PHP help with creating first PHP basic site

G

gsaunders

Perch
Hello,

I am brand new at PHP... been using ASP for web and I develop PC applications. I need some help getting pointed in the right direction and possible finding some free scripts to get things going.

Let's say I am building a site that does the following simple thing:

A user comes to a site and we offer them a service. The home page describes this service, provides maybe a link to a flash tutorial, a link to the blog for the site, and maybe a few other links elsewhere. Basic stuff.

The user decides they want to purchase our service which requires them to go through the following:

1) We would need the user to register with the basic user information most folks require. This can happen at the beginning of filling out the requested information or at the end. Not sure which would be the best.

2) We start the user through a series of forms requesting information on the various features of our service that they want. They obviously have various options and we would take them through a series of 4 or 5 screens.

3) We get to the last screen where the user has the option of uploading a file for us to use. They don't have to upload it, but the option would need to be there... OR instructions on how to upload it via FTP via instructions sent to them after the order is placed.

4) The final step would be to complete the order using Paypal to start as the clearing house for payments.

I need the following help.

1) First a great site full of tutorials and such to get up to speed with PHP.

2) A site or help with going through the basic steps of moving form information from one screen to the next which would then end up in a mySQL database.

3) A site or help with a session script or something that would help us ensure that the person on page 3 of the forms is the same person that initiated the process. This doesn't have to be full proof. This site is a test site that will be a work in progress and improved over time.

4) Could a CMS system do what we are looking to do? Something that has the ability to step through forms that are tied to the existing user and lead to a purchase. Recommendations?

5) Any general recommendations? We are not looking to create this fully professional site with a perfect backend and so on. We plan to have a pleasing to the eye front end and a back end that gets the job done with as little complication as possible at the moment and build it, upgrade it, improve it as we go and increase business.

I welcome all comments and help and I thank you in advance.

Thank You,
Greg
 
I forgot to mention. This will start out on a Windows server here at Jodo, but we may move it to a linux server and then if things grow move it to a semi-dedicated or dedicated. I am not locked to windows even though that is what I am familiar with, but since windows has PHP and mySQL I am willing to start there... or I can just create a new account for linux.

Thanks
 
Hi Greg,

I moved from ASP to ColdFusion and now to PHP. In each case, I found myself applying essentially the same programming logic, just having to do so using new commands and syntax structures. (I've yet to make the leap to object oriented PHP.) I've been doing PHP almost exclusively now for well over a year and wouldn't go back.

Here are some of the resources I used to get up to speed on PHP:

1) The Windows Help file version of the PHP documentation (downloaded from http://www.php.net/download-docs.php) I still live and die by this reference and hardly code a page without referring to it. I guess my memory ain't what it used to be!!

2) Programming PHP by Rasmus Lerdorf (O'Reilly). This book covers all the basics and some not-so-basic stuff. Breezing through it helped me convert my ASP/CF skills to PHP. I still dig through the book to find new techniques.

3) I've found some decent (and a few not-so-decent) tutorials and code samples at http://www.phpfreaks.com/ On the more basic end, there are tutorial at http://hotwired.lycos.com/webmonkey/programming/php/

4) And finally, I steal (er, I mean borrow whenever the licensing permits) all the code I can get. There are a ton of PHP code repositories out there, plus lots of great free function/object libraries that you can use in your sites. I just found one last night that lets me create zip files on the fly...four lines of code and I'm sending a zipped batch of files to the browser, and for free, too, how cool is that!

I guess I haven't given you a lot of specifics. Hopefully you'll find something worthwhile in my note.

Good luck!
Tim
 
skypanther said:
Hi Greg,

I moved from ASP to ColdFusion and now to PHP. In each case, I found myself applying essentially the same programming logic, just having to do so using new commands and syntax structures. (I've yet to make the leap to object oriented PHP.) I've been doing PHP almost exclusively now for well over a year and wouldn't go back.

Here are some of the resources I used to get up to speed on PHP:

1) The Windows Help file version of the PHP documentation (downloaded from http://www.php.net/download-docs.php) I still live and die by this reference and hardly code a page without referring to it. I guess my memory ain't what it used to be!!

2) Programming PHP by Rasmus Lerdorf (O'Reilly). This book covers all the basics and some not-so-basic stuff. Breezing through it helped me convert my ASP/CF skills to PHP. I still dig through the book to find new techniques.

3) I've found some decent (and a few not-so-decent) tutorials and code samples at http://www.phpfreaks.com/ On the more basic end, there are tutorial at http://hotwired.lycos.com/webmonkey/programming/php/

4) And finally, I steal (er, I mean borrow whenever the licensing permits) all the code I can get. There are a ton of PHP code repositories out there, plus lots of great free function/object libraries that you can use in your sites. I just found one last night that lets me create zip files on the fly...four lines of code and I'm sending a zipped batch of files to the browser, and for free, too, how cool is that!

I guess I haven't given you a lot of specifics. Hopefully you'll find something worthwhile in my note.

Good luck!
Tim
Click to expand...


I appreciate all the replies thus far.

I have found several form creation scripts that create multipage, multifield forms, and in the end will send an email and record to database.

I think the problem I may have now is I need the user to pay via paypal and wondering how to make that happen before posting the form to the database / email. I guess I could take the result code from the creation software and modify it. It is much easier reading and understanding php than started brand new in it. :)

I may have to look at transferring the results to a cart so the user can pay through a cart and let the cart store what they purchased.

I have got to keep it simple at the moment because it must be running in one week. Then I can enhance.

The other think I need is a phpScript that will create RSS2.0 XML feed from the contents of a database when a user visits the page. Anyone know of one that will do that?

I could write it, but time is of essence at the moment.

Thanks again.
 
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