creating html forms [so what if I'm dumb]

[Soraya Taveres]

As the title goes, I am stupid, and therefore need help with creating forms in HTML. Basically, what I want is for a new (publicly viewable) page to be created every time I submit the form, one that obviously displays all the necessary data in a table, according to a specific format. That is, the form page will serve as a sort of admin panel, to help generate new pages quickly and without having to resort of manual methods. (I'll have to convert the whole thing to PHP later on, but as I don't know the first thing about that yet, I figured I'd attempt to get an idea of how the process works in HTML first, if at all possible.)

Halp ?

[Christopher Munro]

Dunno if you can do it in HTML. You might have to use Java. There are some pretty good "Java Libraries" that pop up when you search for Java Script on google. I'm not on my normal PC, so I can't give you any links...but a lot of them have the coding there, ready to cut and paste. Some of it, you can even pick what alterations and stuff you want, and it updates the code. Its good for password sections, member lists, and stuff like that - it might have what you want in there.

The other alternative would be to find a website with the right code on, and try and "borrow" it. :D

[Soraya Taveres]

Yeeee. I have even less of an idea about Java than PHP, and I have no idea how to try "borrowing" existing code in PHP, either -- plus, as I mentioned, the form will only be visible to administrator-types, meaning I can't even look at the source to begin with as those relevant pages will be hidden from me (think phpNuke, as this script or whatever will eventually be used to create a module for that).

An example of the kind of thing I want would be this: http://metalstorm.ee/bands/view_band.php?band_id=katatonia (the middle frame, containing all the band data). As you can imagine, creating hundreds of pages using that format would suck something major, hence why I want to use the form-thingy. But I have no idea how. :cry:

[Morgan Evanar]

Um, why not get a decent content management package that already exists such as plone (http://plone.org/), zope (http://www.zope.org/Products/CMF/), phpbbblog (http://www.outshine.com/phpbbblog/) which turns phpbb into a blog. opencms (http://www.opencms.org/opencms/en/), There is other stuff out there but I don't have links handy.

[Soraya Taveres]

I am going to cry.

I just talked to some of the Plone/Zope support-type people and they told me that first I need to study not only the documentation (Zope Book), but also learn Python and Archetypes, and only THEN can I do what I want in like under 30 minutes.

So now my question is: since I have to spend time studying either way, should I go for PHP (and then develop the script for phpNuke), or Python + Archetypes (for Plone) ? Which is the idiot's route (i.e. easier/faster), and where can I find good resources from which to learn on that particular subject ?