Dynamic sties - How to build

[Jon_King]

I visit many sites in my business sector that are data base driven. The industries I serve can often have fairly large catalogs that require numerous additions and deletions on a quarterly basis. So it seems quite resonable to use this approach for the site achitecture.

I do basic programming and do fairly well with html; but I wish to start on the path of learning and deployment of dynamic sites for the reason stated above. How or where would you advise me to start this process?

[Birdman]

Here's a couple of links for starters jon:

A dynamic site in 2 minutes
no special skills required [webmasterworld.com]

Build your own Database Driven Website using PHP & MySQL [sitepoint.com]

[Jon_King]

Seems to be a fine book (it's on the way). So Birdman, you feel PHP and MySql are the way to go?

[ShawnR]

I know the question was addressed to Birdman, but I'll give my thoughts as well:

>>>"...PHP and MySql are the way to go?..."

It depends. You need to answer the following questions before you decide whether to go down the php route or the asp route:

• Do you generally favour open-source, unix solutions, or do you just love Microsoft solutions
  
• Where do you host? on a linux server or a Windows server? What facilities does your host have available?
  
• Are you more familiar with unix/perl, etc or are you more familiar with Windows Visual Basic, VBA, MS Access
  

Bottom line: there are zealots of one or the other, but I think they both have their pros & cons, and it depends on your skills, preferences, and customer's requirements

Shawn

[takagi]

PHP and MySql are the way to go?

That depends also on your server/hosting company and on your programming skills. If you can use PHP and MySQL on your server and you know something about SQL (or you think you can easily learn the basics) I think that's the way to go.

[grahamstewart]

And of course the big selling point is that an Apache/PHP/MySQL set up is free. ;)

[Birdman]

>>it's on the way

Man, I wasn't trying to get you to buy a book, but it should help you out alot.

>>you feel PHP and MySql are the way to go?

Personally, yes! I don't care for ASP and MS hosting is way expensive. What you get for the extra money, I don't know. To me, PHP is very easy to learn and it has built in MySQL functions to interact with your db. And, as graham noted, both are free and available on the majority of hosts servers.

[griz_fan]

I actually use both PHP and ASP. I have two personal sites, one in ASP and one in PHP, and at work we're an ASP shop. There is a lot to like about each. But, having said that, I usually recomend PHP to someone starting out with their first dynamic site. I've found that there are a lot more open-source PHP scripts available for you to use, you have a lot more options for web hosting, and PHP enjoys a slight advantage in online tutorials. I also really like using MySQL. With ASP, you typically either use the under-powered Access for your database, or the expensive SQL server.