Web page hooking (front page to back end)?

Just need to know links and tutorials for the following:

I would like to 'hook' a web page to a database held on the server. But... how the hell am I supposed to do it?

Whta technologies are used and where do you embed the script within the HTML page?

This question has bugged me for months and I would be greatly thankful for anyone with the knowledge to reply.

The possibilities are endless. The first question should be what, if any, programming languages are you familiar with. You could use Java, Visual Basic, PHP, C++, etc, etc.

My personal experience is that VB (VB6 anyway) might be the easiest to pick up but it's functionality is limited to Windows Systems.

There is plenty of help available for most anything you'd choose.

I can do the following pretty well:

• HTML
• Cascading Style Sheets
• JavaScript
• C/C++ (but I do not want to use these - I hate pointers)
• Java (I prefer this over C/C++)
• MS Access
• (and Dreamweaver, Photoshop, Flash)

I am currently learning SQL to tweak my databases and will follow this up with some heavy duty Visual Basic.

Should I take the ASP/ASP.NET approach (under Microsoft), PHP or totally go the Java route and use Java Server Pages?

I am aware that Coldfusion can hook to databases as can Delphi (using the Delphi object).

Help the confusion if possible

Using Java, there are two choices to connect to a database. Using the java.sql class or the JBDC API. I've only used the methods in the java.sql class.

For more detailed information about Java you should post any specific questions in the Java forum.

You're starting off, why pay to do this? ASP and PHP are extremely easy to setup and run scripts like this.

BTW, PHP is cross platform, while ASP isn't. PHP is C-Style and ASP is by default programmed with Visual Basic Script (yuck, I can't stand this crap!). I've been using PHP for two years, and recently I've had to switch to ASP for a client. While it's still pretty easy, it's a pain in the butt too. It lacks some basic and/or useful features that PHP has. PHP is generally more powerful, and fun to code, I can't even begin to explain. If you have a choice, don't use ASP. It's always nice to know (the more versitile the better) but you if you're just starting out, why not choose the easier and better route? PHP...

As far as Java goes, it's very powerful and useful. However, if you want to do somewhat simple things, it's a pain in the ***. PHP can accomplish what a JSP does in far less code. I use Java for big projects, or corporate work. However, PHP can handle the big stuff too, it's just Java tends to be the choice for corporations (if they're not using ASP, CFML or CGI).

Coldfusion is useful, but it's not a true scripting language. I've always seen it as more of a markup language that handles bigger tasks than HTML. If you're a non-programming, it's a good choice. But if you want the power and flexability of a programming language, don't use Coldfusion.

Wow, this turned into a review. I didn't mean it to, and I'm sure I'll start a war.