Dynamic Webpages Help

[a213812]

Hello everyone,

I'm a new to the forum and web design so please be gentle;o)

 

My name is Ann, I'm in my final year of an eCommunications FDA course. For my final project I have been roped in to creating a self assessment tool and a dynamic web-page (I'm not entirely sure how this has happened but I'm sure that I will live )

 

The dynamic web-page will be inserted on to an established website and will(in theory) allow individuals to search for educational courses in their local area. I haven't really got a clue what I am doing when it comes to creating dynamic web-pages but there are so many good sites, books and forums (like this one) I'm sure that I will be able to find some information that will help me along the way.

 

Why am I here then, I hear you cry, well I do have some worries concerning access and compatibility. There is a very good chance that I will not have access to the servers where the site is housed so;

 

Can I create a dynamic webpage without access to the servers?

 

If so is there any information that I should know? For example do I need to know what I should name root files, etc?

 

If anyone could help me out with putting a list of questions that I should be asking the site owners to get information that I will need to know, it would be much appreciated.

[falkencreative]

Can I create a dynamic webpage without access to the servers?

Yes and no. You can use PHP without having access to the server. However, where will the results from the search come from? ("[it] will allow individuals to search for educational courses in their local area.") If those results are supposed to come from an external database, you will need to have access.

 

I think you need to go into a little bit more detail regarding what this tool will do. To be honest, it sounds a bit complicated, especially for someone with (I'm assuming?) no/limited web programming knowledge.

[a213812]

Hello Ben,

Thank you for the reply

 

You'll have to excuse me, for someone studying a communications subject I sometimes find it difficult to express myself clearly:/ especially when I don't know what the hell I'm talking about.

 

I will be creating a database that contains information regarding courses for a certain geographic area. I would like users of a website that is already in existence to be able to search this database. However, I do not have authoring rights to the website and it is highly unlikely that I would be granted them. So I would have to create everything on my computer and hand it over to the site owners so they could put it on their website.

 

What I would like to know is, is this possible? If so, is there anything that I need to know (no sarcastic comments please;o)? I mean I don't want to go ahead spend the next three months learning how to do this and hand over my work just to be told that what I have created is not compatible with their system.

 

I hope that this makes more sense than my last post.

 

Ann

[falkencreative]

I will be creating a database that contains information regarding courses for a certain geographic area. I would like users of a website that is already in existence to be able to search this database.

Got it. That shouldn't be a problem - you can build the site and the database on your own computer/web hosting, and then provide the website the code files/database.

 

If so, is there anything that I need to know

The main thing you would want to check is that the technologies you use (I'm assuming PHP/MySQL?) are compatible with their server. And build everything with the idea that it will be transfered over to a new location, so that means using relative rather than absolute URLs. Other than that, you should be fine.

[a213812]

Hello again Ben.

Thanks for the information. It is a huge weight off my mind that I can do this, I really didn't relish the thought of having to start a new project.

 

 

wish me luck

and

I'll be back