PHP for beginner...books, hosting?

[KewlFlasher]

I am a beginner at PHP4 and would like to know how to create bulletin boards using this PHP4 script.
What books do you recommend? ANy on-line tutorials that shows step by step in creating a unthreaded board? Kind of like the AOL boards if anyone has seen those, but want to create one with a more unique style/design.
Any free web hosting that supports this script? Any fee-based web hosting?

How much web space / bandwidth do I need for approx 150 people on a board?

Also any ISP providers that lets one install their own web server on their computer?

Thanks!
KewlFlasher

[NETbreed]

Hiya!

One by one...

Books:

The best book on PHP I can recommend is:

Title: Professional PHP Programming
Authors: Jesus Castagnetto, et al
Publisher: Wrox Press
RRP: $49.99 USA | $74.95 CANADA | £35.99 UK NET

Although it sais £35.99 for the UK version I got mine from Amazon for about £27 inc. postage!!

Wrox also do a "Beginning PHP" book if you're not familiar with programming for the web.


Web sites:

Only one:

http://www.phpbuilder.com

from thete check out the articles and the help boards. Also check out the links section for LOADS more PHP related sites!!!


Free hosts:

• http://www.f2s.com
• http://www.portland.co.uk
• http://www.datablocks.net

Fee based hosts:

Too many to list. Do a search for "PHP host"!


Space/bandwidth

A relatively low bandwidth/space account would wuit what you're looking for. Probably the minimum space you'd want is 35mb [depending on ho wlong you want to keep old posts] and the most bandwidth you should need is about 1gb/month [this will take care of busy periods]!


Dedicated Host

Most hosting companies will offer dedicated hosting where you get your own server and can pretty much put whatever you like on there. Be prepared to pay quite a lot for this though!

I hope this helps!

Regards,

Steve

[Musicman]

Hi KewlFlasher,

"beginning php" is perhaps not telling you all you need to run, let alone write a board. Try to get the free/demo version of vb (php, mysql) or ubb (perl, flat files), spend a couple of days with the code (best of all running the demo on your own computer) and try to understand what they are doing. Also try to think the other way round: how might someone attempt to attack my board...

As far as hosting is concerned: f2s do hosting without banners
I have managed to run ubb such that html for old threads is stored on a different server, to reduce storage requirements. If a flat-file approach is taken, some hosters do impose restrictions on the number of files as well as on the total storage. A typical board might reach this kind of limit pretty soon.
A board that generates html or flash on the fly from a database does not suffer from these limitations; it
may be slower, and it may be more susceptible to errors.

Musicman

[alien8ed]

If you don't mind ad banners and don't mind using Perl then you could get hosting through http://www.tripod.com which has no limit on hits to your site and does provide a cgi-bin access and 50 megs of space.

Also since there are far more Perl scripts out there, you could easily find an existing guestbook script written in Perl at http://www.cgi-resources.com and then modify it so that flash displayed the text instead of displaying it in html.

Learning PHP... the way I learned it was by reading the manual on http://www.php.net, it's very detailed and you can even download it too. And http://www.phpbuilder.com has a good amount of tutorials that might help you learn as well.

You'll also need a PHP editor to make your life less painful and PHPEd has my vote, it is a freeware PHP Editor for Windows with full syntax highlighting and can be found at http://soysal.com/PHPEd/

[Edited by alien8ed on 04-03-2001 at 12:45 AM]

[alien8ed]

Here ya go... Go through my PHP 101 tutorial to get your feet wet http://alienalchemy.com/alienalchemy/php101.cgi

The first tutorial walks you through building your first php script to display a unique background image in a webpage for each day of the week.

[amd]

haha a php tutorial page ending in cgi ... hmmmm

makes me wonder, traitor!!!! :P

you can check out my open source file of flash database connectivity with super easy written PHP...


http://www.nydma.com/index.php?page=tutflash

[alien8ed]

haha actually it ends in CGI because I am running PHP 4 as a cgi and PHP 3 as an apache module :P

#!/usr/bin/php4

[amd]

ummm and why is it the only page with ext. cgi?

huh huh huh :P

wanna pick a fight? my dad can kick your dads butt!


jk

[MrBoris]

If you feel like cheating a little, there's an excellent free / open source forum script at http://www.phorum.org. It uses MySQL to store messages - I've found it to be very stable and speedy in use.

[alien8ed]

haha :P, here's two PHP extension files:

This is the example of the PHP 101 http://alienalchemy.com/alienalchemy/php101.cgi tutorial on my site:
http://alienalchemy.com/alienalchemy...background.php

And this is a php guestbook:
http://alienalchemy.com/alienalchemy.../guestbook.php

The guestbook is all in one script and stores it's data to a flat file database, the code is kept to a minimum and can be a good starting point to learn how to make a guestbook, plus it will run with PHP 3.09 or higher.

Then there is WebEmail:

http://alienalchemy.com/alienalchemy...p_webemail.zip

This is a form email program that also will work with PHP 3.09 or greater.

See there ARE .php extension files in there, though sometimes I tend to MAP the .HTML extension to the PHP interpretor. and when I'm really bored I create random extension types and MAP them to PHP as well just for kicks

[amd]

hahaha, I wish I had that option, I would be so creative with ext.

http://www.mydomain.com/index.holymoly

http://www.mydomain.com/index.yikes


hahaha

sadly I dont have a constant ip cable here sucks and my system cant be on all the time cause Ill go poor with light bill!

damn you!

:P

[KewlFlasher]

Hmm I posted on the 4th with an update and it still hasn't shown up...hmmm.

I am still stuck on which host to go with as I need to get more information on exactly what I need from a free or paid web hosting company to support a PHP4 bulletin message board.

