My goal in the next month or so is to gain experience using/supporting a LAMP stack. I'm familiar with RHEL, Centos and Fedora and have created basic sites using Apache. Haven't used Mysql or PHP to this point. I learn best by doing so with that being said- I was wondering if using a LAMP stack could allow me to reach my below stated goal.

Goal: Create a website that has a form that I can enter several fields of data into and submit/save it to a Mysql database for future retrieval. The ability to upload pdf's to each entry would be a plus also. Would love to be able to pull a report from querying particular field.

Use Case:
Launch firefox,navigate to site.
Submit info to fields and upload pdf, for that particular entry.
Return at a later time to search for info by field.

Guys and Gals -if I'm thinking LAMP can do something it can't please let me know. Any advise or words of wisdom would help.

as in recreate / reinvent the wheel , or hack a CMS you are familiar with ?

myself , i like "geeklog" as a base CMS
https://www.geeklog.net/

As for
Apache,Mysql ( use maria DB !!! ) php , phpmyadmin, awstats, and so on

It is advisable to be able to do manuall installs of ALL of that from the source code
THEN
after say about 6 to 12 installs from source you will have LEARNED!!!
HOW to set up and CONFIGURE a secure install

you will know the " httpd.conf" and "my.ini" and other config files inside and out



then use yum to save 30 min. on a install
90% of the install IS setting up the config files

Well I'm off to RTFM regarding PHP for an hour of so.
Anyone know why the main distro's switched from Mysql to Maria DB?
Should I learn about Mysql anyway or is Maria DB similar?
Thanks for the info.

Thanks that link was most informative.