Advice on making dynamic web pages easily

[smiffy47]

I have been using DreamweaverMX for some years to avoid having to learn too much about HTML. Recently I've been adding a bit of PHP, and would like to do more web design involving using my server-side MySQL database. Are there some programmes that do for PHP, (or any other similar language) what Dreamweaver does for HTML? I was reading about Coldfusion, but it looks much too expensive for me.
Any ideas for a lazy, tight bastard like me?
Steve

Life...It's difficult not to take it personally.

http://www.crab.org.uk

http://host-in-the-post.info

http://malawi-youth.org

 

[jpadie]

i use dreamweaver for all my php coding except quick and dirty stuff (notepad) and some dev work where an IDE is useful.

the latest version of DW has a very handy code collapse feature too.

check out this FAQ on editors and IDE's too: faq434-4252

 

[jpadie]

oops - need to be clearer: i do not use ANY of the built in DW behaviours or code blocks/samples etc. the usefulness is the code hinting and code highlighting.

from a stylistic point of view i don't like the code they generate and it very much limits other coding choices one might make.

beware that DW does not print out coloured code though. for that i copy and paste in to a syntax-aware editor (see above) or use the PEAR::Text_highlighter class and print from rendered html.

 

[smiffy47]

Thanks for you thoughts jpadie...
it sounds as though you are much more code-literate than I am.
Do you think that I, as pretty php-illiterate, would be able to make good use of DW's php code writing abilities? I'm wanting something that will help me into the mysteries of employing Dynamic Pages from a MySQL database.
(oops when I wrote Coldfusion in my first post I meant to say ColdfusionMX)
Steve

Life...It's difficult not to take it personally.

http://www.crab.org.uk

http://host-in-the-post.info

http://malawi-youth.org

 

[jpadie]

php is a very accessible language. i would think a combination of a good book, the php manual, googling for code snippets and this forum would be your best bet. i don't think that the editor/IDE that you use will make a material difference one way or another.

 

[Kozusnik]

I learned php by getting involved in a project. dotProject actually (LAMP). I was looking for an open source project management tool for work and came across it. I downloaded it, installed it, and starting helping to improve it. I could read the others' code and learned how the code made it to the screen.

Since then, I've written several modules for my workplace including a full helpdesk application which currently contains over 65000 requests.

Don't get frustrated, we'll be here to help!

Good luck,
Mark

 

[smiffy47]

Thanks for the encouragement. I'll press on!
Steve

Life...It's difficult not to take it personally.

http://www.crab.org.uk

http://host-in-the-post.info

http://malawi-youth.org