Developing New Site

[Greaser9780]

Hello PHP freaks,
    I am new to the site today. I am in the very early stages of developing a site. Basically still mapping out setup and planning. The only experience I have is in HTML. I have never even dabbled in PHP or databases.  I am told that the site I am looking to start will mostly require these things and I was wondering where I should even begin to learn them. I don't know if it is even possible. HTML was pretty easy to learn through tutorials on my PC. I have looked at some basic tutorials for PHP and it seems very confusing.  If anybody is willing to at least point me in the right direction please reply here.
Some things for my site will include:
1)Registering and logging in members              2)Control panels for Admins to create and edit tournament brackets and user information          3)A community forum area          4)A visible database that will show automatically updated stats        5)A private messenger system        6)Restricted access to control panels for admins 
I am sure there is a lot more I could include but I'm sure that you get the point from what I have here so far.
Is PHP even the language I should be using for a site such as this?

Please Help.

[Yesideez]

Hi, PHP is a great start and is good that you have an understanding of HTML and I'd also say CSS would be a good thing to learn as it'll be a great help with keeping your pages looking good as well as being able to manage them easier.

PHP can look confusing at the beginning as can any scripting/programming language. Can you remember what you thought of HTML when you first set eyes on it? How does it look now?

When I started learning PHP and MySQL I downloaded loads of sample scripts, followed through tutorials and took it slowly. The first tutorials I followed were at http://www.w3schools.com - click "Learn PHP" in the left menu. If you ever need in-depth instructions on a particular function in PHP then fire up Google and type [b]php <function>[/b] and 99.9% the first entry returned will be what you need.  For example, type [b]php mysql_query[/b] into Google and you'll get a link to www.php.net

http://www.pictureinthesky.net/lealta.zip (1.5MB)
Download this and have a play - its a game I started writing but didn't quite finish due to other commitments but should give you a bit of a head start. Do what you want with this zip (same goes for anyone else as well) its a shame to have this sat on my PC doing nothing wasting away. Here are two screenshots of what it is:
http://www.pictureinthesky.net/02.jpg
http://www.pictureinthesky.net/03.jpg

I'm sure others will be able to post some other great places to start.

[Greaser9780]

Thank you for getting me started. I tried inputting a simple echo statement into a blank page and can't understand why the preview shows a blank page. Is this possibly due to the fact that it is on yahoo geocities? I am only paying like $4/month. Maybe I need to upgrade in order to be able to use PHP through my accaount.

[Yesideez]

Try using phpinfo() to see if PHP is enabled - I have only ever used my own web space and know nothing of geocities although I do know there are some free web space providers who do have PHP enabled.
[code]<?php
  phpinfo();
?>[/code]
That should display a large page if successful.

When it comes to web space you get what you pay for. If you can afford a bit more it might be worth getting some web space from a proper supplier. The only one I use for all my sites is www.webhost-nation.com and its a UK-based company but I believe the servers are in the US - not sure. Its a relatively new company and is owned by a friend.

[Daniel0]

http://php.net/manual

This is really good to read ;)

http://www.hudzilla.org/phpbook/ <<< this one is quite good too