Hi folks ....... need some urgent guidance on this one, preferably without too much of the heavy stuff as I'm no free-coder !

I need a web form for my wedding photography site so that people can choose from various options and, based on their choice, pull up a price for that choice.

At the foot of the form would be a box that totalled their various choices and a submit button.

I guess the form would look like a series of questions with either drop-down choices or radio-button choices and a box next to each question that reflects the price for the choice they've made.

Does all this require a database and, if so, what's the best and quickest way to get up and running ?

All advice appreciated !

Paul
Peterborough, UK

You do not need any database to display and process such form.

You may need a database to process queries. It depends on what you want to do with submited answers.

I would ideally want the end results emailed to me but when you say I don't need a database, where do I store the prices for each option selected and how do i get the right price to be called when each option is selected.

If I was using Excel, I'd be using IF statements I guess but how do you do that on a web page ?

Paul

You would need a scripting language and a database to accomplish what you need. PHP is an excellent scripting language and works hand and hand with mySQL, a free open-source database program. Chances are, both of these are already available from your host.

Although it is not difficult to do, some programming experience is required. The trick is to write an include query in SQL. You would then need to pass this query to the database using PHP.

Forms act as if they are variables. The name that you give a form field will be the variable name on the subsequent page after the submit button is hit. For example, a text field named alpha with the user input: omega, will after the submit button has been hit, make a variable available on the subsequent page named alpha with the value: omega.

The sql query would look like this (assuming two variables, alpha=omega and beta=gamma):

INSERT INTO Greek_Letters (First, Second)
VALUES ($alpha, $beta)

This will store the form fields named alpha and beta into the MySQL table, Greek_Letters.

Hi,
i have exactly what you need, it will cost you $70. If you are interested to buy it - contact me.

Thanks for the offer but I was never planning on spending $7, let alone $70 !!!

Thanks all the same.

Paul

Alright! I am ready for it, I will give you something like content management website. This is a technique where you can manage your own contents and picture gallaery.

You will have an admin control panel where you can log in and change the contents of the website through another interface and when you submit the changes will reflect immeidatley on the main website.

This is an innovative concept and would eagerly wait for your reply

With Best Regards