html cost calculator

[chrisboots]

firstly hello to edugeek as i am new. I have joined this site as recently the upkeep/updating of our work website has been made my job. The website is set up and online using word pad a html.
I have a small amount of html code knowledge, my boss seems to think i know it all.
I work for a small family run car hire company, my manager has asked me to make an online price calculator for our cars. I have no clue where to start. i can do all the boxes its just making it calculate the prices. can any one shed some light on the subject for me ?

p.s: please ignore spell/grammar as i am dyslexic

thanks
chris

[SYNACK]

To do something like that you probably want to look at learning a little bit of javascript, so long as it is not required to grab information from a database or send in orders at this point plain javascript in html should do fine for now.

Here is a good tutorial to work through on it JavaScript Tutorial

[mac_shinobi]

To do something like that you probably want to look at learning a little bit of javascript, so long as it is not required to grab information from a database or send in orders at this point plain javascript in html should do fine for now.

Here is a good tutorial to work through on it JavaScript Tutorial

That or vbscript - which ever is easier - unless you were going to use a server side language such as php or asp classic or dot net ( possibly )

[glennda]

It depends entirely on what you would like to achieve - if you are going to try and set up something like online ordering/payments then i would advise you went for something server side which grabbed the information you need on prices etc from a database or something. - not sure HTML cuts the mustard for what you are trying to achieve.

Toby

[chrisboots]

oops missed that bit out. At first it will just simply tell them the pirce they will pay. Then they can either ring or email us. More of a price guide than anything. thanks for the replies

[chrisboots]

Affordable Rentals Car Group A

want it to look kinda like that, but without the collect form.(sorry if posting that link is against forum rules)

[glennda]

if your web host supports php i have a script that submits details from a form if you would like that.

is that your site or another one? as that runs javascript to set the information.

[mac_shinobi]

Let me google that for you

As per Glennda's ( Toby's ) Sig hehe

[tom_newton]

Should be a piece of cake in javascript. Start by making a suitable form in HTML..

[Flakes]

im gonning to steer you towards PHP rather than javascript as suggested here, PHP is simpler to learn if you are just starting out like you seem to be.

write a HTML form, which posts to a file called result.php and in that file do your calculations and give the user the answer. i recommend you read this: PHP Tutorial - POST & GET

[chrisboots]

if your web host supports php i have a script that submits details from a form if you would like that.

is that your site or another one? as that runs javascript to set the information.

that site is not mine it is a rival car hire company. just posted that so you could see the sort of thing i am after.
I will have a word with my boss when i go to work and find out if the hoost supports php. whats the best way to find that out, if he dosent know ?
may have to start dumbing stuff down for me as well lads. all the talk of php and stuff!!!

what do you mean by suitable html form ?

and thanks mac_shinobi, you helped.... a lot !

[MPorter]

I will have a word with my boss when i go to work and find out if the hoost supports php. whats the best way to find that out, if he dosent know ?
may have to start dumbing stuff down for me as well lads. all the talk of php and stuff!!!

To see if the host supports PHP, try creating a file, called say, test.php. In the file, post the following code:

<?php 
  phpinfo();
?>

and then upload the file to the site. Call the file by going to http://yoursite/test.php.

If it supports PHP, you should see a series of tables, full of PHP config info. Otherwise, it should error out, show a plain page, or show a page with the above code on it.

what do you mean by suitable html form ?

You might be able to save a bit of time, and use something like this to create your form.

Hope this helps,

Maria

[tom_newton]

One great advantage of going the Javascript route, is you can test it "locally" - it will work form a file loaded from local disk, whereas the serverside guff naturally needs... well, servers. You're also much less likely to run into security issues if you keep your logic client side.

[glennda]

If you pm me across an email address i will send you over the php script for sending the results - i will also send you over a sample HTML form and explain how the form interacts with the script . It won't help you for your cost calculator but i use it on my sites for stuff like Contact us etc.

and as said above that's now you need to test. I would assume that if you are hosted on a linux apache server then php would be supported but you will need to check.

[chrisboots]

have tested the php and it works