graphic design and code behind

gforce1977

hello,
i'm new to web development and my expertice is in the oracle database and application tools.
how can i develop an application on the web ?
can i do it like .net that the code developed separate gfrom the graphic design ?
how can i do that in php ?
so far i embeded tables in the php code so the records from the database got into the table , something like that:
echo "<table><tr><td>".ociresult($stmt,"JOB")."</td>"</td></tr></table>
what i want to do is develop the design in macromedia dreamweaver and the php code in zend studio , but i dont know how to combine the togethere.
can someone clearify this for me .
thanks

mmilano

unlike asp.net, there is no "code behind" page in php. personally i like it better.

if you want to define functions, just define them at the top of your script, or, in a seperate file and include them later. i'll give you a quick example of the first one.

<?
function my_function(){
  $text = "hello world";
}

echo "<table border=0 cellspacing=0 cellpadding=0>
<tr>
  <td>". my_function() ."</td>
</tr>
</table>";
?>

alternatively, if all your functions were in a file named "functions.php", then just include them at the top of the file like this:

<?
include("functions.php");
?>

coding php and dreamweaver together is going to be a bit more tricky, .. and coding with zend studio and dreamweaver would be even more tricky.

i'd say, if you must use dreamweaver, then use that to create the layout of your site first. the graphics, menus and such.

at the time, if you want to use zend studio, ditch dreamweaver and start modifying things in zend as you need too.

if you're coding php, you should probably make it a priority to understand how to code/modify html without dreamweaver.

not a flame in anyway, just my advice.

good luck.

gforce1977

thanks for the reply,
does the css file that i want to attach will work , so if i use

echo "<table><tr><td> . . . . "
and i have table,tr,td tag , will it apply ?

Weedpacket

Yes; CSS is applied to the page by the receiving client, to the HTML it receives. So long as the HTML generated by the PHP script is correct (and you can check this by looking at the HTML received by the client), any CSS would apply exactly as if the HTML had been written by hand.

gforce1977

can i ask u how do you build your web application?
how do u design your app , do u use dreamweaver ?
do u just type the php code and the html tag in it or do u design it first and then going to code it ?
how do u do it ?
can u clearify the steps i need to act because it's the basic and if i start wrong all the project will be wrong .
thanks

AstroTeg

Web development, I think, is kind of like an art. Everyone has their own way of doing and its probably a little different than everyone else. With that in mind, here's usually how I go about it:

List the core features and functionality of the site. Mapping all the user experiences helps as well. Its a great time to do the database design as well.
Get designing. Since I'm a coder, I get my graphics to do this. But if its a basic site or a non-professional site, then like my graphics guy, I'll go into Photoshop or other graphics tool and do a complete mockup of the site.
Once the mockup is done and everyone is liking it, we chop it up into parts and put HTML behind it. If there's roll overs, now is the time to make them work. If there's JavaScript involved anywhere, now is the time to make it work (usually - unless it must be server-side code driven).
Add the server-side code (ASP, PHP, doesn't matter). I'm comfy using Edit+ as my editor for doing the HTML mockup as well as all my server-side coding. Since you have working HTML, you shouldn't be worrying too much about content layout. What you WILL need to worry about is breaking the HTML. To prevent this, test and test often after major changes.
Test
Fix
Rinse and repeat

mmilano

i do it all by hand, .. but others who are used to dream weaver i know use that. if you do it with dreamweaver though, you're mainly just using the text editor and ftp portion of the app since dreamweaver doesn't have the php engine built into it to render the pages.

i think when you setup the site, you can define the links, so when you preview the pages it uploads and pulls up that url .. i'm not 100% on this cause i don't use it.

just think as php as a language that generates text. .. and the html is just the text. you're just using php to print out an html and any other client side elements such as javascript and css that your browser can read.

gforce1977

thanks for the great explanation
i'm getting there . . . :-) but still couple of questions
i see people writing scripts with all the html in the php and others that put all the php in the html.
for example (the html is inside the php code) :
echo "<html>
<select name=\"test\">";
while (OCIFetchInto ($stmt, $row, OCI_ASSOC)) {
echo "
<option value=".$row['CATID']." >".$row['CATNAME']."</option>";

}
echo "</select>";

. . . rest of php

the second: (the php code inside the html ,break the html)
<?php
include("headerbug.php");
if (!isset($POST['maincategory']) or !isset($POST['subcategory']) or !isset($_POST['problem'])){

?>
<form action="<?$_SERVER['PHP_SELF'] ?>" method="post" name="loginbug" id="loginbug">
<table align="center" class="tblbody">
<tr>
<td>category</td>
<td><select name="maincategory" id="maincategory">
<?php
for ($I=0;$I<count($listrow['CATID']);$I++){
echo "
<option value=".$listrow['CATID'][$I]." >".$listrow['CATNAME'][$I]."</option>";
}
?>
.. . rest of html

which one is the right one ?
which one is more simple to debug,maintain and has improve performence?
what do u think ?

AstroTeg

Again, its a preference issue. As long as the end result produces what you want, then either will work.

Personally, I prefer keeping all (or as much as possible) HTML in templates. I've got a template library that I use and have PHP call the template I need and drop in the variables. Now all the PHP stays together and it drives the functionality of the site while the HTML is all together and drives the look and feel of the site. In terms of raw performance, I'm pretty sure its not the fastest, but its doesn't put a big dent in performance either.