My friend runs an animal rescue site on her family's farm. She currently has a website, but it could sure use an overhaul! I'm NOT a designer, nor am I well versed in html and php, but I told her I'd see what I could do. Because it needs to be so interactive, I suspect php and mySQL would be good and low cost ways to go, but I know nothing about either. My database experience is with MS Access or Filemaker, but she has so little money, I suspect mySQL would be the best bet.

Does anyone know if there are any templates out there to use as a starting point for her site? Or, what do you recommend as a source for learning php? I look at the tutorials, but I'm just not sure where to start.

I appreciate any helpy ou might give me.

What kind of interactiveness does the site require? There are plenty of open source CMS out there that are built on PHP and MySQL.

Well, she needs for people to, of course, be able to register for the site and receive emails and newsletters. She needs to be able to post animal pictures and have people be able to click on their photos to get the animal histories and other information and, then, to be able to contact whoever is fostering the animals for more information. She needs a way to collect charitable donations. She has, mostly, dogs, cats and horses but, sometimes, she has things like reptiles and birds and other oddities. Since everyone is a volunteer, there needs to be a way for workers to input the data and photos that is easy and kind of idiot proof. That's where I figure mySQL would work.

Does this help? I've done a fair amount of editing of a website in my past working days, but it was completely done with CoffeeCup html Editor or BBEdit on a Mac. Once it's set up, I can teach a couple of folks what to do.

By the way, I love your avatar.

Why would they need to register on the site? You can register for emails and newsletters without registering on a site.

You can do everything you mentioned using a static website without PHP or MySql. All you need is some pages and some links.

A CMS platform will work but you don't need one. They will easily do what you want and aren't that hard to setup and administer but I wouldn't exactly call them idiot proof either.

And no matter what matter you use, I wouldn't let everybody on the farm work on or edit the website.

Well, I'm going to just kind of dig in and work on it. I'm going to start with the home page and go from there. If I don't need CMS or php, so much the better. I'm just a little nervous trying to start from scratch, that's all. I'm 64 and "good with computers." I managed the web page for a boarding school for four years and added some forms (created in Acrobat and Word and Access), but it was mostly a matter of updating some photos with news stories. I somehow managed a network that started out as a 3 modem web ramp and moved it through a Linux phase into Windows Server with six servers, extending the fiber runs and managing a ton of other things with no training, so I think I should be able to do this.

I'm just a little timid to get started. Thanks for your advice. I'm just going to start.

If she has the ability to have sub domains on her hosting account, maybe set up one as .dev and build there, we can help out with what you need and in the process we all learn.

I can help with graphics, colors and stuff.

Wow! David, that's kind of you. I'm suspecting that Susan has a bare bones hosting account. This gal has spent everything she makes, pretty much, on this rescue group. Is she nuts? Probably.

I'll fool around with it tomorrow and, maybe, you can look at it and make some suggestions? We'll be sure to give Coffee Cup and you credit on the site.

<----------- Loves php


There are some real basic php tutorials here:
http://www.pixieplots.co.nz/forum/viewforum.php?f=4
Start with php1 (the site templates) and work your way through...

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