Hi. I've been asked to a) build a site for a business and b) build a reasonably complex database for a business.

I was asked to build the site ages ago....and so I set out with the intention of learning PHP and MySQL to make a database driven site....The learning process is going alright but I haven't actually started yet.

Then I got asked to make this database. I've had some experience with Access a few years ago so I thought I could handle it. I don't currently own any DB software so my first step to creating this database is to:
1) Purchase the appropriate software.

This is dependent on my needs which I will now explain. The database needs at first glance to have two tables...one for products and all their information (including two or three images of the products) and one for the customers and information regarding them. These tables need to be linked to show which customers buy which products....also I would like a way to go through the products which a customer isn't currently buying and 'tick' new products off which the customer might be interested in...then to send them this line of products for them to look at. I would also like to send some kind of 'news letter' to the customers showing new products.

So the question is...which software, if any, allows me to do all this? Help here is appreciated...


Now on to my next dilema. Whilst working on their new site I had the great, if not extremely obvious, idea of using the products database on the website. I could kill two birds with one stone...or so the saying goes. My question is though...do I develop the entire database with something like SQL which could be tricky and inefficient or do I purchase some software like filemaker, design the entire database system there...and simply duplicate the products data over into MySQL and build the website that way. I can see the pros and cons of both...I could keep the website and the database separate for initial simplicity but you can probably guess that it would be an effort in the long run to have to make changes to both databases...say if a product name changes or if we want to change an image....we would have to make the change on the private, offline database, and then on the public, website database.

So...do I integrate the two ideas using something like SQL...or is there a way FileMaker can keep the two synced...or perhaps another piece of software?

Thank you for reading and thank you for any replies! Much appreciated.

Chris