PHP, MySQL question for city based web site...

PHP and MySQL question...

[Nu1]

city based web site?

I am not new to PHP and MySQL but I am not an expert.

My project is to build a web site where users can look up info about current events by the city they are in. Once they have entered their city name, the database will grab all information regarding that city and return the info back to the user.

I intend to use PHP and MySQL but do not know how exactly go about this. Some direction from some of experts in this area would really help me out. Thanks!

The site will not be user driven but geographically driven instead. Its intention will be to inform users with local:

local Event calendar information,
local Nearby businesses,
local & advertisements.

These features could grow depending on the popularity of the website of course.

They should also have the availability to change their location.

Will I have to develop a template that will be populated everytime a user enters their location? or how is this done?

Any help on all my questions will be greatly appreciated!

Nu1

[Robber]

I would say, roughly speaking, first off do a bit of planning - start with all the features you are likley to need and just plan how you might incorporate them. Having done that you will probably want to move onto the design of the database structure, important to get this right or your performance wont be too good.

After that you are probably ready to start coding, but try and follow that plan you made earlier to keep some direction for the project.

I would think you will want a template, you can then pull out all your results from the database, render them and stick them in the template.

[Nu1]

Thanks! Your response really helps as planning is of course the most important part of every project.

Any open source programs you might recommend that work with PHP and MySQL that you might recommend?

Thanks,
Nu1