How to plan a website, and use scripting to update form information

[NorrinRadd]

Hi everyone,

I am essentially still learning the basics about web design, and programming. I am currently working on a project. The objective of the project is to set up a website that allows me to update books according to whether they have been read and also according to whether they are planned to be read. The site should contain information concerning the book such as its title, its author, its published date, and its publisher information.

So far, I have only come up with the basic layout of the web pages. I have created a form, that allows me to enter all the above information concerning each book. But this is all I have been able to achieve so far.
I would really appreciate it if someone were able to help me figure out how to achieve this objective.

My understanding is that, I am going to have to use a scripting of some sort, whether server-side or client-side, although I would prefer client-side scripting, which is quite simpler. Also, I might have to create a database, to hold all the books' information. So, let me see how this is going to work out, and please let me know if I am right. I need to:

- Design the basic layout of the website
- Register a domain name and find a hosting server.
- Create a database I am going to need in order to update all the user information.
- Write scripting in Html code in order to modify the web page output according to user form information.

My main question is: How do I connect my database to my scripting and then, to my webpage?
Also, what scripting languages should I use: PhP (for server-side) or maybe Javascript (for client-side)?
I am probably also going to need to use MySQL for the database.

I am really confused. I hope that someone can help me conceptually map out what I need to do in order to accomplish my objective and complete the project.

[Webzarus]

you will definitely need server side scripting to accomplish what you want to do.

Depending on if this is FOR YOUR USE only or if you plan on others using this, will determine if you want to use a MySql DB or if the data being stored is simple and small enough, perhaps some plain text file can be used for data storage.

Your next step is to determine what kind and how much data you're dealing with and what method of data storage you will be using.

Once you know that, then it's going to be the scripting that needs to be written for "creating new", "editing" and "deleting" records from your storage.

Most "client side" scripting ie: javascript, Jquery, etc.. are meant for "interactive" type things... not for data connections and storage.

Yes, you will hear people using "ajax" for doing some of what you're talking about, but... it's normally not the ideal process to follow, simply because people can "turn off" javascript in their own browser.

[TheGAME1264]

You can add AJAX in for additional functionality, but like WZ said, don't use it for core stuff.

You'll definitely need a server-side language, like a PHP or an ASP or an ASP.net, to pull off what you want. One other thing you'll need, and it's something for some reason a lot of so-called programmers miss, is a unique identifier for each book so that two books of a similar title (or the same) can be distinguished. If the ISBN number is available for each book, use that...if not, at least use an autogenerated ID for each book.

Other than that, what WZ said.