basically you need php to talk to sql... ok thats common enough
you need to know first how to pull info out of sql...
im assuming your using mysql, and mysql.com has wonderfully searchable documentation online
flow goes like this:
1) user submits a form or clicks on a link
<a href="articles.php?category=political">10 newest political articles</a>
2) information gets to php in one of several places $GET $POST $REQUEST and/or $SESSION amung others
you might end up with $_GET['category'] set to 'political'
3) you use a value given to decide which sql statement to build
$sql_statement = "SELECT * FROM articles WHERE category='{$_GET['category']}' LIMIT 10";
4) you send this to sql using the [man]mysql[/man]_blah() functions, and retrieve your resulting rows
5) you format the resulting data into some html using php, and the user sees it
does that help get you started
