Creating dynamic pages based on databases?

They have: 5,633 posts

Joined: Jan 1970

As a hobby I'm creating a site for my home town which lists all the clubs, bars and pubs in the area. A bit of a nightlife guide.

As I'm a bit of a novice I've started to create all the pages in html, and there's literally over 50 places yet to include. So it will be a painstaking process of making each page 50 times from scratch, and saving them. e.g. branigans.html, walkabout.html, etc.

Is it possible to make a table which stores all the entries like a database (put it on my server space), and when a person clicks on the Branigans link or whatever bar they want, the relevent info for that place is pulled from the database and is generated onto a templated page. e.g. i set the look and feel of the page up and designate areas where i want the data to be displayed.

What programs will i need to do this? I do all my work in Dreamweaver MX. My server provider allows me My SQL, asp and php support.

I dont have any My SQL, asp, or php knowledge but i'm investing in some text books. Any suggestions on what tools i'd need to use, is what i want doing straightforward? Will i need to write much code, any tips would be appreciated. Thanks, David.

Suzanne's picture

She has: 5,507 posts

Joined: Feb 2000

PHP+MySQL is good. See sitepoint.com/books/ for an excellent reference for just starting out.

Basically, you create the table, create a form that, and then with PHP tell the form to submit to the database. Then once you have the information in, you can make a page that pulls the information FROM the database to display it. Alternatively, you can use php and the database to create pages for you, having it do the markup for you... Wink

Suzanne's picture

She has: 5,507 posts

Joined: Feb 2000

Tips -- plan it out, make the HTML first, then put the scripting around it. Plan, plan, plan, learn, learn, learn, then do.

Want to join the discussion? Create an account or log in if you already have one. Joining is fast, free and painless! We’ll even whisk you back here when you’ve finished.