Newbie needs help making datadrive website on mac?

I need to do this on a mac using dreamweaver MX

[benjo]

So the thing is we are making a datadriven website for my local church. I'm using a Mac and Dreamweaver MX. So my question is how do I go about doing this?

I'm also looking for a way for members to purchase surrmons online. So an e-commerce solution looks like the way to go. I just don't know how.

Thanks in advance!

[griz_fan]

Hi Benjo,

What version of the Mac OS do you have? I don't know a lot about Macs, but I do know that OS X, with its BSD roots, can easily run Apache, PHP and MySQL, which would make an excellent foundation for an e-commerce site. Dreamweaver MX works quite nicely with this combination as well. So, if you have OS X, you should be well on your way to having the tools needed to develop your site on your local PC. Just be sure to find a web host that offers PHP and MySQL as well.
Another tip: take a look at Macromedia's support section. They have a great support section (IMHO) with lots of "how to" guides. Be sure to visit the Dreamweaver newsgroup as well, this is a great resource for Dreamweaver as well. Also, check out [phpmac.com...]
Last piece of advice: start small and simple. Don't tackle the e-commerce aspect until you have a firm grasp on site management and building a data-driven site.

[benjo]

griz_fan thanks for your prompt responce.

I'm going to be working on both Mac OSX 10.1 & 10.2. I'll look into what you said and I didn't even know about things like phpmac.com. Thanks again!

[astroboy]

As griz_fan mentioned, what you used to develop depends largely on the final hosting platform. Using Apache on your OS X or another UNIX platform can give you many development choices. For us, we use a free server side scripting environment call RACE (http://www.racekit.net). It makes building a dynamic database driven site really easy.