is does.
Furthermore I see no way to use existing html files that I have created as
templates. Just existing ugly templates that come with the software. I'm
sure there is a way to do that, but I haven't figured it out.
So what are my questions? Basically want to do is create sets of HTML
templates for various sections of sites. Then using the templates, code the
PHP to pull the correct information from a database, manipulate it, and then
return it together with templates. For example. On this a site that I am now
working on, there is a section that will contain headlines to various news
stories. In the HTML it looks something like this:
A HREF=1.htmHEADLINE/ABR
DATE
All this would simply create is something that looks like this Below:
Headline
September 12, 2002
Obviously clicking the headline would take you to another page that would
give you the entire story. To me, drawing on common sense, what you are
really saying is this:
A HREF=1.htm{LOOK IN THE DATABASE FOR A HEADLINE AND PRINT IT
HERE}/ABR
{LOOK IN THE DATABASE FOR THE DATE OF THE ABOVE HEADLINE AND PRINT IT HERE}
Makes sense no? So really for this template, it would use 2 sections from
the database: Headline and Date and the PHP tells the server where to
put what depending on which templates is being used
I don't want to drag this on, but in other words for these sites that I am
creating there are basically 1 thing that I need to accomplish.
#1 is that I need a control panel that is somewhere that I can go to any
computer and log in to. When I do that I can log-in and that will bring me
to and ADD/EDIT/DELETE form for any section of the site, and if I go to add,
then I will type the various bits of info into it, click submit and
automatically that info is added to the database. The edit and delete
features are self explanatory, but the end result is simply saying that OK,
now I've entered the info into the database, Now, Mr. Server and Mr. PHP
when the time comes for this info to be used, you have the info.
To me this isn't brain science in concept, but I have no friggin idea where
to start. So? Where do I start?
Ok, so hopefully you've read with me so far.
Re: [PHP] Cry for help
Dude, take small steps, and try to understand what you're doing rather than jumping in head-on. Do lots of reading and searching. 1. You need an Apache webserver on your local machine. There are many good tutes, pre-compiled .exe's, etc etc on apache.org, and hundreds of tutorials on it across the web. Ignore PHP and MySQL -- just get apache running, and try to serve some basic HTML pages to yourself over http:// (NOT file:///). There is an apache-users list for help with this too. 2. Then try to get PHP working alongside Apache... create some very simple PHP pages, and try to get them working. No doubt Apache will need to have some tweaks to get it going. PHP IS a background process, NOT a GUI program. PHP parses certain webpages (commonly, those a with .php extension). Yes, this PHP list will be able to help with the installation. Personally, I'd download PHP ONLY from php.net, getting a pre-compiled installer of the latest stable release. 3. THEN try to get MySQL working with PHP and Apache. Again, this will require some reconfiguring of PHP and perhaps Apache. The best way to test if you've got MySQL set up right would be to install phpMyAdmin. There is a mysql mailing list which will be abel to help you with specific MySQL installation and configuration problems. Personally, I'd download MySQL ONLY from mysql.com, getting a pre-compiled installer of the latest stable release. 4. Install phpMyAdmin (.net or .org i think), which is a web based GUI interface for MySQL... again, read the documentation and installation instructions, go slowly, and you should be able to get it fired up, assuming that MySQL, PHP and Apache are all talking. There is a mailing list and forums specifically for installation and configuration of phpMyAdmin. 5. Find some SIMPLE tutorials on programming with PHP and MYSQL... something like the classic contact database examples on sitepoint.com, phpbeginner.com, phpbuilder.com, etc etc will be a good start. Books (yes, they aren't free) are good too. 6. Spend about a year trying to learn both MySQL and PHP, and you should be getting pretty good. There's no way you can expect to achieve what your current programmer's achieving overnight. It would appear from your email that you don't have much/any experience with web servers, server side scripting languages, SQL, etc etc, and it does take time to get a decent code library and knowledge base together. Please do expect this list to be able to help you huge emails covering 20,000 topics -- it's not going to work, and you are not going to become a php guru overnight. Take it slowly, preferably working on something personal, not something client-based with a deadline. Depending on the complexity of what you want to achieve, my guess is you'll be comfortable with using PHP and MYSQL in a client situation in about 3 to 12 months -- NOT a week. A bypass for step 1-3 may be an installation package called phpTriad, which installs Apache, PHP and MySQL with common configurations, supposedly pain free... although I've never done it... I'm pretty sure there's a windows version. Or, pay someone knowledgable and experience to set up all three for you on your machine. They are NOT like installing the latest version of Internet Explorer :) Good luck, Justin French on 12/09/02 6:44 PM, Chad Winger ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) wrote: I need to learn PHP and databases. If I had those skills, I would be so much more succesful with my web designs. What I usually do, is make the html templates, and then hire someone, usually expensively, to do the PHP and MySQL bankend. Unfortunately, my programming skill is ZERO. Ok, maybe not zero, I do have a little bit of PERL experience, but it mainly comes in the form of downloading prewritten scripts, and lots of trial and error in editing them using common sense and drawing on my experience of BASIC which I learned when I was 6 years old! I have browsed hours on the net looking for help in this sort of thing. I have downloaded programs, I have read hours of documents and manuals, and still, I am no further along than where I started. Programming and databases are more of a mystery to me than women are. I'm absolutely CLUELESS. So basically, I need to learn this stuff as soon as humanly possible, but I have NO IDEA where to start. Let me tell you first what I have done thusfar. First thing I did was download something called mySQL Max version 3.23.49 directly from the website of mysql. I was under the impression that this program would be something along the lines of MS Access in the standpoint of user interface, and it would allow you to create tables etc. (I do know how to create some rudimentary tables in MS Access). So after I installed this program, I clicked on the icon to start it, and to my surprise, the only thing that happened was the an MS-Dos box popped up for about 2/10ths of a second and then disappeared. So to me it was a waste of 2 hours
RE: [PHP] Cry for help
Hi Chad.
