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I’ve redesigned most of an aging website and the static content part is basically finished. I’ve been successful with client-side scripting using javascript but now I will need to figure out how to implement server-side scripts for various capabilities. I have been reading and trying out some of the scripts in a book on php. The problem is that the scripts in the book concentrate only on php-based web pages, and that’s not what I think I need. For the original website I used FrontPage. In my redesign I have eliminated all FrontPage Extensions dependent features so as not to interfere with any server-side scripting I might need.
So, my basic question, before I invest more time studying php and MySQL is: Is php the right answer for what I need to implement (see below), or should I be learning Perl or something other than php?
What I’m trying to do is to sell musical arrangements online from my website:
a) user must create an account (CreateAccount.htm) Account details are then submitted to a Customer database on the server.
b) user describes instrumentation requirements for his group (DescribeGroup.htm) This is submitted to a related table in the Customer database
c) user can query an online Catalog database of my arrangements, searching by artist, song title, etc. (Catalog.htm)
d) query returns filtered list meeting query specs to Catalog.htm page, and the list is posted to a table (say 10 items at a time)
c) user can (say) right-click on any title and view further details about this title – instrumentation options, etc. Note that I have set up the Catalog database so that one table provides only the high-level detail (ID[key] Title, Artist, Style, etc) and a related table contains the lower-level details like various instrumentation options for each ID and also provides InstrumentationID as a second key to ensure that the correct parts are sent the customer.
d) user can scroll to subsequent/previous sets of 10 listings to view others that matched the query when appropriate.
e) user can click ‘Add to Cart’ to add any title to an order, with the possibility of removing or modifying it later. – this will create and order in the Customer that is linked to the user’s account ID and begin to record the selected products in an Orders table, using the ID key from the Catalog database
f) when user submits order, it brings a shopping cart page, where user will be able to pay (Cart.htm) – I’ll probably use PayPal.
g) email notification is sent to me that an order has been submitted so that I can deliver the product. The DescribeGroup results and customer’s email address, etc, are included in the email (thus data from two separate databases is pulled to create a single email.)
As I mentioned, the static content (these and other HTML pages) is already developed, now I need to add the capabilities I just described to them.
So, the bottom line, before I spend weeks going down a php-MySQL path is for me to know if I’m going in the right direction. This is all totally new to me. I know SQL, and already have the database schema for the two databases I think I need: Catalog, and Customer (different security levels, so different databases) so that’s at least a start, but I’m not sure about the rest, like how to get an HTML-based page to interact with a script that lives on the server. Finally, do the Catalog.htm and Cart.htm pages also need some php content? A lot of territory to cover!
Thanks in advance for any and all replies.
I should mention that I have installed XAMPP on my workstation.
TDinDC