Hi,

I have looked almost everywhere on the INTERNET (found nothing so far) for a 'stand alone' php script that I could simply create categories (subcategories a plus) via an admin area, set a link to each category and output them on to a page in a horizontal layout. Pagination built in would be a big plus, but not really needed if the script can be modified to add it.

Anyone know of such a script? I am building an advertising site using a very basic ad manager script, NOT a fully featured ad manager package. I just want to look like the big guys.

An example of how I would like the layout is here: http://www.reunitemysite.com/scripts/links/

Of course, the categories are the under the text block and the table code. 3 across

Thank you for looking in advance!
Brian

Quicker to write your own, I'd have thought. Database = one table for category, one table for site with each keyed to category, then the script does one query to get category link and site count, and outputs a bit of HTML with CSS on it.

Or am I missing something?

How much would you charge to do something like that for me? Cause you got it right. As long as you follow what I have wrote in the first post, you will be ok. I am just not good with programming. It's funny, cause I learned alot over the years, but I am still not ready to begin a project on my own yet. Let me know.

Thank you.
Brian

Actually starting a project that you WANT to work is the best way to increase your programming skills.

Tutorials are fine but nothing beats your own projects.

Originally Posted by chrishirst

Actually starting a project that you WANT to work is the best way to increase your programming skills.

Tutorials are fine but nothing beats your own projects.

I couldn't agree more.

Ive had more than my fair share of "Please help me" threads on here, Each one answered perfectly.

I would do the following.
- Understand exactly what you are trying to achieve ( Draw it on some paper? )
- Break it down into smaller parts that you can work on.
- Work on each bit, by bit.
+ Stuck on a small bit? Ask here.

What your looking for is quite a basic system that tbh can be done by anyone with some basic sql and php / perl / whatever.

id suggest reading these two:
http://www.tizag.com/phpT/
http://www.tizag.com/mysqlTutorial/

( They look long,, But they are not.. )

Take your time and I promise you that after completing these two sections ( may some html and css also ) and you will be able to do this yourself.

While this may take longer than you want, It means that any future ideas you have can be realised quicker ( and cheaper / free )

For some strange reason, I am having one of those "don't know where to begin" moments. Someone just give me a clue on how to start this project, and I will try to figure it out.

I really didn't want this to turn into a big project for myself, but even if it does turn out that way, I guess I won't mind, but having a step in the correct direction will make me feel better at attempting this project.

Think of the page you want to generate as several discrete sections, perhaps start, middle and end. Start and end will be mainly static HTML, perhaps with the odd variable like page title. Write a function for each start_page($title) and end_page() perhaps.

Now another function for the middle bit. This connects to db and runs the query. Then it outputs each returned row, ie db values with a bit of HTML/CSS around them. Your script is thus:

start_page($title);
do_middle();
end_page();

Now refine the middle bit if you want.

And the middle function is just:

 
connect to database
execute query
for each row returned
    echo values and markup
end-for
close db connection

Worry about paging and layout as and when you need to - go for the simple top-down approach and life is so much easier.