Some really excellent places to start:
http://www.onlamp.com/php/
http://www.phpbuilder.com/
http://www.devshed.com/Server_Side/PHP
http://www.zend.com/zend/tut/
Good luck!
Regards
-|Scott
-Original Message-
From: Chad Winger [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]
Sent: Thursday, September 12, 2002 10:44 AM
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: [PHP] Cry for help
I need to learn PHP and databases. If I had those skills, I would
be so much
more succesful with my web designs. What I usually do, is make the html
templates, and then hire someone, usually expensively, to do the PHP and
MySQL bankend.
Unfortunately, my programming skill is ZERO. Ok, maybe not zero,
I do have a
little bit of PERL experience, but it mainly comes in the form of
downloading prewritten scripts, and lots of trial and error in
editing them
using common sense and drawing on my experience of BASIC which I learned
when I was 6 years old!
I have browsed hours on the net looking for help in this sort of thing. I
have downloaded programs, I have read hours of documents and
manuals, and
still, I am no further along than where I started. Programming
and databases
are more of a mystery to me than women are. I'm absolutely CLUELESS.
So basically, I need to learn this stuff as soon as humanly
possible, but I
have NO IDEA where to start. Let me tell you first what I have
done thusfar.
First thing I did was download something called mySQL Max version 3.23.49
directly from the website of mysql. I was under the impression that this
program would be something along the lines of MS Access in the
standpoint of
user interface, and it would allow you to create tables etc. (I
do know how
to create some rudimentary tables in MS Access). So after I installed this
program, I clicked on the icon to start it, and to my surprise, the only
thing that happened was the an MS-Dos box popped up for about 2/10ths of a
second and then disappeared. So to me it was a waste of 2 hours of
downloading.
After a bit more of prodding I saw that there was some configuring to do.
For the life of me, I have no idea where to look, and even if I did, I
wouldnt have any idea what I need to configure anyways. Basically
I want to
have this installed so that during my learning process of PHP, I can test
and run things on my local machine, and not have to connect to
the internet,
upload files etc.
Secondly, I downloaded something similar, called Easy PHP. The
website said
it would install this and that and then something else that would
allow you
to run PHP scripts on your local machine as well as being an
editor to help
you write scripts. So I downloaded this as well. So 27 MB and 3
hours later
I have yet another useless program with no interfaces nothing. Just
something that runs in the background.
So now I talked with my roommate and explained these issues to him. He
pointed me to a software called CodeCharge. So I downloaded that and spent
hours looking through the templates and what not, and although I can see
this is a step in the right direction, it still leaves me with more
questions than answers. It wants me to specify DNS or ODBC or ASPI etc etc
and I have no clue what that is, what it means or what is does.
Furthermore I see no way to use existing html files that I have created as
templates. Just existing ugly templates that come with the software. I'm
sure there is a way to do that, but I haven't figured it out.
So what are my questions? Basically want to do is create sets of HTML
templates for various sections of sites. Then using the
templates, code the
PHP to pull the correct information from a database, manipulate
it, and then
return it together with templates. For example. On this a site
that I am now
working on, there is a section that will contain headlines to various news
stories. In the HTML it looks something like this:
A HREF=1.htmHEADLINE/ABR
DATE
All this would simply create is something that looks like this Below:
Headline
September 12, 2002
Obviously clicking the headline would take you to another page that would
give you the entire story. To me, drawing on common sense, what you are
really saying is this:
A HREF=1.htm{LOOK IN THE DATABASE FOR A HEADLINE AND PRINT IT
HERE}/ABR
{LOOK IN THE DATABASE FOR THE DATE OF THE ABOVE HEADLINE AND
PRINT IT HERE}
Makes sense no? So really for this template, it would use 2 sections from
the database: Headline and Date and the PHP tells the server where to
put what depending on which templates is being used
I don't want to drag this on, but in other words for these sites that I am
creating there are basically 1 thing that I need to accomplish.
#1 is that I need a control panel that is somewhere that I can go to any
computer and log in to. When I do that I can log-in and that will bring me
to and ADD/EDIT/DELETE form for any section of the site, and if I
go to add,
then I will type the various bits
