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Originally Posted by Sindre  Minsc: Thank you for your detailed answer. So, Webdwarf, is that an editor? Hmm, and I absolutely need to have php if I would like a simple contact/submit form?  ...So... *cough* what is the best way to learn php? Is it absolutely necessary to know html before learning php? Where should I start? |
Webdwarf will let you drag and drop stuff onto a page to get a website but I wouldn't recommend using it. You could also use Word to export HTML.
For a contact form, you could construct a mailto address with javascript from form input and that would fire up the user's mail client when they submit it.
If you want one where your email address is completely hidden/not used and you recieve any input they enter into the form, you'll need a PHP script and an STMP server or a database depending on how you want to do it.
If you want to learn PHP, you'll have to learn how to code, since most programming languages are similar. (ex. it'd take an experienced programmer about a week at most to learn a new language with a bit of proficiency) To learn to code, you start with easy languages first and work your way up. You could learn HTML/CSS first, then Javascript, and then PHP. Or you could try Basic, then PHP. The more complex languages take what you learned in the easy languages and add more to it to make the code easier to manage and work with. It's easier to actually write a program in the easier languages for an inexperienced programmer though. And you learn by doing in programming; you have to actually write code to learn how to do it.
You don't have to know HTML to learn PHP, although you will need to work with HTML if you want a working website. PHP and HTML are completely different though. A good understanding of the HTTP protocol, how the web works, and your server of choice(Apache or IIS usually) will help with PHP.
I guess if you're quick you could write PHP scripts of moderate complexity in 6 months(this would require you to probably start with Basic and then learn PHP alongside it after you get the hang of it)... To write code you'll need something to compile or interpret your code(a PHP-enabled server or a Basic compiler). To actually start coding you could take a premade script(not over 100 lines though) and try changing it around to get it to do something. You'd also want some web-based help to help you use the commands. A good language would have examples along with the commands(pre-made programs that focus on it). Don't expect to write anything complicated for a while.
Although it'll be easier to just pay someone to do it or use a premade system. If you don't intend to be a programmer then there's not much of a point in learning to do it well enough to make a professional-looking site with back-end scripts. Although if you do hire someone it'll help a lot to have some knowledge of programming so that you can understand what they're doing and check if they're doing a good job.