Newbie Struggling with MySQL/PHP Database Site

[cinemaniac]

I'm cool with HTML (I've been a webmaster/editor for the past few years and all my sites validate), but I've read a few tutorials on MySQL and PHP and my head is still spinning. So I thought I'd describe what I'd like to do and ask if the task will be straightforward and simple or complex and difficult. I don't expect anyone to walk me through it, but suggestions or pointers in the right direction would be greatly appreciated.

I'm planning a site on upcoming DVD releases. Each DVD release will have its own page with information on the film/DVD (along with affiliate links to order the DVD through online stores like Amazon.com). Now, I want site visitors to be able to display lists of upcoming DVDs based on several different criteria; the titles in the lists will be linked to the specific DVD pages. Specifically, I want separate pages that will list all DVD releases for a) any given month, b) any given week, c) any given genre/category, and d) any given studio. I want each of these lists to be arranged alphabetically by title. Now, these lists can be compiled without a PHP/database-driven site, but that would be require updating several HTML files each time I add a new DVD page to the site; I'll be adding dozens of titles every week, so that's not my idea of fun.

My web host has PHP/MySQL support, and I have access to database administration through cPanel and phpMyAdmin. What I figure -- based on the reading I've done so far -- is that I need to create a database with one table for all DVD releases. Each row of the table will have these fields: a) unique DVD ID (could this be the URL to its page on my site?), b) title, c) page URL (if not ID), d) release month, e) release date, f) genre/category (DVDs may belong to more than one genre/category), and g) studio. How do I make my website spit out these different lists as DVD titles linked to the specific DVD pages on my site (arranged alphabetically)? See, I'm clueless -- I don't even know how to create the table, but I assume phpMyAdmin will help me out a bit -- I just need guidance. I assume the PHP code that will display the different lists will be the easiest part of the whole racket.

I wish there was a simple way to go about creating the database -- like simply plugging in the DVD title, URL, release month, release date, genre/category(s), and studio into an easy-to-use form. But I guess it can't be that easy, huh? Unless I want to spend hundreds of dollars on software, right? (Which I don't, by the way.) Anyway, my head's spinning. Any thoughts on this? Is this going to be pretty tough or a piece of cake?

Any advice or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

[ergophobe]

Two things come to mind

1. Build a simple system. Check out Jatar K's post on the Basics of Extracting Data from MySQL (in the "library" for the php forum - look for hte link at the top of the main php page). That will give you some idea of what you're getting in to.

2. Get an off-the-shelf solution. Search for a free script and you might find something that does exactly what you're looking for. Alternatively, you could grab a free shopping cart system like osCommerce (one of many) and just try to hack around and disable the actual shoppng cart part (i.e. display "products" but with no "buy" button). That might work too.

Also, once you get in to the php/mysql/apache world, lots of software is free, so no, you don't have to spend a lot.

Tom