web apps / sql / designing a documentation delivery system...

[gyaker -at- csc -dot- com]

First off, I'm just asking this for my own personal knowledge. I'd love to know
how you guys would address this kind of problem. I'm guessing this is a
real-world problem, but if I'm off please correct me and tell me what a more
likely situation would be.

Lets say your client asked you to put all of their documents on the web and
create a web site where their customers could access all of the latest
information on their product or service.  How would this be set up and what
fundamental concepts do you need to learn?

I'm guessing, and here's the thrust of the 'correct my misconceptions' question
comes in, you need to know how to run a web server, some type of dynamic page
creation language (DHTML, PHP, ASP, etc? - what else is hot these days?), the
back end of things (database stuff / sql, i'll throw perl/cgi in here though i
know it's kind of the intermediary between the backend and front end), and
middleware (which I have no idea of, can someone fill me in on this).

Then, what type of software development skills do you need to know? I presume
you need to be well versed in database design and basic sysadmin and networking
things? But moreover, what fundamental concepts do you need to know to sketch a
macro-level design of this kind of system on a white board?  heh :)

thnx!
Gil