It ain't as bad as it seems. A database is nothing more than a big 3-dimensional spreadsheet written in a foreign language.
Quite a fun project in front of you, but what you want to do is the kind of stuff PHP/MySql was made for and believe it or not is pretty basic stuff. There is actually packages you can download that do all that stuff, but the learning curve of building your own compared with the aggravation of learning somebody elses then having to rebuild their code anyway is prolly about the same.
I suggest you install PHP and MySql on your home computer, it is much easier when you can relax and screw things up with nobody looking. For simple developement I like an all in one solution like EasyPHP. It has a couple minor bugs on my system, but installation was a snap and there was no configuring or anything to do at all. http://easyphp.org/ If somebody knows a better one to recommend, I would be all ears, but it has done me pretty good.
When I first got started (two or three months ago) I liked the tutorials at WebMonkey to give an overview: http://hotwired.lycos.com/webmonkey/99/21/index2a.html
I outgrew that pretty quick and went to DevShed: http://www.devshed.com/Server_Side/MySQL
Now I am usually searching for specific answer to specific issues.
The other day someone on this forum posted a link to a page that helps you build the forms and stuff for interacting with a database. I think it's pretty neat, it at least gives you a look at what to expect the code to look like (although I wouldn't actually give them my real password and stuff)
http://knebel.net/builders/form_builder/
Keep things in perspective and take it one step at a time, the pieces will fall together.
