Question about automating database inserts with PHP forms

Lagniappe_DBA

Hello,

I am a bit new to database building and I am taking on a project to convert the family businesses file system into a MySQL database system. I have learned how to build everything up in MySQL but somewhere down the line after I implement the database itself I am going to have to figure a way to add data to the database without performing manual SQL queries each time. After some research, I am thinking some sort PHP generated form could be leveraged to automate the data insertion process...

As in, the employees fill in the form each time they conduct a sale. Each form represents an entity of customer, with each field being tied to an attribute...

As I said, I am very new at this so I first would like to know if the above approach is feasible. Secondly, how difficult will this be to do? Lastly, what is a good source of information on how to get this done?

I appreciate the help. If this isn't the right place for this post please direct me?

NogDog

Yes, PHP can definitely do this (process an HTML form and insert the data into the D😎. If you have not done any server-side programming with DB interaction, it may be a bit daunting at first -- and there are a lot of poor/outdated tutorials out there, just to make things more difficult. Therefore, it may beg the question whether you'd be better off looking for an existing PHP application out there you could use; but if you're up for learning and a challenge, on the PHP side of things, you're looking at form-handling...

http://php.net/manual/en/language.variables.external.php

...and database processing...

http://php.net/pdo
...or...
http://php.net/mysqli

Lagniappe_DBA

NogDog;11046043 wrote:
Yes, PHP can definitely do this (process an HTML form and insert the data into the D😎. If you have not done any server-side programming with DB interaction, it may be a bit daunting at first -- and there are a lot of poor/outdated tutorials out there, just to make things more difficult. Therefore, it may beg the question whether you'd be better off looking for an existing PHP application out there you could use; but if you're up for learning and a challenge, on the PHP side of things, you're looking at form-handling...

http://php.net/manual/en/language.variables.external.php

...and database processing...

http://php.net/pdo
...or...
http://php.net/mysqli

Thanks for the info. I think you are correct that an existing product might be for the best. Any recommendations on a good form creator that can interface with MySQL?

NogDog

Lagniappe_DBA;11046047 wrote:
Thanks for the info. I think you are correct that an existing product might be for the best. Any recommendations on a good form creator that can interface with MySQL?

Not really: I write PHP for a living, so haven't really looked for anything like that. You could browse around at http://www.opensourcecms.com/ to see if anything looks promising, perhaps.

sneakyimp

Lagniappe_DBA;11046047 wrote:
Thanks for the info. I think you are correct that an existing product might be for the best. Any recommendations on a good form creator that can interface with MySQL?

PHPMyAdmin is the supreme MySQL tool written in PHP, but I expect this isn't really what you are looking for.