Dynamic site Basics (and I mean basic!)

[Kenny L]

I'm making my first attempt at a dynamic site and have a couple of questions:

1. Can the site be built locally and then uplaoded to a webhost, like a static site or does it have to be built where it will reside?

2. Can or should the web server (Apache in my case) be on my computer that I'm building the site on?

[Chris]

You can do the coding locally but every time you want to test it you generally have to upload.

I have always felt it is easier to just upload and then test rather than to worry about setting up your home PC to run exactly like the server the site is going to be on.

[chromate]

You can easily put PHP and MySQL (if that's what you're using) onto your home PC and use it from there. But if you do that you should do a complete upload every so often to check that what you're doing actually works in the server environment. Don't wait until then end to upload and find that none of it's working!

Like Chris, I code locally and then upload to the server (without testing it on my PC). It's pretty easy this way as most good editors allow you to save directly to the server, without having to save to your PC and then upload as two stages.

[Kenny L]

What (if any) drawbacks are there to using .asp & Access in leiu of PHP/MySQL? I've been told it's more windows based and should be quicker to pick up. Opinions?

[chromate]

Well, for a start, Access is not at all an ideal solution for a web environment! You could however use asp and mysql if you want to learn asp instead of PHP. I don't think it will be any easier to pick up though. The PHP/MySQL combo really is very easy to get your head around. It's also completely free. So don't be put off by the fact that it's not Microsoft However, you can use both PHP and MySQL in a windows environment, should you really need to.

[GCT13]

I agree with chromate, please don't consider the .asp and Access route. I cringe at the thought

.asp is alright, there's a lot of online help out there, but you'd be locked into a Microsoft environment. Most importantly, the .asp language is phased out, Microsoft is focusing its web scripting muscle on Dot NET (.aspx).

Kenny L, I highly recommend you go with PHP/MySQL. There is simply so much documentation & tutorials & help out there that whatever problems you run into fire up your search engine and you're bound to find answers. I started working on PHP/MySQL earlier this year, and through the sheer volume of excellent free resources out there it makes it easier to pick up.