Ive just got to grips with html and style sheets and now want to get a little deeper into website development. Now am I right, that with html and css I can only create a static webpage, and to get some dynamic content Ill need to use some script?
Ive heard about php and mysql but Im afraid they dont really mean much to me. Ive found a few books and that on them, but its never really explained WHY Id want to use them. Can somebody please explain.
Also are there any decent graphics packages about that wont break the bank?
For server side languages, well this forum is the most obvious example the springs to mind. This whole forum is nothing more than the contents of a database spat out into an html file by a server side language (in this case PHP). The HTML give structure and meaning to the data, but without a database to store the information, there would be no way of recording what people type up and post and without the server side language (PHP) there'd be no day of putting that data in or getting that data out of the database and written into an HTML file.
PHP also handles the process of you logging into the system and tracking you and storing your session data to give the illusion of being a user in a system with your preferences and other data being carried around with you from document to document.
It's generally web developers that build CMS's. A CMS is just a convenient system for managing the content of a site, rather than doing everything yourself manually.
This whole forum is nothing more than the contents of a database spat out into an html file by a server side language (in this case PHP). The HTML give structure and meaning to the data, but without a database to store the information, there would be no way of recording what people type up and post and without the server side language (PHP) there'd be no day of putting that data in or getting that data out of the database and written into an HTML file.
That's an over simplification of what the PHP is used for. However, I do agree that more than one type of language is used to do things like this. This forum system includes code written in X/HTML, CSS, JavaScript, PHP, and MySQL.
That's an over simplification of what the PHP is used for.
Not really, it's just one example that doesn't really give the whole picture. A really easy example (wich still doesn't give anything like the whole picture) is when there's something that appears on every page (e.g. navigation), that you want to keep on another file so as to make updating that bit a lot easier. It'd simply be done like so:
PHP Code:
<?php include('menu-file.inc'); ?>
Basically PHP or any other server side language performs a process before anything is sent to the clients computer and sends the illusion of static files that have in reallity been created on the fly.
Disclaimer. (1) Whilst I will help you sometimes, if I feel like it, and my advice in relation to your actual question will be of good quality: my posts are to be taken with a pinch of salt. I will be sarcastic, deploy irony and include obscure cultural references for my own amusement without warning.
(2) You will gain nothing from complaining, and if you try to argue with me then you will not win. No matter how noble your battle seems, I am still better than you, don't be an hero.
I'm new to this forum and was just browsing threads... I've read this thread and I think this resource might be helpful to some of you: http://phcodes.atspace.com/
I've found many super helpful pre-written codes and scripts there.
A nudge in the right direction please
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Originally Posted by Stephen Philbin
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