Trying to figure our if it's worth doing...

Complete newbie talks about what kind of script he needs (PHP/MySQL)

[Bantha]

Well.

I'm going to administrate a userdatabase. Simple stuff (I'm sure).
* Nickname
* Member number
* Name, address and so on

I want users to fill out a form, and have the data from the form submitted to a MySQL database. I then want to insert the values from the form into HTML, to generate a table.

Maybe even a password protected page where members can maintain their own information (and "personal ads).

This is a club for cat owners, namely Norwegian Forest cats. (yes, I wanted a dog. The four-legged furries grow on ya though).

It's kinda hard explaining this without visual aide, so here goes..
This is a list of members who want to be listed:
<>

And here's a list of ads:
<>

Right now I'm maintaining these lists manually using a text editor. I have forms the members fill out and the content is sent to me via e-mail.

I know nothing about PHP or MySQL.
I have no prior knowledge of any code language at all

Is what I want something that'd take me a long time to learn? I purchased PHP and MySQL Web Development [amazon.com], but this was kinda over the top for me. Not entry level enough for me. Perhaps you guys have some suggestions for me?

Or should I hire a PHP coder? ;)

Thanks. :)

--
Fred

[edited by: jatar_k at 7:07 pm (utc) on June 1, 2005]
[edit reason] no urls thanks [/edit]

[Blackie]

I would definetely invest in learning php/mysql. When you do member registration, and ads handling, then you will think of hundreds of other useful features to implement :-) (i do some developing for chinchilla club :-)).

So you will stand better knowing php yourself rather then hiring developers each time you need something.

So good luck!

[Bantha]

Thanks Blackie.
Any suggested reading for me? ;)

--
Fred

[Blackie]

I actually do own a first edition of the book you mentioning in your post and think it's not that bad ;-), but I see that it could be hard to start with.

Try simpler tutorials on the web (make a google search "php tutorial") where you can start writing small scripts at the same time. I really think that the best way to know something is to actually do it.

Do some small nice stuff and implement it on your cats pages, you will be impressed how much you learn that way.

[coopster]

>>Any suggested reading for me?

How about our PHP Forum Library [webmasterworld.com]?

Learning PHP - Books, Tutorials and Online Resources [webmasterworld.com]