[G-Stress]

Really looking to get my feet wet and learn SQL, in order to understand it I need to use it in a manor that makes sense to me. I have compiled a media library and am running a web server on my local lan. I created the site with Microsoft Publisher, I'm a bit html familiar (it's been a few years) what I'm wanting is to have a search function on the site and use SQL as my database.

So I can search for a video or audio file or any file on the site and have that request look through sql and return results. I'm installing SQL Server 2008 Express off the Microsoft site as we speak.

This is all running on Vista 32-bit with WinLamp already installed so I got php and am using apache as the webserver. I am just not sure what to search for in order to find the answers or help I'm looking for. If someone could provide a good link or any advice it would be greatly appreciated.

[midders]

I'm a little confused about what exactly it is you are trying to do. A few suggestions:
- use MySQL rather than SQL Server, it integrates better with PHP and is more widely supported at (free) hosting sites and also runs under linux or windows.
- SQL is designed to query information stored in a database and as such is not the ideal language for doing a site search unless your site is generated from or catalogued in a database.
- if you want to learn SQL (structured query langauge) then just google sql command reference or similar; it's basic syntax is:
SELECT table1.field1, table2.field1...
FROM table1, table2
WHERE table1.field1=table2.field
AND table1.field1 = "whatever"
ORDER BY table1.field1
...

Slainte

midders

[G-Stress]

I do have MySQL installed and php via WinLAMP, but don't know much about the 2. To better understand and further my knowledge I need to familiarize myself with them in a way that makes sense to me.

What I did was create a basic html website using publisher and on the main page I want to include a search box so if I am searching for say an mp3, document, etc. sql will query the results... hmmm maybe that still don't make sense.

Ok I guess to best describe it will say I created an html page sayin "Welcome To My Site".
The only thing on the page is a search box and if I type in say *.mp3, pop, .doc, etc. it will search an sql database and return results.

I can probably figure out how to create a database, but to tie that in with the html and have the main page display results via html or php is where I'm most stuck.


Oh, thanks for the informative and quick reply, however I've done a course over SQL and am a bit familiar with the commands, but being that I've never worked with database management before it doesn't really make sense to me, kinda like I know what I'm doing, but I don't know what I'm doing... (confused) hope this makes better sense now...

[midders]

I would suggest that you look for some online tutorials, or get hold of a starter's guide to PHP and MySQL. If you're used to using web-design tools rather than hand-coding HTML for your websites, then you're in for a steep learning curve.

The PHP MySQL function reference cn be found here. MySQL_Connect() is a good place to start, followed by MySQL_Query().

Good luck.

Slaine

midders

[DoubleHelix]

Windows Explorer will allow you to search by file type and return the results. There are also plenty of free Explorer alternatives you could use. Is a full-blown, custom database really needed for this?

[Grob needs help]

i suggest you go and look at www.w3schools.com this has a lot of tutorials on it that can teach you how to use most types of web design code, it does have php tutorials as well as mysql and sql tutorials

i hope this helps