PHP? ASP? Suggestions?

[El Phantom]

Hey guys. I'm doing a website for a client right now, and I'm thinking about tackling my first database driven website.
It's for a toy store, so they have a large inventory, and I think it would save a lot of time to have web pages built dynamically by php or similar language.

My question is, what should I learn?

Here are my limitations:

1) Currently, the server is running Apache/1.3.27 (Unix) FrontPage/5.0.2.2510

2)I don't know what the server has installed in terms of database capability, etc.

3)I'd like to do an access database, so the store can do some of the upkeep of inventory, rather than doing it in MySQL or something.

Is php the way to go, because it's a UNIX machine? Is the access database a pipe dream, and i should go with a SQL database? Do you have any handy tutorials, book recommendations?

Thanks for all your continued help and brilliance,

--EP

[abzoid]

Web sites using ASP and Access can only be run on Windows servers. Since you're working with a Unix host PHP and MySQL are your best option. Also, the large amount of inventory could be problematic with an Access database anyway. When the database size gets too large there are performance issues that you don't have with MySQL.

If you create administrative pages for the site they can still maintain the inventory themselves. That's the way I do it for all of my ASP projects.

Now, having said all that I have two recommendations.
1. This sounds like it may be a bit more than you'd want to take on as a first ASP or PHP project.
2. There's no real reason to reinvent the wheel. It sounds like what you need is essentially a shopping cart. There are many PHP based carts available, most are easily modified to match the rest of the site. Building one from scratch, while a good learning exercise for an intermediate level PHP programmer, isn't really practical given the time required to do so.

[El Phantom]

Thanks man. I'll consider the shopping cart, but we don't need that functionality. I just want dynamic product information; we won't be accepting online orders as of yet.

Thanks for the info,

--EP

[Digitalosophy]

dont mean to jump in here but...

admin consoles are complicated, might be best that you start off a bit slower. it took me a long time to write the last admin console i developed, it was my first "real" full one. I wrote it in asp, which I have a good knowledge of. I found PHP harder and didnt finish the mock one I made. Also you must keep in mind that servers are funny :) Very rarley have 2 of my projects worked on two different servers without code modifacations. Your best bet would probably to install IIS and mySQL and all that good stuff, and probably configure it on your machine and play around before you take on an admin console task.

[prstudio]

you can run asp and php on the same server
im doing it now with full functionality

i like asp because its tighter, and cleaner, and the database is more integrated, because obviously its made by the same company...i just like the structure and understand it better...

php is good, but they both have downsides and upsides hehe

php is good in parsing...

i prefer asp with an access db, ive done the following before tho:
asp to sql
php to access
php to sql


its all good, its all fun, look at both languages and decide which one you think is easier to understand...

just because im biased lol here is a link to a basic guide to asp

www.asp101.com

go there and look under the "samples" section

hope this helps.

[Digitalosophy]

Originally posted by prstudio
you can run asp and php on the same server
im doing it now with full functionality


Not every server :cool: I believe unix and linex cannot install IIS, however a Windows server can run php and mySQL as well as ASP and MS Access.

My server cannot run asp scripts or MS Access DB

[El Phantom]

Unfortunately, i can't install IIS on the server. They already have their hosting, and it's not a dedicated server. It's alright; I'll just charge my client to update her inventory every now and again. She's like 80 years old, so I doubt she'd want to do web upkeep herself.

Thanks guys.

--EP