What I want to do is to put on my page, in which there will be articles, a table that shows the 10 most recent articles, 10 most popular, etc.

Now from what I understand I need to create a database. I have WAMP Server, I have played around in MySQL in creating databases, but I dont know what any of that stuff means. Anyone that can tell me how to go about doing this or point me toward an easy-to-follow tutorial?

Originally Posted by daholl

What I want to do is to put on my page, in which there will be articles, a table that shows the 10 most recent articles, 10 most popular, etc.

Now from what I understand I need to create a database. I have WAMP Server, I have played around in MySQL in creating databases, but I dont know what any of that stuff means. Anyone that can tell me how to go about doing this or point me toward an easy-to-follow tutorial?

Well you don't need a database; you could do all of that with static html. When you add a new article, then you go edit your 10 most recent ... people use databases to do this because it's generally less work than updating all your top 10 articles.

It's a lot like a spreadsheet - you use a table to store information in rows. Except you also need dynamic pages ( ie web server programming ) to talk to that database - probably PHP if you're using MySql.

i would like to suggest a kewl online stand alone sql server http://www.sqlcourse.com i learned a good deal from this site when i first started playing around. also suggest you get some information from forums just as you are here, and do tons of reading, most you will forget, so dont worry about it. just keep plugging at it, and eventually you will grasp some of it.

good luck in your endeavors