April 17, 2004 PACS Database SIG Meeting Notes

April 17, 2004 PACS Database SIG Meeting Notes

There was much enthusiasm and support at the April 17, 2004 Meeting for our new project to build a database-driven website!

Meeting Recap

We introduced our new text:

Build Your Own Database Driven Website Using PHP & MySQL,
Second Edition by Kevin Yank, SitePoint Pty Ltd 2003, ISBN 0957921810

We discussed and chose a group project to create along with the book. The group project that was chosen is (ta-dah!): Meeting Notes. It was persuasively argued to keep it simple and get the simplest case working first before trying anything more elaborate.

We also proposed and discussed domain names and hosting services, and ten of the members present donated $5 each toward domain registration and hosting costs. Ouida McIlhenny and Mark Stringfellow of Maximum Computer Systems, Inc. & Creative Proz do virtual hosting and generously offered to host our new site at cost. A couple of members had read ahead and already installed PHP and MySQL and promised to forward their notes for the new website/project, but most of the SIG members have not yet installed. The "homework" assigned was for members to install PHP and MySQL on their own computers and for the SIG leader to register a domain name and sign up for a hosting service with the group's money.

Update

Tracy Brant of Gryphyn Media, who spoke at PACS Web Design SIG on Saturday 4/17/04 a few hours after Database SIG met, offered free hosting on Saturday and emailed again on Monday 4/19/04 repeating the offer. She is already set up for PHP and MySQL.

Yesterday (4/20/04) I registered our new domain name, databasedrivenwebsite.net, and signed up for hosting with Gryphyn Media. My thinking was that "free" beat "at cost"/low cost hosting. Tracy said she will give us as much space as we need and has started us with a Level 2 account (50 MB). The free hosting leaves us with enough money to register our domain name for several years, not just one. As of this writing we are already ready to upload pages! As of this writing if you go to http://www.databasedrivenwebsite.net you will see a Gryphyn Media boilerplate page with the words "Welcome to www.databasedrivenwebsite.net. This domain is waiting for its owner to upload a website."

Reed Gustow and John Davey of PACS Web Design SIG volunteered after Saturday's Meeting to put up a basic starter web page for us. Since this is a joint venture with Web Design SIG, it makes sense for the web designers among us to do front end. If there are there any other members of Database SIG who would like to work on front end, please email me!

For the record, these domain names were/are already taken:

There are some longer domain names still available which, thanks to the free hosting, we have the money to also buy and point at the same site, if desired. I went with the shortest, sufficiently descriptive name. If you think that we should buy an additional name or two (for example, buildyourowndatabasedrivenwebsite.com or .net, or buildyourowndatabasedrivenwebsiteusingphpandmysql.com or .net), or that we should definitely not buy another name, please email me and/or the Database SIG Listserv (see below) and let me know your opinion.

Database SIG Listserv

The Database Special Interest Group of the Philadelphia Area Computer Society has formed a listserv in order to facilitate questions and discussion related to databases, especially relational databases, outside of monthly S.I.G. meetings. Design, implementation, troubleshooting, etc. in any relational database software management system may be discussed. If you want to discuss our new database-driven website project between meetings (for example, you have problems installing PHP or MySQL and you seek advice, or you overcame installation difficulties that you want to share and spare others the same pain), join this group. It is the email group that I was referring to at the meeting.

If you are interested in joining the group, follow this link

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/pacs-db-sig

and sign up, or e-mail me directly.

For Next Meeting:

The "homework" for next meeting is to install PHP and MySQL on your own computer. Follow the instructions online:
http://www.sitepoint.com/article/driven-website-php-amp-mysql/2
http://www.mysql.com/articles/ddws/
http://www.zend.com/publishers/index.php
or in Yank's book if you have it.

If nothing worked and you were not able to install one or both, write down error messages and difficulties, etc. and email the listserv and/or bring notes to the next meeting.

Extra Credit: Email notes on what did and didn't work to me and/or the PACS Database listserv . Also bring them to the next meeting (May 15, 2004).

PACS Main Page . . . Database SIG Main Page . . . Curriculum 2004