Web Registration Website

[cookiemonster4470]

** New member - be gentle!! **

 

For someone that is a reasonable developer, but who has no prior experience with WAMP/LAMP, or web-based solutions, how difficult would it be to create a simple website where people could register online for a meeting?

 

Here is a description...

 

- The website would just be a simple web-form where people could enter their name, address, tele no, and e-mail and click submit so that they could RSVP for an upcoming meeting.

 

- The data entered in the web-form would, of course, be saved in a database on a webserver.

 

- The site would be hosted on some ISP that supports WAMP/LAMP and allows database access to an admin.

 

- The meeting organizer could then plan the event based on the number of people who RSVP'd and maybe send out a confirmation e-mail.

It is my hope that a person could build something like this in maybe 30 days with some help and a few good "Teach Yourself *AMP in 21 Days" books.

 

(If this was in MS Access I could do this in a few hours! But I just don't have any real web experience.)

 

I would really appreciate some help, advice, and suggestions on this.

 

Thanks in advance,

 

 

Amy

 

[pocobueno1388]

It sounds like all there is to it is a form, a page to view who has RSVPed, and a form to send a confirmation email.

 

That would only take a few hours. My suggestion would be to post this on a freelance site. You would get some pretty low bids from people who are only looking to build up their ratings.

http://scriptlance.com

[cookiemonster4470]

Thanks for the reply, but I was hoping to do this myself.

 

I really don't have any $$$ to pay someone to do this, but I'm hoping that if what I described isn't to complicated, I could pick up a few "Teach Yourself" type books and do this myself (with maybe some online coaching from you experts).

 

Do you think I could put this together myself in under a month?

 

(I would think getting an ISP, setting up a web account, installing WAMP/LAMP, etc would be more challenging than doing the actual coding itself.)

 

 

Amy

[cooldude832]

there is the phpcalendar extension you can use, however I just write my own calendar scripts generally. 

You need really just 3 tables

Users

Reservations

Events

 

And its that simple. People create events (go into the event table) then view on a calendar page and register fro them (adding to the reservation table.

 

You say you have no money, but you want books, someone could hash this out for 20-50 dollars probablby

[cookiemonster4470]

there is the phpcalendar extension you can use, however I just write my own calendar scripts generally. 

You need really just 3 tables

Users

Reservations

Events

 

And its that simple. People create events (go into the event table) then view on a calendar page and register fro them (adding to the reservation table.

 

You say you have no money, but you want books, someone could hash this out for 20-50 dollars probablby

 

Well, I meant I don't have hundreds or thousands of dollars.  I can afford maybe $30 for a PHP/MySQL book.

 

That is a neat idea with having a calender, but I was going to start even simplier, and just have a set date for a meeting.  So all visitors would do is enter their info to register, and then I'd send a confirmation e-mail.

 

Eventually I'd like to make this much more sophisticated, with user accounts and maybe even go e-commerce.  But for now just a simple way for people to register for meetings/events.

 

So can someone recommend a good book or site that would get me up and running in 30 days to do something "simple" like this?

 

Also, would you guys agree that the trickier part will be getting an ISP, an account, and learning how to set up the website itself?  (I have a lot of experience building databases and forms, just not doing websites that are database driven.

 

Thanks,

 

 

Amy

 

[cooldude832]

There is no good php book, because php is so open ended you fall into niches in your coding that a book will try and break. Just if you understand if,else,while,for,strings,arrays, variables you can do php.  The databasing ins the only unique part to it over C/C++ and it has a bit different syntax.  just use this site/php.net to learn it.  Also to find a  good isp just find a cheap one with lots of space.  Not trying to advertise, but i use hostdepartment.com as my playground for php testing.  You don't have a lot of options, but at $5 a month and they don't bug me about it, I have a free php testing range, unlmiited mysql database and so forth, its not a very good place for live websites, but for a testing ground its amazing.

[cookiemonster4470]

Yes, I know basic programming constructs like IF-THEN-ELSE, DO-WHILE, FOR-EACH. 

 

As far as MySQL, I hope it has evolved.  I know that when I looked at it a few years ago it seemed very "crude" - even compared to MS Access!!  *LOL*

 

What about an ISP like 1&1?  I see them advertise a lot in larger magazines like eWeek and Network world.

 

If I go with a good ISP, will they provide everything for me (e.g. secureFTP, Apache, PHP, MySql, admin tools, etc)??

 

I'm kind of a wimp and was hoping I could use the Windows version of things since I really don't know Linux or command line.  What about that aspect of things?

 

Finally, would you agree that all I basically need is a simple PHP web-form and a MySQL database to store people registration information?

 

Thanks for helping answer these random questions!

 

 

Amy

 

[rarebit]

If you go with 1&1 be warned that you need the better linux packages to comm with paypal, but the win version comes as standard. This is from posts on the paypal developer site, so check it out yourself...

[cooldude832]

1&1 is good if you got the $$ to spend, but it is more costly, But better.  My host just gives you cheap unlmiited access that goes down once a week on average, but if you don't care about that then its gonna save you abotu 100-200 bucks a year