Entry form for HTML with PHP?

[gcarterm]

I'm not sure this is the right place to ask this, but am Googled out.

What I want to do is create an entry form for information on the home web page for someone who knows nothing about HTML. The idea would be kind of like an entry form for an on-line catalog where the user would add new items and these would shot up on line.

 

This is MUCH simpler. She only wants to enter new store names on the home page. So, she finds Sally's Hobby Shop, Jane's Quilting, and Pete's Pottery. These would be added to the list of 15 other stores which show up on the front page.

 

1) Is this a PHP proposition? And 2) How would the form be brought up? Where would the file be placed?

 

As you can see, I am nearly clueless about this. I've used simple PHP scripts for email and done a lot of HTML stuff, but nothing like this.

 

Thanks to anyone who can help.

Mike

[Wickham]

PHP could be used with a form that adds to the page when refreshed but you would need to have a username and password included to stop other viewers from adding to the page. This page http://www.wickham43.net/formphptomysql.php shows a form linked to a MySQL database and the result is displayed in a table on the page. However, you need to consider what would happen if an entry was incorrect and needed to be deleted - you would have to edit the database rather than the untrained person. A username and password is not incorporated in the example.

 

Another method is to use a CMS (content management system) which are designed so that untrained clerical people can edit a web page without wrecking the format. CMS means that there is not a form on the page, the person edits the page code but only where allowed to do so.

 

Snippetedit is a very simple one where and tags are placed around sections of text or image urls so that the untrained person can use a username and password to edit those sections only.

http://www.snippetedit.com/

There is a demo. The snippet tags won't validate and some people criticise snippetedit but it is very simple to set up and use. It's only suitable for straightforward text and image edits.

 

A more advanced CMS is Joomla but it's complicated to set up and might be too complicated for the person you describe.

http://www.joomla.org/

Edited April 10, 2009 by Wickham

[gcarterm]

Thank you! This looks like exactly what I need. I don't have the capability of writing an entry program, yet, and Snippet is set up for it. I've downloaded Snippet and am setting it up on my local server for testing.

 

Thanks much,

Mike