New to databasing... please advise

I am in the process of starting a rental listings, roommate refferals, singles listings website. I have no prior web/database experience. Could anyone please advise me where to start?
Thank you !!!!

You really sure you want to do this yourself? What you're talking about would require a tremendous commitment of time and effort. It seems strange to me that an individual with no previous web/database experience (or did you mean web-database?) would suddenly want to try to construct a data driven website. I don't know what your background is, but have you considered hiring a qualified developer?

Thank you JMM for your reply. To answer your questions:

Yes, I'm sure I would like to do this myself, right now I have the time and a strong willingness to develop a new skill. Databasing is very interesting to me.

I'm am in the process of developing a small business on a shoestring buget, so hiring a professional is not an option.

Basically I just need to know where to start (given the type of site I am trying to start)... classes to take, books to read, etc...

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

OK. I meant no disrespect, I was just skeptical.

If you can fill us in a little more we can give you some better feedback.

Please summarize your web experience/skills:

Please summarize your database experience/skills:

Hi JMM....

No sweat, didn't think you meant any disrespect.

Web experience: Beginner level html.

Database experience: Beginner level access.

Basically I'm starting from scratch, I found some additional information from surfing and basically found out that I should start from square 1, meaning I should know html well before I venture into the realm of mysql, perl, etc.

Thoughts on that?

Thanks again for your help.

That's what I would recommend. You should be able to design and produce (with HTML) the page that you want to display data from the database on before you even touch the database/scripting.

As an aside, I am a proponent of hand-coding HTML.

In terms of learning about databases, I would start with a good book on database design. It sounds like you have access to Access (no pun intended), so you can use that to create and use databases as you're learning. I would suggest checking out "Database Design for Mere Mortals". It is perhaps a bit overblown, but seems to cover the fundamentals decently.

After learning about database design you would want to start learning some SQL. I've never had a book on SQL, I've just picked it up here and there. W3Schools would be a good place to start learning SQL.

When you do eventually get to the point of selecting a scripting language, I highly recommend PHP, give a huge thumbs-down to ColdFusion, and haven't used ASP much. MySQL is decent, but is not quite the same as using Access.

I hope this helps. Good luck.

Thank you for the learning "path" to follow.

I'll get cranking on the html and continue on from there.

Over and out.
LkeNoOther