hi! i'm a new user to web designing and stuff and hit a major roadblock.

basically my site needs a database that can store info provided through forms filled in my users. After which, the user can look at the updated database.

i know for a fact that u can use mysql as the database, but how do you do the actual linking? Do i need other software such as Php/asp ???

Yes. MySQL simply stores and retrieves data. In order to actually do something with that data, say, output it to a web page, you need to have server-side scripting in place. PHP and ASP.NET are the two most popular platforms/languages. These are programming languages that connect to the MySQL server (among many other things), tell it what data to retrieve, then manipulate the data, and output raw HTML, which is then viewed by the web browser just like any normal, static HTML page.

If you have little or no programming experience, I recommend PHP and MySQL for Dummies (http://www.amazon.com/PHP-MySQL-Dummies-... ) or ASP.NET for Dummies (http://www.amazon.com/ASP-NET-Dummies-Co... ). The Dummies series is an excellent resource for beginners because it is written without any assumptions regarding the readers' previous experience with the subject.

As far as sites... it depends on what you need to learn. Do you need to learn about good design? Do you need to learn how to do HTML, CSS coding? Or do you need resources on server-side languages or MySQL development?

You should read the following.

http://www.webmonkey.com/programming/php...

It is just an intro into php/mysql.

You will need some active page to store and retreive your data.

You can probably find pages to store form data from any of the php script archives and simply adapt the code to your page in Dreamweaver. It works well.