Looking to turn the corner into dynamic websites

seperation between database extraction and appearance

[The_Hat]

The time has come to turn the corner into building some more owner updateable/ dynamic websites.. I know my design skills.. not a complete stranger to php or mysql databases but need a bit of help with the all the program names out there, or perhaps a good place to read up on them.. I have heard of the "Smarty" template engine, and I have heard of "Ruby on Rails" both of which seem to be similar in nature.. Is that right? What other programs would provide a separation layer between database output/input and appearance?

Any guidance?

btw, love the site.. got my start in the industry as a result of the learning I’ve gained here.. fully self taught, and loving the industry, thanks WebMasterWorld

[WesleyC]

Welcome to WW!

Ruby on Rails is an entirely different system than PHP--it's a completely different programming language (Ruby) with its own framework (Rails). While it's fairly powerful, Ruby as a language can be rather confusing.

Smarty is a PHP templating system, designed to do some of the menial, oft-repeated tasks in PHP websites. While I won't go in-depth into it or its competitors (such as CakePHP), I'll tell you right off the bat that it won't enable you to do anything you couldn't do with some time and effort on your own.

I also am a self-taught developer--I taught myself HTML, then CSS, PHP, SQL, Javascript, C/C++/C#, and how to administrate websites on both Linux and Windows, running Apache and IIS.

Based on this experience, I have one main piece of advice for you: the first time you want something, build it yourself without the aid of a framework. You'll learn more about the underlying systems and what they're capable of than in any other fashion. This will help you a LOT when you do start using frameworks, to know when something's possible, when it isn't, and when your framework is limiting you.

In two weeks, I'll start my freshman year of college--and hey, what do you know? I already seem to have a solid knowledge of the language they're teaching, from the ground up. :P Not only that--because I forced myself to learn WHY it works as well as how to use it, I can not only handle the class with ease, but also teach and help others interested in the subject.

Other server-side languages you might be interested in:

ASP.NET (this is actually a framework like Rails that requires one of several languages--I learned C# because of the syntax's similarity to PHP, but VB is very popular too)
Perl
Rails (Ruby is, I believe, the only language that works on the Rails framework)
ColdFusion

Client-side languages on which you'll need a firm grasp:

HTML (4.01 strict is the most common type--do some research around WW to learn some arguments to present to clients that want you to do "XHTML" websites, as this is primarily a buzzword companies like to ask for--there are very few reasons to use true XHTML)
CSS
Javascript

Optional client-side technologies that can increase your worth as a developer:

Flash
Shockwave

Learning SEO is also a must, as many in here will tell you.

Again, welcome to WW, and good luck in the acronym soup!

[The_Hat]

I actually have a little over four years on you here at WW so your welcome is just a tad belated. I am actually proficient in hand coding xhtml, css, php, and css myself so your reply is a little more broad based than what I was looking for ...the first two paragraphs told me all I wanted the know... but I thank you just the same.

[WesleyC]

Whoops, sorry! I'm afraid my brain saw the "1" at the start of your post count and ignored the rest entirely. :P Terribly sorry about that.

[The_Hat]

No problem WesleyC

... most of all of us are busy busy at other things when we stop by here.. mistakes do happen..

Let ME welcome YOU to WW. *evil grin*

[WesleyC]

Hah! Well said. You've been here far longer than my month or two. ;)