Hope this is the right place for this.

 

I have to design part of a web site to allow my client to input, (and delete), details of dogs found, including photos, and where to contact to get your dog back.

 

Without really knowing where to start, I am thinking that PHP and MySQL will be able to do this, (I am working through the O'Reilly Book, "Head First PHP & MySQL", so should be able to work things out over time).

 

Am I right in my thinking, and are there any tips which might help me avoid reinventing the wheel.

 

many Thanks

 

Richard

Hi Richard, yes you are correct in thinking that PHP/MySQL are right for this job. You could also use .NET etc but PHP is far easier.

 

You could use a premade CMS such as Joomla which will have modules for adding images and details or you can sit down and learn it all from scratch! From scratch is far better IMHO as you can fix and add to it if you need to and more importantly you will understand what is happening.

 

You will need basic sql knowledge only - insert and update, dont delete anything!

Instead of deleting, set a marker field to a boolean 0 or 1 for visible or invisible. So if the record is to be displayed the field is 1, if its 'deleted' its set to 0.

 

For the PHP side of things the main one to look at is uploading the images.

You will have to decide;

1/ Are you going to generate thumbnail images when you upload them or display them

2/ Are you letting the client upload the images - if so prepare yourself for MASSIVE images straight from a digital camera!

3/ How the images are going to be displayed on the page. (thumbnails/lists etc)

 

When you upload the image, avoid putting the image into the database. Put the image into a folder and put the image name into the database, make managing it soo much easier.

 

Other than than, basic knowledge of forms and HTML shoudl see you through nicely

 

Good luck

 

Spike

Hi Richard, yes you are correct in thinking that PHP/MySQL are right for this job. You could also use .NET etc but PHP is far easier.

 

Hi Spike and Thanks for the quick reply.

 

I'll report back when I've made some progress, (which might be a while ).

 

Richard

Hi Spike and Thanks for the quick reply.

 

I'll report back when I've made some progress, (which might be a while ).

 

Richard

 

It's been a while now so....

 

Seemed that the client wants me to use ASP.NET to complete the site, so I have been working on learning it, but there is such a lot!!

 

I think I've cracked how to create a Table in SQL Server, but I'm not sure how to get it to show an image in a GridView which is saved in a directory, rather than the database. I'm thinking that the images will be called PrimaryKey.jpg, i.e. if the primary key of a row is say, 00001007. the image will be called 00001007.jpg, and it is the image file name that will be stored in the database, but the actual image should appear in the view.

 

Hope that makes sense

 

Richard

EDIT: Becuase I was up too late last night and my post was completely and utterly useless.

I assume MSSQL is similar to MySQL... but there is a type of field you can create called a BLOB ("Binary Large OBject"), where you can store image files - this might be easier for you than using loads of physical files.

 

There are loads of tutorials on the subject, here's one I found:

 

http://forum.codecall.net/php-tutorials/69...-mysql-php.html

 

Other than that I can't really help you much else as I don't do any ASP/.NET coding, but hopefully the above might help you find a way to do it in your situation.