Beginner Help!

[leeland1979]

Hello all....I work in an Underwater Photography store and one of my job's consists of the IT end of things. I am comfortable with HTML with a basic to intermediate understanding. My predecessor built the store. It is an X-cart store with a MySQL database. The store software is outdated and needs to be updated. My boss is very cheap and won't want to pay someone to do this, plus I feel it would be better to take a the time and learn this programming as the update isn't that bad that it restricts me from devoting some of my time to the learning of this and be able to work with it easier in the future. So my question lies here:Does anyone know where i should start attempting to learn? My prefered resource would be online and free, I wouldn't mind purchasing a book to help as well but I just don't want to buy 10 books at $30 bucks a piece!!Any suggestions would be great.... my email is lee@uwphoto.com if anyone prefers to communicate that way!Cheers,Lee

[aspnetguy]

well the first place to start is to find out what technologies this software uses (HTML, CSS, JavaScript, PHP)????Then you need to learn those technologies.

[leeland1979]

well the first place to start is to find out what technologies this software uses (HTML, CSS, JavaScript, PHP)????Then you need to learn those technologies.

ahhh sorry i know it uses php....i looked up some info on here and it has been reccomended that i practice by rebuilding a test site on my computer but i am unsure of even where to start with that i guess also to practice with some of this i was looking at some things to download but i don't know where to start, it said i should download php 5, a MySQL server and an Apache server, my current store is run on a remote server (LuxSci) should i download any of this stuff??? heh heh as you can see my problem ,i know some of the stuff i need to know but lack some of the basic knowledge to get me where i need to go!

[justsomeguy]

You could develop on the server that is hosting your site, but in order to see any changes you will have to FTP the file up to the server, then look at it. It is usually quicker to install everything on a local server, and then develop on that before moving it all online (quicker to develop, not quicker to set up ). If you want to set up a local test server, you don't necessarily need Apache, any web server will do, and Windows XP and 2000 have one built in (Windows IIS). I have links in my signature to download PHP, MySQL, and phpMyAdmin (for administering MySQL).

[leeland1979]

You could develop on the server that is hosting your site, but in order to see any changes you will have to FTP the file up to the server, then look at it. It is usually quicker to install everything on a local server, and then develop on that before moving it all online (quicker to develop, not quicker to set up ). If you want to set up a local test server, you don't necessarily need Apache, any web server will do, and Windows XP and 2000 have one built in (Windows IIS). I have links in my signature to download PHP, MySQL, and phpMyAdmin (for administering MySQL).

thanks for the input, i didnt know that about windows, as you can see the learning curve is large, when downloading the php software which one should i download it seems like i had some choices between windows binaries or complete source code??? Any other suggestions?

[justsomeguy]

You will want to download the Windows binaries, but not the installer version. The installer version doesn't have any of the useful extensions included with it, so you will need the zip file that you will manually install yourself.Also, if you need to install the IIS web server on Windows, you can do that through the Add/Remove programs area, and there is a button to add/remove Windows components. IIS is Internet Information Services.And here is the official install guide:http://us3.php.net/manual/en/install.windows.manual.php

[pulpfiction]

Guess you can download EASYPHP [package of Apache, mysql, php, phpmyadmin] to work on the local machine... it would be easier and quick processhttp://www.easyphp.org/There is also another package "XAMPP" www.apachefriends.org/en/xampp-windows.html

[leeland1979]

Guess you can download EASYPHP [package of Apache, mysql, php, phpmyadmin] to work on the local machine... it would be easier and quick processhttp://www.easyphp.org/There is also another package "XAMPP" www.apachefriends.org/en/xampp-windows.html

Hey Thanks a Bunch guys, I am going to play around a bit with this stuff ad see how I do If I have any more questions I know where to go much appreciation!