PHP on OS X newbie

Hiya guys,

i'm trying to design a website so that my client can update portions of the content on her own through a browser (e.g. IE). I'm thinking of creating a page where she has to login with a password to get into another page where she can fill in appropriate fields in a form, and click "update" to update content on the actual webpage.

I'm using OS X 10.1.5 and my remote domain site only supports PHP & MySQL (the basic package from URL).

I'll be using Dreamweaver MX on my OS X, and i'm feeling really really lost, as to where to start. I'm good at designing static HTML & Javascript pages, but finding it really difficult coz more and more clients are asking for "dynamic" features (esp. being able to update content on their own).

I would greatly appreciate if i could get help on how to get started (coming from a web designer's point of view, as opposed to a programmer). I'm more a visual person, and find much difficulty understanding most online tutes which are targeted towards programmers.

Is there a site, that helps web designers how to program PHP from a "designer's" point of view?

Thanks people!
Des

ummm....

am i the only OS X user on this board?..

please let me know i'm not alone on this..

It's not that you're the only OS X user, per se, it's that you're kind of asking the wrong questions. How you create a dynamic website is usually infinitely more dependent on the OS your server uses. . .

You can create dynamic websites on any OS with a simple text editor. Your choice of workstation OS doesn't have much importance, besides some of the tools it provides.

I don't really know much about Dreamweaver- I use it a little, but hand-code most of my sites. I've heard it generates PHP for you. I've also heard it pretty much sucks for this. Code generators, sort of a holy grail for pointy-headed bosses for quite a while, always come up severely lacking.

My suggestion, if you want to pick up PHP, is to read the tutorials on the main devshed site. If you want to create code, you're going to have to learn how to write it. PHP is considered one of the easiest web scripting languages to use, and I think it deserves the title. If you're a designer that wants to create a little code, PHP (or perl, if you want to learn a more complete scripting language) is the way to go.

I don't know of any "visual" tutorials. That doesn't mean they don't exist, but coding dynamic sites isn't like designing graphics. Screenshots don't help you too much.

Thanks Hero Zzyzzx,

Your advice is much appreciated.

Somehow i knew there wasn't an easy way out of this... But i love the challenge! Guess it's worth the effort learning PHP from scratch if i'm serious about building dynamic sites...

BTW, how's Perl different from PHP? Or should i tackle PHP first as a beginner, then move on to Perl, once i get more familiar with PHP programming...?


cheers!

That can be a religious issue.

Start with PHP if you only want to do web scripting. You can always learn perl later.

If you want a more general purpose language, go with perl.

Both languages have their merits (and zealots) but they're also both excellent starting points. Read a couple of *good* tutorials on each, and then decide where to spend your time.

Devshed has some good articles on PHP and perl. I recommend Ovid's CGI Course as a great perl CGI programming introduction.

If you tackle programming with the attention to detail you've applied to your design, you'll do fine.

Cheers mate!