MySql DB management using PHP

[purplemonkey]

hi pretty nooby to this php and mysql lark.

 

I've been writing a website for an artist to display works. pretty simple stuff really, thumbs are displayed, clicked on which open a pop up, which if clicked on then opens up larger works. All of this works well. I'm trying now to write up the management side of this, i.e. to let the user add remove and modify the table rows within the website, rather thenhaving to teach them how to use phpmyadmin.

 

I've started writing a page which lists a  table entries into a table. no problem. I've now added a Radio selection to each line, and a modify delete insert button to the page. modify loads a page with the specific table entries details, and I'm then able to load and allow modify of all these fields.

now the thing is I'm able to write all this, but I started thinking last night, my code if becoming very large, lots of IF form has been submitted in this particular way etc... plus all my sql querys are specific select a from a, b from b, etc... my table contains manually defined table headers.

 

this might be a difficult question to answer in this format, but any help or guidance would be appreciated. Is there a better way to be doing this? sort of a more automated way. when I look at phpmyadmin I always get envious as its so slick, they obviously don't manually define column headers in their tables etc...

should I pursure the code level, or start looking for a CMS?

 

cheers.