Hi..

I am a web developer who has experience creating static html based websites. I am about to start a project that will include using databases (mySQL) and creating dynamic content for a website. I am looking to create a searchable catalog of products, no e-commerce, and to serve dynamic content for the site in general. I want to serve up images and text for sections of the site and catalog.

My question is this. I am considering either PHP or ColdFusion for this task. I have no experience in either and am wondering which road I should take.

I mainly develop on a Mac, which makes PHP look nice since I can develop for it on my native platform. But, if I do chose ColdFusion, a windows box will be supplied for me. I also use Dreamweaver, which kinda makes ColdFusion look like a nice choice.

So I need some help here. Which is easier or better or both? Pros and cons of each?

Big thanks in advance!

-Brian

I do not use CF, but from what i read, it sounds limiting and expensive.

PHP is simple, easy, powerful and has huge comunity support.

I would go with PHP

One thing to keep in mind, PHP has a huge community, and you can pretty much find the answers to any of your questions for free on the internet. Also, with PHP, all of your upgrades will be free... you won't have to purchase anything each time there is a new release.

ColdFusion had it's high time years ago. The software was good, but compared to a totally free multi-platform environment like PHP very little compares.

Check out: http://php.resourceindex.com if you're looking for some nice samples to start with.

Sincerely,

-Matt

PHP all the way,

You can use PHP on both a windows and unix servers.

Everybody agrees there is alot of community support for it. It works great with MySQL.

I use dreamweaver MX with php and it works great.

John

Thanks for the advice everyone! You have been a great help.

I plan to go the way of PHP. Look for my future 'help me with php' posts..hehe..

-brian

I use both coldfusion MX and PHP. Cold fusion is great for it's built in XML XSLT functions and it is pretty easy to learn quickly.

I have actually found there is very little most people will need to do that can't be done in Cold Fusion... although doing things like finding image dimensions or file manipulation can be quite a pain.

PHP IMHO is certainly a better choice if starting fresh.

However I don't agree that Cold Fusion's time has passed, I've noticed a number of big sites using cold fusion... senate.gov, parliament.uk, worldwildlife.org, 192.com. Also it's based on a J2EE architechure will appeal to many.

However Cold Fusion is certainly more expensive than PHP.