PHP: What program do you use?

[L8APEX]

I've found that Dreamweaver and Expression/FrontPage don't allow much visual control when it comes to php. I'm not a big programmer or web designer so I have been looking for a GUI based program that makes using php easier to code and have had little luck.
So what do you use/recommend?

 

[ElscottHavoc]

What are you trying to build exactly?
I mean, I know of a variety of WYSIWYG website builders, but none that are really based on converting to php.

Essentially, any wysiwyg editor is going to be focused on very static (display only) websites. There are some drag and drop type software out there that extend to the interactivity that php is so useful for, but ultimately these are highly dedicated to certain objectives (simple forum, simple blog) and result in mostly cookie cutter type sites unless you have the know how to change the php into a new theme.

Again, what are you trying to build? I used Webplus for a site and found it very intuitive, quick and easy and then I embedded scripts and Iframes into the site. Its not necessarily the best route, but as rudimentary as it was, it worked well. A lot of people design a main splash page using HTML builders and then link to an extension script.

Posted via Topify using Android

 

[L8APEX]

I'm working on a replacement script/page for a tracing shipments on my website. The user enters a Pro number for their shipment into a textbox and clicks a button to search. When they do it runs the php script, that connects to a MySQL database with tracking info and then it returns and displays the matching results from the database on a new page.

The current one works, but it was written several years ago by my predecessor. My guess is he copied a script from a tutorial that taught basic concepts, which is fine but it had no security. It has several security issues including XSS and SQL injection vulnerabilities' that needed to be fixed, and since to try patching the current page I'd essentially have to rewrite the entire script so I just started with a blank page.
I've now got a php script written that securely looks up the info
(it has basic security measures like escape strings, and disabling special characters that the original lacked).
The problem is I am just having a heck of a time displaying the results in a organized manner and was hoping to find some program that could give me a visual of the code as I write instead of saving, uploading, testing, finding errors, repeat. Most of my site is in HTML/ CSS with a few lines of javascript embedded in a few pages and Dreamweaver of course handles it fine. This tracing page is the only page/script I have that is in PHP and from what I've seen PHP is the best /only way to go to do what I need it to do.