My first try at PHP and MySQL…and some previews while I am here

Here are a couple small graphical previews of the site I have been working on. I have been working diligently, chipping away bit by bit at figuring out how to do the things I want to do with my website. I set up a database for a mini blog that I want to run…that was the first step. That and how to build an admin page to edit and add records. I have gotten a crude skeleton built that connects to the db and adds records. I will now have to figure out how to edit existing records and set up proper security measures for accessing the page. I am using a lot of “includes” – putting the common routines like opening and closing connections to the db, insert routines, etc. From what I have read about it, this is a pretty good idea- and it cuts down on the typing a bit, not having to type the same thing over and over again.

I also figured out tonight how to select records from the db and display them within a div with an id. I was always under the impression that data called from a table needed to be displayed in a table, so this was a huge stroke for me. I was very pleased. I can’t imagine a reason not to do this, but if any PHP guru out there wants to school me on it, I’d be happy to know about it!
I was very excited to find out that if you echo a div tag the same way you would echo a table you can still assign it an id if you leave out the quotes around the id name. That means I can position and style the elements using css, and work without tables in my pages!

Tags: beginner, MySQL, PHP, Web Design