NOVICE: What should I use? PHP? ASP? CGI?

[mortensen]

I have a website [http://kickme.to/musicvideos] and it is basically just a picture gallery. I would like a way so that I can have a website that will just pick out a picture and a couple of words of text and insert that into a generic page; something like a mailmerge.

I have webspace that supports ASP and so would prefer that if possible . I've seen it b4, and they normally have a link like "whatever.asp?item1".

I would LOVE it if this is possible... I have no knowledge of any website languages other than what I can do in Dreamweaver and Frontpage in HTML.

At the moment I have an HTML page for each one and if I want to update the design I have to change like 30 pages manually [so as you can guess I don't update the design, though I want to].

If anyone could help with this I would be most grateful! And if I have to do it myself will I be able to use Frontpage XP or Dreamweaver 4 [they're all I have].

[gregor]

if you don't know which language to use check http://www.php.net/manual/en/faq.languages.php.

i prefer to php. it has the best support, language itself is very easy to understand and it is the best language that uses sql databases for back-end.

[mortensen]

Great, so PHP is the best... now, can someone point me to a BEGINNERS guide to make a VERY basic page or point me to an example page that I could change and use for myself???

"ASP 3.0 Support, MS Access Databases

Web Based File Mgr, ADO & FileSystemObject"

I'm not sure whether that means it won't support PHP... anyway, I have other webspace that supports PHP and I could point that to my other webspace with all the pictures.

Any further help would be great. Oh, and when I say beginner I mean that I don't even know what PHP does, let alone how to use it.

[Glowstick]

The best is only subjective. I prefer ASP, coz I can write JavaScript in it. I'd like to find an ASP.NET capable freehost, but there are none yet. Coz C# rocks.

[pctuk]

I'd be interested in this also if anyone has any recommendations of tutorials.

cheers

[mortensen]

Cost: FREE!

* .NET Framework Beta-2/Release Candidate 1, Mobile Internet Toolkit Beta-2/Release Candidate 1

* 30 MB of Space, No Ads on You

* ASP 3.0 Support, MS Access Databases

* Web Based File Mgr, ADO & FileSystemObject

It supports .NET and ASP and is free. You CAN'T use FTP and MUST use the web uploader to upload your files but for free this is a minor hinderance. Go to Brinkster to join. It has absolutely NO adverts and there is no con... sign up and within minutes you have your free 30mb ASP account. I'm not sure if this is any good cos I know f'all about ASP, but for free I think it's spiffin'.

Anyway, I would REALLY love an ASP [or PHP if you must] script that will do what I need.

[mortensen]

I've found what sort of ASP script I want... http://www.planethalflife.com/screenshot.asp

You then add "?src=/images/screens/bel_122901_1.jpg" on the end of the address [or whatever the picture is]. If anyone could help me get that so I could use it on my site I would really appreciate it [it's just a casual site (no money or ads) and I really just want to make it as simple for me as possible]. If you could just tell me the script to allow me to add that "?src=/images/screens/bel_122901_1.jpg" bit on to change the picture that would do me fine.

[zivan56]

well in php its:

[/PHP]

so I would assume (for ASP) just find the right function to put the value of $src inside the image tag and that should work.

[vital3d]

in ASP:

">

[mortensen]

">

And can someone please explain how I can use this.... I really am a total novice and would like someone to upload an example page and then tell me how to use it.... this would help me an awful lot! I've tried just adding that thing into a file and saving it as an ASP file.... then uploaded it and tested it out but it didn't work.... probably 'cos I've done it TOTALLY wrong.

[ebinfo]

First of all i would ask one question

1 ) is your host has ASP pages enabled (Windows server for true ASP, the others are ASP-clones which seems to be pretty unstable)

My recommendation would be to use PHP as server language. It's free to use and implement. And for a free web host that have PHP enabled and MySQL (database), you can try Multimania (but again, i would recommend have a paid host for better services).

So your code may be 100% accurate and correct, but it won't work because your web host does not allow ASP pages to be parsed on their servers. That's something you should ask them.

[mortensen]

I use Brinkster.... I can use PHP on other webspace I've got.... I don't care, I'll use which ever I can get up and working first.

[Extra Sports]

I suggest asp which is best language I have ever used! :)

[mortensen]

Please help..... I would like an ASP script that would allow me to have a basic page where I can name a picture [asp?pictures/1.jpg - something like this]. I would like this ASAP.

[Gooey]

I can't help with the actual code. But I'd just like to say that ASP is in my opinion better, simply because I think it's a better skill to have on your CV, you could almost put VB on, so it'll score you points all over the place... ;)

[glancep]

I've used PHP, Perl, ASP, even C++/CGI (!!)... and I prefer ASP. But that's not really the point, the point is whatever you server allows you to use--which you say is ASP. So, here's a few of good sites to learn some ASP:

http://www.asp101.com

http://www.4guysfromrolla.com

http://www.coveryourasp.com (uses Javascript/ASP primarily, which is actually uncommon as most people use VBScript)

You can get some source code examples (for ASP and other languages) from:

http://www.planetsourcecode.com

You can get ASP scripts / components / etc from:

http://www.aspobjects.com

Here's the basics of ASP, though:

It's a lot like writing a webpage, except you can insert sections of code in the middle of it to be executed on the server. You do this by enclosing the server-side code in <% and %> tags. To output a variable (i.e. the current time and date) to the webpage, you can do either:

<% = Now %>

or

<%

Response.Write Now

%>

ASP is object-oriented, and there are 5 ASP objects always available for you to use (you can instantiate other COM objects, too)...

Response (used for outputing stuff to the client)

Request (used for getting stuff from the client, i.e. that querystring at the end of the URL like default.asp?id=332)

Server (used for instantiated other objects and various other server-related tasks--transferring to another script for instance)

Session (used for storing data about a specific client session on the server--requires cookies enabled on client)

Application (used for storing data on the server no affiliated with a specific session--good for caching frequently used data)

Oh well... I don't know how useful that primer was, but read the webpages I gave you and you'll be on your way...

Gideon