HELP with a stats update script

[Guest_imported]

I was hoping you might point me in the right direction on a pretty simple problem. I have spent days just trying to see HOW to get this done, let alone doing it. This seems so damn simply but Im running into a brick wall.

I dabble in Visual Basic, but I am by no means a 'programmer'. Im a hockey player and I have built a website for some friends of mine and I would like to be able to update some stats.

If you have a moment, Please take a look at

http://www.goaliebrotherhood.com

and go to the members stats page. You see my friends and myslelf listed, along with our stats.

Here is my question: How hard would it be to provide some input window so that this each of us could update our stats? Like I said, I dabble in VB and is seems pretty simple. But I dont know anything about CGI or Pearl... I am willing to learn, like I said, this doesnt sound like a mammoth udertaking to me. Its pretty simple.

GP = Games played.. just goes up by 1 each update. W + L + T = GP
W/L/T = Win, Loss, Or Tie... Probably a radio button and then each value goes up by one, depending on which button is selected.
GA = Goals Allowed(not seen).. Total goals allowed in all games. the goals you let in.. Input box adds to the total each update.
GAA = Goals Against Average.Total Goals Against divided by games played.

Obviously, there would have to be some way to input which user you, are and probably a password.. A way to reset the stats back to zero at the start of a new season. Possibly a way to change your password, then I would need a way to add a new user.. Pretty simple, right... WRONG....

First, I started looking for something remotely hosted that I could just hook up. It doesnt exist. while its really simple. its pretty specific to a small niche of people (hockey goalies) and I cant find anything that will do it. So I started learning cgi. how hard can it be to make something this simple? well, I started to get the jist of cgi and found out that my website host (freeservers.com) wont let me into the cgi-bin.. so now I not only need to learn cgi and program the damn thing.. but I need to find a place that will give me a bin, if that exists.

Anyway. Thats my dilemma, If you know a good site that can teach me how to do this, I would really appreciate hearing about it. funny thing is, even after all this headache.. I still think this will be better than updating by hand, like I have been doing..

Thanks in advance.

-Michael #39

http://www.goaliebrotherhood.com

hockeylist@yahoo.com

 

[Coderifous]

Alright, first, you have a cool website so you should have a cool server w/o the hassle of pop-up ads. I currently am a customer of

http://www.canaca.com

and while they don't make me overtingly with personal excellence, someone in that place must know what they are doing becuase they have excellent hardware (judging from the fact that they are rarely down and have quite decent transmission speed). They are also relatively cheap considering everything you get: 50 megs space, cgi-bin, and OK tech support. I've had no probs. And for the equiv. of $10 a month for a 12 month membership, it's worth it. Warning, they want the 12 x $10 up front. Also, sometimes they have specials going on where they waive the startup fee. OKAY, enough of that. Once you have a CGI capable web host, you will be set to code your script.

Your script will be nice and easy:
1 text files serving as your database will suffice since the size of your dataset is so small. Basically, a single script will create the 3 pages necessary for your stat viewing/updating functions.

THE FIRST PAGE would be the "view stats" page. This will look like what you currently have. If you click on fill in login and password and click: "update stats" it will test to see that the log and pass are valid, and then open
THE SECOND PAGE which would be a simple form for every element in your database, you could do simple text fields, or you could go nuts with radio buttons whatever suits your fancy. Then you submit the form which would update the text file and display to the user either a
THIRD PAGE confirming the action or just redirect to the view stats page, which if properly refreshed would reflect the change in data.

OKAY, that's just one out of a million ways to do it. But I highly recommend charging your members a yearly fee of $5 and getting that host changed to someone that supports perl and gives you free working reign.

Hope this helps,

--Jim