What to use ... ?

[id10terror]

Hello:

Okay, bare with me for a second. Just looking at this site brings thoughts of ease to my mind that I would like to use somehow. Basically I need an online general store; clothes, books, food, etc. Currently I have everything in MS Access that I export to individual products as .html files. Updating is a nightmare and was wondering how to make my life easier. I do NOT know anything about ASP, PERL, PHP or SQL but it seems that these would be better suited.

What I like about THIS site is a few things; log name displayed, page 1 of something with last and first page button, number of people viewing the thread, and the control panel (which would be perfect for special needs clients). I noticed that it is PHP driven from "vBulletin".

Does anyone have any ideas what is the easiest way to go? ASP, PERL/PHP of SQL? I can buy and get tons of books on each, but getting a general idea of what is best suited wouold help before I start digging. Searching currently is through pulldown box and everything is in frames, which the world hates, but I love. Can anyone provide basica advantages and disadvantages, or a general overview of each product?


thanks

[russell]

well, mostly it comes down to (a) your comfort level with particular technologies/platforms. PHP or .NET is most likely the way to go. If you are familiar at all with Linux/Unix, and lean toward open source, you'll love PHP. If you are more inclined toward MS products and ease of installation and especially if you are not too familiar with how a server works, then .Net is the way to go. ASP and Perl are fine, but a little long in the tooth.

Don't be fooled by those who will tell you that PHP/Apache is free. Nothing's free once you turn it into an enterprise. Cost will be about the same either way.

Java is another viable alternative s well.

What you absolutely must learn is some basic SQL and one or another of the server side scripting languages