Hi!

I'm looking for some help concerning web page data base connection.

The web page I'm currently working on right now uses only static pages. However, because the site grows and there is more and more redundant information, we like to store this information in a database and load it dynamically into the web page - wherever we need it.

We are looking for the easiest and fastest solution to do this. I have no knowledge in this area, but I'm a programmer, so I can quickly learn new languages.

I'd very much appreciate some advice or links to good introductory web pages, tutorials, etc.

Kind Regards,
Nico

Nico, what you need is a CMS (Content Management System).

There lot of open source CMSs available and you can compare most of the PHP-MySQL based CMSs at http://www.opensourcecms.com/

My personal suggestions would be:

1. ModxCMS
2. CMSMadeSimple
3. Drupal
4. Joomla

All of the above are PHP-MySQL based. CMSs are also available in Perl, ASP and JSP. Just Google for "perl CMS", "ASP CMS" etc.

You need a content management system (cms). There is already bunch of them that are free (open source), and you can see and test each one on cmsmatrix for example (sorry, I need at least five posts in order to able to use URLs in my posts?).

If you need something very specific, then it would be the best to pay someone to develop it based on your needs.

What does the site do?
Learn about PHP and MySQL, read some security things too.

Got the documentation of php.net and read for the mysql module.
http://www.php.net/manual/en/ref.mysql.php

Thanks all for your answers. Seems a cms is the right thing to go for then. I remember some time ago we were looking into cms, however I was overwhelmed by the amount of cms out there.

@Steve

Actually there are three (soon 4) related pages and a blog which each refer to each other in various locations. The home pages are news pages showing info about current events and also about webpage updates and other news. So the best would actually be to have one database/cms system for all 3 sites, hm? On each site there is a side bar containing the same text (e.g. an about text) and some varying info. The about text for instance should be stored in a database and should be updated automatically on each page. There also might be some redundant texts in other pages, which should be managed using a database. The blog is created with word press and is currently a separate (4th) site.

I see, go with joomla or drupal. That would be the fastest solution.

Oh, I forgot, there also might be a web shop too soon. In general: whatever solution we decide for, it should be extensible to all the stuff (modules) you find on current web sites, e.g. podcasts, videos, etc..

Ah, ok, Steve thanks, I will look into those as well. Seems really not easy to find something suitable as everybody seems to have their personal favorite cms... ;-)

Hi again everybody,

I was wondering if a full cms is necessary for our sites. We will probably only
have a few places on the sites where content should be dynamically pulled from a database. Anybody an idea how we could realize this without a cms?

Nico

Nico,
still you are wondering. If ready made CMSs gives you a headache or look to bloated for
what you are looking for then I suggest you discuss this with a programmer.
He definitely will know how this will work. There is no other solution but to code it custom tailored.

EDIT:
I see on your first post that you are a programmer. Feel free to PM me for advise and
I can pass you some ready php/mysql snippets to get started.

Thanks Steve! I'll probably come back to you then.