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I need to design an online 'PC builder/customiser' similar to the one on the Dell website which allows users to customise their PCs before buying it. I've checked on the net for some scripts with similar functions but they don't seem as good as the Dell one! SO, I have decided to code my own in PHP/MySQL. BUT, i'm not sure on how to design it. This is the idea i have @ the moment: the page pulls the PCs components e.g. hard drive, memory, processor from a table and then displays them in separate drop down lists. When the user selects for example a 120GB hard drive from the menu, it updates the price displayed on the page. BUT, it also will need to detect imcompatible component configurations like attempting to buy an P4 motherboard with an AMD processor...Ideas anyone?

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I forgot the post the tables i have...

Online Custom PC Builder

Staff

Staff ID
First Name
Surname
Username
Password
Email Address
Telephone Number
Specialist area

Customers

Customer ID
First Name
Surname
Title
Username
Password
E-mail
Address
Postcode
Country
Telephone
Fax
Company
Date of join

Products

Product ID
Title
Category
Brief description
Full description
Manufacturer
Price
Stock
Type
Date last updated
Image
Hyperlink

Shopping basket

Basket ID
Products
Customer
Date


Invoice

Invoice ID
Products
Customer
Total
VAT
Discount
Date
Warranty

PCs

PC ID
Title
Brief Description
Full Description
Price
Components

Categories

Computer Systems
Disk Drives
Flash Memory
Graphics Cards
Input Devices
Memory
Monitors
Motherboards
Networking Devices
Notebooks/Laptops
Mp3 Player
Printers
Processors
Removable Storage
Scanners
Sound Cards
Speakers
Storage Media

Sub Categories


Manufacture

Manufacture ID
Name
Description

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(Original post by piginapoke)
I'm not sure why you would want all those things in the category table as columns. How about:

Category
--------
category_id PRIMARY KEY, NOT NULL
category_name NOT NULL
parent_category_id
--------

This will allow you to create a hierarchy of categories. e.g.:

category_id = 1
category_name = motherboard
parent_category_id = null

category_id = 2
category_name = AMD motherboard
parent_category_id = 1

category_id = 3
category_name = Intel motherboard
parent_category_id = 1

which will allow your program to display products in a tree structure.

But if you're going down a 'wizard' style route where the various products are chosen in a specific sequence (e.g. processor then motherboard) then a hierarchy wouldn't be needed, just a more specific set of categories, then just use a query to select the appropriate motherboards after the processor has been chosen, e.g. if an AMD processor is selected (excuse the rusty SQL):

SELECT * FROM product, category
WHERE product.category = category.category_id
AND category.category_name = 'AMD Motherboard';

Those weren't supposed to be part of the table. I was just listening different categories, sorry!