Re: PHP and MySQL Product Catalogue Website.

Sorry, but this email address is not the appropriate forum for asking support questions. For a list of more appropriate places to ask for help using PHP, please visit http://php.net/support Thank you for your interest in PHP. Goba [one webmaster@php.net] ----- Original Message ----- From: Torstein To: webmaster@php.net Sent: Sunday, June 16, 2002 7:17 PM Subject: PHP and MySQL Product Catalogue Website. Dear Sir / Madam. I am currently studying BSC(Hons) Multimedia. As a work placement, I have been employed to create a website for a company. I know HTML and CSS very well, JavaScripting and ASP not so well. My client wants an online product website; non-ecommerce. He wants to be able to update the website by adding / removing products, product information and product pictures. I haven't started the design process yet, but I was thinking it would make sense to create this website using PHP and MySQL, as there will be a couple of hundred products featured on the site initially - probably growing to a couple of thousand during the time to come. My client uses Microsoft Access and would be able to update the website database from Access, if I only show him how to. He has no clue about webdesign whatsoever. As a stranger to online databases, PHP and MySQL I really don't know where to start. - What software (if any) does my client need to purchase? - What do I do next? I can't imagine this website to be too complicated to make. I mean, once the website is sorted, it's probably just a matter of exporting the data from Access?? Another thing is navigation. I would like to have a drop-down menu that takes information from the database, so it updates automatically. (So my client won't have to worry about that). On the website, there will also be some information pages, some FAQ pages etc. Should these too be generated from the database, or should I rather store these as .html documents? Finally, I would like a search engine on the website. I've heard that if I index too many fields in the database, the search will run painfully slow. Is this true? If so, what are the pitfalls?? I would like to be able to serach in the product information as well as the description. Should this be an option?? ¨ Please advise me on these matters. If you don't have time (or interest) to answer me thoroughly, please give me some links as to where I can find this information. Best Regards, Torstein Soerlid