Bear with me while I attempt to explain something I'd like to create. Note that I have previous HTML knowledge, but have not used this knowledge in a handful of years. I'm not sure how things are done these days.

I'd like to create a very simple list of entries which are ranked according to a score. This list would also contain an entry function which would allow me to make additional entries - entries which are automatically sorted and ranked into the current listing.
If possible, I would like to gather these scores from Metacritic.com. This way, all scores for all entries in the list are always up to date as well as automatically retrieved for new entries.

I am specifically aiming for simplicity here. Will I need something beyond HTML? Should I be looking into PHP? I am not very familiar with PHP coding.
How should I get started?

Any and all suggestions and/or help would be very much appreciated. Thank you.

Yeah, you'll need something. HTML alone can't do any of that.

Where do you suggest I look? Is PHP a viable option?

Is there some specific terminology involved here that I could use to research further?

I'm not a programmer, but I'd say PHP or any other server-side language available to you. I'll move this thread to the server-side programming forum so it might catch the eye of someone who actually knows how to do it.

You could make an array of entries. With PHP: http://php.net/manual/en/language.types.array.php


Simplicity in construction or when adding new entries?


If you just edit the list in a text editor you can do it all "by hand". Better text editors may even let you sort a list.

If you want to edit a list from a web form you'll need server-side scripting, such as PHP: http://php.net/manual/en/tutorial.php

Could I use PHP arrays to create a database, and dynamically update and load from that database?

Essentially what I want to create is a web-based version of an OpenOffice Calc spreadsheet. A web-based version would allow for easier additions as I would not need to constantly edit formulas and sorting options.

If you use a database I don't think you'll need PHP arrays (though I don't know much about DBs). You'll need PHP (or similar) to connect, read and write to the DB, though.

But I don't think a real DB is required for this (though it may or may not be simpler), a "flat file" DB --i.e. a plain text file-- might be enough. Such a file might contain entries like


(each entry separated by newlines, and each name and score separated by a space) that you can make a PHP array of with functions like explode().

No, basically. Any program that does this will involve using arrays, and all the other elementary bits and pieces of programming. But if you want to save data from one execution (loading) of the page to another, you have to save the information in an external form, such as in a file or database. Although learning to use a DB system (SQL queries etc) is quite a bit of work, in the end it's much easier than messing around with writing "flat" (i.e. not structured like a DB) files.

If you are terrified of learning how to write programs, you will not really find anything "off the shelf" to do this, so I would strongly recommend giving up. If you *want* to learn how to write PHP/MySQL, this sounds like an excellent, simple project to start with. You can always ask questions any time you get stuck, as long as they aren't in the form "I don't know how to do this, will someone do it for me?"