Hello. I'm a PHP newbie, but i've studied enough PHP, and gone through enough walk-through's and tutorials to feel that i'm ready to start going public. I have a couple of "clients" from my early days of <cringe> DreamWeaver and static pages w/ inline style (no CSS). As i'm trying to practice as much as possible and develop a solid portfolio representing my current knowledge of style, web application design and functionality, graphic design and presentation, etc-- the whole nine yards, i want to apply what i've learned of PHP (and CSS) over the past few months to some of my old (downright bad) designs.

One of the designs i'd like to overhaul is a Music Store's website. A musician myself, and private guitar instructor at this store, i published the static website as a courtesy. It is in DIRE need of an "Extreme Makeover"! i've been thinking about how i want to approach this redesign. obviously, i have PHP in mind for the implementation of a web-application on this site. Ideally, i'd like for the owner to be able to modify (add, delete, edit) product inventory listings, including item description and images. i realize that this is a complex and challenging project-- especially for a newbie such as myself. so, rather than jump right in w/out any planning, i want to practice a lot-- actually, i'd like to practice w/ this music store site, but only on http://localhost, of course.

i was thinking about this on my way to work today-- how will i use PHP to realize my planned site-overhaul? i know i'll want to use php for many aspects of the site. sure, i've published PHP pages before, but never an entire site managed by PHP, complete w/ web apps, etc. so, what i'm looking for is a resource where i might find templates, tutorials, or anything to help me visualize, and conceptualize the creation of a php driven website. this site is not going to be an e-commerce site currently, but i should plan for implementing that in the future, once i convince the owner that e-commerce is a safe, and smart way to do business.

does anyone know of something like this: a downloadable, fully structured product-inventory type of website, such that i can get in there and either customize the code for my own purposes, or at least study not only the code, but also the structure-- the very outline of this type of website.

i hope i'm making sense here-- it's difficult to describe. trying to put it in laymens terms.... i just want to know how to plan and structure this site-overhaul, and i'd like to try learning from example, and MOST IMPORTANTLY, being able to practice w/ my own custom text for this site, images, CSS, PHP, etc-- so i can really get a feel for how to tackle this upcoming site revision.

thanks so much for your patience in reading my short-story. i don't know why to be concise is such a challenge for me!

    You said you have studied PHP. Have you done any tutorials with a database: mySQL ?

    Can you create a table, write a row, edit a row, delete a row with PHP? If so, great. If not, try some tutorials on this aspect, too. Here is a good TooT: http://www.freewebmasterhelp.com/tutorials/phpmysql

    Do you know PHP cookies and sessions? I would learn these, too.

    I concur with SuperWormy that what you are doing is great, so work/play/experiment with it as you learn more. Plan for the future, then bite off chunks as you go.

    Most importantly, if this work is pro bono, have fun!

      Rodney H. wrote:

      Have you done any tutorials with a database: mySQL ?

      Can you create a table, write a row, edit a row, delete a row with PHP?

      yes. i have a pretty good handle on the whole PHP / MySQL integration thing-- going as far as creating a MySQL on a remote site, creating tables w/ different data types, populating those tables w/ html forms, then viewing the table data using such functions as mysql_fetch_array... etc.

      my concern is that i need to understand more the logic, quite simply from gaining experience, on how i might construct an application to do what i want-- especially considering that i haven't really done much in terms of multiple application syncrhonicity (for lack of a better term). i guess a good example would be like this... I know a bunch of chords, but i don't know how to play any songs from beginning to end, and i'm far from being able to improvise! hmm... that actually is probably the best analogy i could think of... assuming you follow the music lingo. 😉

      Do you know PHP cookies and sessions? I would learn these, too.

      now this, i have NOT tried yet. there may be a tutorial in the book i used for learning up to this point, Sams Publishing: Teach Yourself PHP, MySQL and Apache all in One. i read the majority of the book, stalling out only on the "Basic Project" section because, rather than simply go through each project, basically copying verbatim the code from the book, i have instead copied the code (not cut and paste either), and then tweaked it here and there to see how i might manipulate its functionality. i have encountered obstacles during that process, and because i wanted to learn from it, i didn't move on until i found a solution. so, that coupled w/ the fact that life gets in the way, and i'm also simultaneously studying CSS, i am sorry to say that i've only completed i think 3 or 4 of the Projects out of about 9 or more (i don't have the book w/ me).

      so, that's where i am. knowing a bunch of chords... and not even a drop in the bucket of how many chords there are, not to mention the different ways in which to compose those chords to produce a harmonious melody into a song (the web app) for a listener (a web visitor) to enjoy. and, of course the composition of those separate songs into an album of tunes-- that being the global site, having an overall function as a sum total of all of the individual apps working in harmony.

      haha... i should make note of that (no pun intended) analogy and write a book someday called "the Harmony (and dissonance) of PHP"! hehe. now, don't steal my idea! 🙂

        I have not seen much in this forum on using openlaszlo as a front end to PHP plus whatever backend services.

        So I offer this suggestion ..

        First look at this openlaszlo dashboard demo.

        If that media interface appeals to you, download openlaszlo (runs on Tomcat server, not Apache) and get started. Join the openlaszlo forum. Openlaszlo is opensource.

        You can call PHP + MySQL etc. from within openlaszlo apps quite easily.

        In fact, I have PHP5 (CGI mode) running as servlet on same Tomcat server as openlaszlo .. but equally PHP5 can run on Apache server on different port.

        I suggest PHP5 since it offers more XML handling compatibility with openlaszlo.

          ATS16805 wrote:

          I know a bunch of chords, but i don't know how to play any songs from beginning to end, and i'm far from being able to improvise! hmm... that actually is probably the best analogy i could think of... assuming you follow the music lingo. 😉

          (snip)

          so, that's where i am. knowing a bunch of chords...

          Well, I DO know what you mean. I have played the guitar since I was twelve years old, and really appreciate your analogy here. The way I see it, you could learn to "compose" with the few chords you do have and be original while you learn. (Think of how many amazing 3 and 4 chord songs there are out there!!) My humble opinion is not to look to others to do things for you, but to prioritize your site into project chunks and then tackle them as you go/learn/improve. If you are versed in design, photoshop and css, you probably want to keep the front end design in your hands anyway. Prioritize, set realistic goals, do some online tutorials, and begin to accomplish what you want. It is fun, too!

          PS. Whatever you do, make sure you write compliant XHTML and CSS and use online validation of your markup. AND, do what makes sense for YOU. 😃

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