This task is a perfect example of why I think learning a little php is a must for anyone that does programming. Alot of Ruby on Rails zealots tend to hate on us php folks, but the fact is php is easy to learn and quick to see results.
@Naphier
You may want to steer clear of W3Schools, they teach some REALLY bad habits to impressionable php-novices. See:
http://www.w3fools.com/
I also understand the allure of purely procedural code, I started with BASIC so OOP concepts were something that escaped me for years, however once you start to use OO in php it really makes for solid, maintainable projects. I also would suggest looking into frameworks, right now I'm particurily fond of
laravel, which is something of a rising star in the php community.
Here's a quick and dirty example of a high score submission and retrieval system using the laravel framework. It's almost maddening how simple it makes things:
//submit a new high score
Route::post('highscores', function() {
$newScore = new HighScore;
$newScore->name = Input::get('PersonName');
$newScore->score = Input::get('PersonScore');
$newScore->save();
return "High Score Submitted!";
});
//Get a list of top 10 scores
Route::get('highscores', function() {
$scores = HighScore::take(10)->orderBy('score', 'DESC')->get();
return $scores;
});
In this example you would submit a new high score by sending PersonName and PersonScore POST values to yourserver.com/highscores.
To read the top 10 scores, you simply request the page yourserver.com/highscores.
There's really not that much more to it, you just define your connection to a mysql database with a table called high scores and two columns within it called name and score. Its easy of use is like AppGameKit, but for php. It's changed how I develop web apps, and its drastically reduced time to deliver finished products to clients.
