New to PHP / SQL

[davedup]

I'm completely new to PHP & mySQL. I've created dozens if not hundreds of web sites over the years, but have never needed to ceate a dynamic site from scratch. Now it looks as though I need to learn this stuff though!
I've deliberately created a new web site on my Westhost space using dreamweaver in order to learn how to do it.
I've installed mySQL, PHP and PHPMyAdmin into my site in the site manager.
I've created a very simple database using phpmyadmin, and I've also altered the root priveliges to allow root access from anywhere - again in phpmyadmin.

However, I can't connect to this database from dreamweaver, and it's driving me absolutely spare! I've been trying for weeks and can't nail it.

The local and remote settings are fine, I've had westhost web space for donkeys years.
The Testing server settings are as follows:
Server Model: PHP MySQL
Access: FTP
FTP Host: the same as in local - ftp.mydomain.com
Host directory: usr/local/mysql/
Login: root
Password: mySQL root password, not the domain password!
URL Prefix: I've tried just about everything in here but I reckon it should be '/'

I get the same error message:
"The URL prefix / for the sites testing server could not be resolved. This could be for the following reasons:
1 You have specified a root folder that that does not fall under the web server root folder.
2 There is no web server running on the URL.
3 There is a web server running but no virtual web folder has been mapped to this prefix."

Any clues anybody? I don't mind learning new stuff, or a bit of trial & error, but to spend weeks and not get past the first hurdle? I've read just about every manual on westhost, mysql, php, etc., most of the posts in this forum & the tutorials that they recommend.

Is it really time to hang up the keyboard & get a job as a roadsweeper?

[wildjokerdesign]

You did activate remote access to MySQL right?
From the error you get on URL Prefix I almost wonder if you need /var/www/html/. Have you tried that?

UPDATE: I was wrong about URL Prefix. Should be this and ofcourse you replace mydomain.com with your own

http://mydomain.com/

I have Dreamweaver but never use it anymore. I do everything by manual codeing of files for the most part. There seems as if this question is comeing up quite a bit lately so I'll see if I can find time to fire up Dreamweaver and see if I can get it work.

[wildjokerdesign]

I am trying to work this out for another user also. You can see what I have found out so far in that thread: http://forums.westhost.com/showthread.php?t=9803

I did figure out the URL Prefix and now I am working on database connection.

[davedup]

Thanks Shawn, I'll give that a go tomorrow. I've read that thread before and tried something similar. I'll have a look at the directory structure again with SmartFTP - you can see the directory heirarchy very well with that, it just doesn't seem to work when trandferred to Dreamweaver, but there again, I'm only getting started with this.

Thanks again!