There are a few skills or proficiencies I am assuming you have in this tutorial. First, you have PHP and MYSQL set up on an operating web server. Second, you have a basic understanding of HTML. Finally, I am assuming you have some sort of text editor in which you’ll be writing your PHP scripts and that you are able to upload your PHP scripts to that server via some sort of FTP client. If you aren’t quite there yet, let me give you some suggestions so that you can get there.

Web Hosting

The best web hosting out there is Slicehost. It does require a higher level of set up and aptitude to get going; however, Paul over at Useful Jaja (who now works for Slicehost in some capacity) has a tremendous volume of tutorials that will walk you through everything you need to do in order to get your server up and running. If you want convenience over performance, MediaTemple’s GridServer is an affordable alternative, but it is shared hosting. The advantage to shared hosting is that PHP/MYSQL are likely ready to go when you sign up. The disadvantage is that you share all the resources on the web server with countless numbers of other clients.

Getting Up to Speed with HTML

At the present time Nielsen Digital does not have an HTML tutorial, but there are several resources to which we may point you that you may get up to speed. HTML Dog is a good straight forward walk through on writing valid HTML code. It is very important that you can recognize what is and is not valid code. It will save you lots of headaches.

Text Editors and FTP Clients

If you are using a Windows based system there are a ton of good text editors, many if not most of which have a built in FTP client (the program that puts your pages and scripts on the web server so that others can view them). If you are using a Mac, there are not as many choices however the best text editor I have used happens to be for Mac only.

Mac OSX

Coda by Panic ($79-$99) is, as I said, the best one window code writing console of which I know (if only I liked Macs!). I use it at my day job, an institution that uses Macs for in the creative/communications department where I am stationed. It has FTP built into it (as well as SFTP). Other editors of note in order of priority: TextMate (€39 ≈ $57), TextWrangler (free), and of course the over-priced and clunky Dreamweaver by Adobe ($399). Of these other editors, Dreamweaver and TextWrangler have internal FTP/SFTP clients built-in. TextMate works well with Transmit also by Panic.

Windows

Now for machines that transcend trendy: the PC. I use a text editor called Rapid PHP by Karlis Blumentals out of the Germany. You can buy it online and it does include an FTP client and according to Karlis SFTP is coming. If you require SFTP, as I do, I recommend the best file manager ever: Total Commander, by Christian Ghisler of Switzerland. You will need to download the add-on from his site to enable SFTP on Total Commander. Dreamweaver by Adobe also works on PC and you can read about that above. Other editors of note: Aptana IDE (Free), Komodo’s ActiveState IDE ($295, text editor is free), EditPad Pro ($49.95 Pro, EditPad Lite is Free). PHP Editors has a growing review of the myriad other editors you may like even better.