Design Document preparation

To this point I have not stressed over the design document too much. I was thinking that because I have done one before I should be able to get it done fairly easily. However, reality has hit when I start to think about how I am going to organise the navigation, the wireframes and how the file system actually works. I have no idea how MYSQL fits into all this. Is the database manifestly part of the design system? Are they separate pages that have to be factored into the design document?

Then how do I factor in the php pages to the design? The way I see it there can be several php pages which connect as one page. I can't get my head around all these new aspects and how they fit with a standard website. It becomes very disjointed in my mind because I can't see a clear pattern or process involved. There are so many arms to it and it feels like they are flapping to their own beat.

Anyway, since I haven't even touched the Mysql side of it yet I thought I better see what all that involves in the hope that I can get the connection between that and the actual website. I understand that the database holds the data, and that the coding for the website calls for the data, but I don't know how it does it.

Today I did a search for 'why use datbase in website', in the hope that I could get an idea of what kind of sites would need a database. I know that sounds silly, but I just thought it might shed some light on their connection to the website. So far I have come up with this:

http://www.sitepoint.com/article/getting-started-mysql - A sitepoint article on the basics of setting up a database. This looks quite good as another resource for getting started with mysql. I have started going through it and am finding it is written very simply (something I need right now), I have not got through it yet.

http://articles.techrepublic.com.com/5100-10878_11-1044982.html - This one was very short and sweet. Not much to it, but it did get me thinking on to what extent I need to use the database.

I know I have over 80 recipes to include on the site - so I am pretty sure that I will need to use the database (well I better or else I won't get far in this unit). The question arises as to how much I need to include in the database. Is it just the recipes or are there other things I need to include? I guess if I am going to have a log in page then that may mean I have to keep data on all those who register with a password (again this is just an assumption as I am really not sure how that all works). As I am so new to this I can't think of how else I would need to use it. So I am hoping that by the end of this week I will have a clearer picture on this.

The other thing I got from this site is that it is important to consider issues of functionality, flexibility and usability, and not to just think that every website needs a database.