I am using Dreamweaver MX and want to produce an online shopping site which will contain approx 10,000 items. The server I am using is Unix and does not support coldfusion or asp. Should I change to a windows server using SQL and ASP or use PHP and MySQL?
My experience of either is none existant so I have a steep learning curve any help and advice on pro's and con's would usefull.
Thanks
Ian

depends what you want out of it. To simply accomplish this site or to start a new career/hobby?

php/mysql - if you want to learn. there are tons of free sources for learning out there. plus its a cheaper route.

asp/sql - if you want to simply accomplish the site. DMX has its history more firmly built around asp. There are more extensions out there for asp.

my opinion only - go php/mysql

Hi IHG,

I agree with glide's comments, I am actually an asp/vbscript programmer and have never touched php but from a cost point of view changing to ms would be expensive.

There are no real cons or pros for using either of your suggestions as there are many sources of code for both.

For your future reference, ASP is slowly going to be replaced by ASP.NET but this is not going to happen overnight due to the huge amount of sites already built using that technology.

One piece of advice though, before you start make sure you are very very clued up on CSS (Cascading style sheets) and make sure you use them to build your site.

This is very much the technology imerging at the moment and you would be wise to get to grips with it now rather than later. You are at the perfect place to learn this now, some of us that have been building for many years are actually having to unlearn how to create layouts etc so we can embrass CSS.


Regards
Vince

DMX Talkzone Manager

Visit my home: www.chez-vince.com

VBScript | ASP | HTML | SQL | Oracle | Hosting

Thanks for both the replies. I have only done a few static web sites and have someone wishing to have an online shopping site. As I already have Access to build the database which will be on the server my thoughts would be go the windows route. The server I use supports asp/sql what costs would be incured?
Regards
Ian

if you build a shoppin app holding 10,000 items in access it will die horribly on your site if too many people try to use it.

access is not designed to do what you want, you will need at least a mySql database.

price wise, some hosts give you mySql databases for free, i use one in the UK which has been fine since day one. Check it out, £55 a year, 5 mySQL databases, and a shopping cart, one click install. could be just what you need.
www.eukhost.com/gold.php

on the other hand MS SQL server will blow mySQL out of the water in real heavy used sites, but it will cost you about £200-£300 just for the database space.

I'm in the same mold as Vince, an ASP/VBScript developer, messed around with mySql a few times, and its a lot different than using a GUI like Access, but if you can get over that, I'd say go for PHP/MySQL, much cheaper in the long run.

Regards,
Dave

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