Haseloff

Hello everyone,
First off, I am not really looking for someone to write code for me. What I am looking for is ideas on how to approach a project though. I really enjoy researching different ways and trial and erroring my way through it. Here is the problem/solution.

I am well versed in php and javascript. I have a form for people to sign up for stuff on my website (RSVP system). How do I get that to talk to a database and to populate it? I really didn't want to have the page have direct contact with the database for obvious security reasons but how should I approach it?

I was thinking along the lines of having it cache and run a dump at the end of the day that will populate the table (or not if the person has volunteered with us before).

Just looking for ways, work arounds anything will help. I'm pretty good with the front end stuff, just not the database stuff. Any ideas that might inspire me on the right path would be appreciated.

Thanks AGAIN!!