Omg What Do I Do??????

King

Im am just starting with PHP is there any web site that helps on scripting and stuff like that for PHP And I dont know how to even well what Do I do I downloaded version 4.3.2 ANd well What do I do from there thats All I did was download it..... HELP PLEASSSSEEEEEEEEEEEE

drew010

The php website has a nice little tutorial to get you started. See http://www.php.net/manual/en/tutorial.php. Then they recommend getting a book once you do that. They also have good directions on installing php. It is one of the more difficult things to install on unix because it has so many options with configure and then you have to modify your httpd.conf file. See http://www.php.net/manual/en/installation.php for installation on various platforms.
And of course there are tons of great articles here on phpbuilder to read.
Hope that can get you started some.

King

I heard that APACHE was good for beginners but what exactly i the diffence cant you do the same things on each one?

drew010

Apache is a popular open source webserver mainly for unix but it is ported to windows now. check out http://www.apache.org for more info. IIS/PWS is microsoft's windows based webserver. PHP is just a programming language that adds the ability to parse code on your webserver instead of just displaying html.

King

Ok I downloaded APACHE 2.0.4 Now what Do I do........How do I actually see the page. theres a thing that turns on and off like I can say start and stop and it would do stuff....but how do I actually see it in the broweser to actually see if it works?

drew010

If apache is successfully installed and configured on your computer you should be able to type http://localhost and have it return a webpage instead of Host Not Found

King

WOOT it works I can see the page 🙂 but now uhhhh how do I make the web page cool looking like add links and stuff????

drew010

well, you will have to find and edit the page. i think it should be in a folder like C:\apache\htdocs\ or something like that. then you need to know html in order to edit it. check out http://www.boogiejack.com/html_tutorials.html.

King

soo uhh would I just edit it with frontpage????

drew010

front page would work fine or you could just use your regular built in windows notepad program. but any html editor like frontpage is fine for it.

King

Ok I was editing it with frintpage....but whats the diffrence if I use PHP or the frontpage then....I dont see how I can make the backgrounds really cool and really Nice Navigation bars... this is the web page I have now but I want to make it look a lil more high tech you know what I mean...Im making a web page for a Ultima online shard.....

http://www.undefinedlegends.shorturl.com/

drew010

the difference between frontpage and php is that frontpage is an html editor and php is a programming language. im not familiar with frontpage because i use notepad to edit my html. but <body background="image.gif"> will give you a background image and nav bars are probably html tables.

King

So I can easily just use Frontpage then......to do this.....Or I have to use PHP..and where would I find these reallly cool backgrounds and navigation bars.... instead of that cheesy thing I have now...And im trying to learn PHP so I can acces files with my web page for my shard to keep track of accounts and edit things for my shards purposses to keep law and order so ppl will follow rules.

drew010

yeah, frontpage is good. i would hold off on learning php until you are more familiar with html cause php is a true programming language and can be complex to start with . you must know html to use php for the most part anyway. http://www.boogiejack.com has a good amount of graphics and stuff. plus you can do a websearch on yahoo or something for free graphics and clipart. then once you get that stuff down try moving into some php programming.

King

Heh I know how to use frontpage the program BUT ive never actually typed that stuff in notepade....But I guess you have to do that right cause for my first project to actually get familaer with PHP is to make a forums page Do you have idea how to do that...I can learn I have time

drew010

I'd practice learning html first, a forum is a HUGE project to take on and is very advanced and probably would be a failure as a beginning php project. I would recommend looking at http://www.hotscripts.com/PHP/Scripts_and_Programs/Discussion_Boards/ and downloading and installing one of those message boards for your first play with php. Start writing small scripts that do very basic things and then move up to bigger projects.

Norman_Graham

There's a senior member on this website - very good contributor - whose signature says "Learn your HTML wisely before trying to PHP". Very good advice. Frontpage is no use for learning the nuts and bolts of HTML.

Buy a book or use online tutorials to get a thorough grasp of HTML/XHTML before trying PHP (should take you one single weekend if you apply yourself and use your notepad/browser to experiment with all the techniques you need).

Step 2: Read Drew010's signature and buy the first book "Beginning PHP4", or choose a similar PHP primer (SAMS, New Riders, O'Reilly ...). Read it morning, noon and night and try out all the major concepts in the book. You can download the code for some books, but I seriously recommend typing it out yourself until you know what you're doing.

Best o luck

Norman