A rather long dbase question

Hi all.

I have a rather annoying problem which I hope can be solved. It is long winded
so please bear with me.

I got a godaddy account and they provided me with a mysql dbase. This dbase is
online so I need the location which I got.

Unfortunately, dreamweaver cs3 won't connect to it.

Issue 1:
I already specified my ftp info when I was setting up the website. Do I need
to specify the database info here aswell or does it go into database connection
in the database window?

Issue 2: Do I need to install a mysql environment on my pc at home?

More in-depth on issue 1 problem.

My website is already made and online. But I need to add a way for people to
join and discuss. But I don't want a forum, I want a message board.

This means I need people to login in. Hence the need for a database.
Do I need to start my site all over again?

All tutorials always make it seem so easy and I guess it is. I just can't get
their explanations to work on my pc...

Hi deyremi,
Here are some thoughts:

I got a godaddy account and they provided me with a mysql dbase. This dbase is
online so I need the location which I got.

Unfortunately, dreamweaver cs3 won't connect to it.
Most online databases will only accept connections from localhost.

There are some products that use a tunneling technology that can help
get around this (check out Webyog.com for one, I am sure there are others.)

Issue 1:
I already specified my ftp info when I was setting up the website. Do I need
to specify the database info here aswell or does it go into database connection
in the database window?

FTP and database info are different and usually unrelated.

Issue 2: Do I need to install a mysql environment on my pc at home?

You don't need to but it is not a bad idea. This way you have a dev

environment to work with.

More in-depth on issue 1 problem.

My website is already made and online. But I need to add a way for people to
join and discuss. But I don't want a forum, I want a message board.

This means I need people to login in. Hence the need for a database.
Do I need to start my site all over again?

There are several message board packages available (you didn't mention

if you prefer PHP, ASP or whatever)

All tutorials always make it seem so easy and I guess it is. I just can't get
their explanations to work on my pc...

If you would like more detailed answers please feel free to post back

here or contact me directly.

Cheers.

Chris

How do I even connect to localhost?

If I could do that, alot of problems would be solved. I could atleast test to see if it was working or not.

Hi deyremi,
If you want to connect to localhost (on your machine) you will need
MySQL installed on your local computer. What SQLYog does is provide you
with a PHP script that you would install on your site and it allows the
SQLYog on your local machine to interact with the MySQL on GoDaddy.

That being said, it is usually a good idea to have a local copy of your
database on your machine.

What I will usually do is have the entire site (web Server, DB server)
on my local workstation. This way I can test everything before I upload
it to the hosting server.

Hope this helps.

Chris
deyremi wrote:

How do I even connect to localhost?

If I could do that, alot of problems would be solved. I could atleast test to see if it was working or not.

So I shouldn't use dreamweaver?

I already downloaded wamp5 so technically I have all I need to do what you're
saying.

But getting it on the localhost means changing the connection settings right?

And where exactly do I insert this php code you're talking about to interact
with godaddy?

OK,
Let's take a step back.
You can certainly still use Dreamweaver, this is what you will want to
do your design and layout in for your html, php, etc.

Next you have your database design, maintenance, etc.

Normally, when using a hosting co (GoDaddy for example) MySQL is setup
such that it will only accept connections from localhost (which just
means the computer I am installed on).

OK so you have WAMP5 installed on your local machine, you do your design
for your site and you can test it locally. All works well, now you want
to publish (or Put from Dreamweaver) to the GoDaddy server. Dreamweaver
will handle your html, php, images, etc. What it will not handle is the
database.

Typically, you would need to use say phpMysqlAdmin located on the
hosting co (GoDaddy) to create/administer your database on the hosting
co machine.

What software like webyog allows you to do is create / maintain your
database from your local worksation.

So you wind up using Dreamweaver for your presentation / application
layers and webyog for your database layer.

Hope that helps.

cheers.

Chris
deyremi wrote:

So I shouldn't use dreamweaver?

I already downloaded wamp5 so technically I have all I need to do what you're
saying.

But getting it on the localhost means changing the connection settings right?

And where exactly do I insert this php code you're talking about to interact
with godaddy?

Ok, now I get what the problem is.

But exactly how do I upload to my website now?

Does godaddy's server automatically arrange the pages based on index and all I
have to do is ftp the site on there?

Another thing.

Can you refer me somewhere where I can find out how to configure dreamweaver
to localhost?

When I tried to do it, it kept saying stuff like "can't find index" even
though it was there.

And where exaclty do I specify the location of mysql server that godaddy
provides? Somewhere in dreamweaver or in a php script?

Hi deyremi,
Here are some thoughts:

But exactly how do I upload to my website now?
From Dreamweaver, you will upload your site files (PHP, HTML, images, etc).
Does godaddy's server automatically arrange the pages based on index and all I
have to do is ftp the site on there?
Depending on how you setup your site in Dreamweaver, yes, just upload

the site to the server (check to see that you are using relative links).

Another thing.

Can you refer me somewhere where I can find out how to configure dreamweaver
to localhost?
When I tried to do it, it kept saying stuff like "can't find index" even
though it was there.
Did you configure apache (that is the web server that comes with WAMP (I

think that is what you said you were using)? In the httpd.conf you can
specify what files are read automatically (index.html, index.htm, index.php)

And where exaclty do I specify the location of mysql server that godaddy
provides? Somewhere in dreamweaver or in a php script?

This is set in the connection. Under Application, Databases.

If you would like please feel free to contact me at cgseymour at gmail
dot com (just construct email address properly) and I can send you some
screenshots to see if that is more helpful.

Cheers.

Chris