I looked into fs2 and they are back up wbut with unstable servers, so that's a turnoff for me and I checked into all the others listed above in this thread, but I am still not quite sure what to sign up for just yet.

What platform should the web host have?
Bandwith/ website pace do I need?
(For a PHP4 message board for approx. 150 people, 500-1000 posts approx. week) Less then half of thse people I see actually post currently, but we are regrouping everyone, and I did get 90 replies back from those interested in the new message board that I am trying to create in php4, which I am still struggling with.

Is there any software tools out there that already has built in message board scripts in PHP?

I did download phorum, but I don't have a web server to run the script...can I still create the PHP4 script on a WIN ME Pentium 4 system? Or definitely go with a free web host that has whatever I need on their server?
I am still stuck grasping PHP4 script and really would like to get a board up by this weekend, but prefer it customized but don't want to pay hundreds to have it done.

I know I am forgetting some important questions, but so far need more advice and information before signing up for anything.
Thanks!
KewlFlasher

[alien8ed]

My suggestion is to get a good host and to do that you have to spend a few bucks no matter what.

Those free hosts are either limited, unstable, slow, or have way too many ad banners and popups so if you can't handle that I'd get a reliable host that gives you everything you need to build a great site.

My personal recommendation is to go with communitech since they provide all that plus 350 meg of space with php and mysql for a reasonable price and I've setup phorum successfully on their servers so I know it can handle it. You will see their banner at the top of the search results link below...

Here is a search result for php web hosting - > http://askpete.alienalchemy.com/sear...ting&x=44&y=10
[Edited by alien8ed on 04-06-2001 at 05:18 PM]

[Musicman]

Hi KewlFlasher,

if you really want to customize an existing board (not just change a few colors or images), it is definitely worth setting up the board on your own computer. So you need a webserver and php4.
It also saves a lot of problems later, when you want to extend some feature and can test your changes without disrupting the live system.


BTW: two suggested additions to your upcoming board (unless they already exist in phorum; I feel they lack terribly in ubb)
a) capability to backup all threads to your local hard disk
b) find out disk space actually used. (Some providers increase your bill if you are over the limit, others just dont let you write any more data...)

Regarding f2s: their "unstable" warning exists for at least half a year now, yet they are running better than other services which dont say anything like that. I believe, however, that 20 MB would not be enough if you decide to keep threads for some time.

Musicman

[BIG jolt]

http://www.hotscripts.com - at last count 1435 open source PHP scripts - 52 bulletin boards.

i've got wrox press beginning PHP4 and it's great.

cheers
Henry

[KewlFlasher]

alien8ed: Good point between the free and paid hosting. I'll look into finding one that has everything I need to do not just for the current board that I want to create, but for other projects as well. I am reading through the 'communitech' website and see that they support the majority of what I need. I also noticed that they only have MySQL for Unix servers, not windows, hmm...They look great with their prices. Definitely looking into this one. Hey they even have a message board called Matt's Wright CGI scripts, but they don't show an example of what that board looks like. I'll keep this one bookmarked as my number one choice as I am still researching a bit more here.

Thanks for the link!
KewlFlasher

[KewlFlasher]

Musicman:

You read my mind, that's exactly what I have been trying to do with the PHP4 script, customize the entire board, not just colors, etc. I finally was able to sit still and read several chapters in the Professional Programmers to PHP4 by Wrox Press and also Beginner's Programmer/Developer Guide to PHP by Gilmore. Both are pretty well explained so far.

I am currently working on installing PHP, Apache and MySQL software onto my home computer as I follow the instructions in the Wrox press book. I definitely want to back up all the threads for an archive section. Hmm, now to figure out disk space used before actually getting this board up, will require some Einstein thinking...150 people approx., 500-1,000 posts a week. hmm...ah forget the mathematical equations. Do you know exactly how much disk space those figures will take? ;O

Wow, so F2s.com has that "Unstable" message for almost a year now, interesting. I am rechecking their site now to see if they support everything that I would need for this site and other future projects, etc. Looking into their webhosting plans again.

As for ISP providers, I am looking for a more 'in touch with the latest technology' ISP out there as mine won't support PHP4, or multicast streaming on their servers.(Just to name a few non-supported itmes) They won't even let me install my own webserver when I asked about it, stating the agreement policy. I read the policy and don't see a thing about it. Makes me wonder...

Also, at one time I was unable to connect to their server for 50+ days straight (they refused to send someone out to fix their DNS servers) and they had the nerve to tell me it was either my computer or me. I was pretty upset with them. It turned out that the first 2 techs disabled the USB box connected to the cable modem and thus why I couldn't connect for so long! It was their equipment and not me, and a nice credit to my bills, as I haven't had to pay for it yet since I signed up. So if I can find a new ISP soon, then I won't have to pay a penny to those folks when I switch.

Thanks Musicman!
Here's your tip cha ching!
KewlFlasher

[KewlFlasher]

Big Jolt:

Thanks for the link to hotscripts, checking that out now. Wow, that's quite a collection of bulletin boards!

I got the 'Professional PHP4' book by Wrox which has a chapter on message boards and 'Beginner's Intro to PHP4' by W. Gilmore. Finally able to sit still long enough to read several chapters in each book and starting to grasp the concept of the script language. Guess it's patience to sit and read in 70 degree weather.

Do you think I would still the beginner's Wrox book? What does it cover?

Thanks for the help!
KewlFlasher

[Musicman]

Hi,

why would you mind they are running mysql on unix? If you do not want to combine asp and mysql, there is no problem.
In any case you can install mysql on your windows system to test your code

Musicman

[KewlFlasher]

MusicMan:

I don't mind what server the web host has, just noticed that MySQL is not available for the Windows server on the communitech website.

I am currently installing MySQL onto my system, so I can test my codes. I appreciate everyone's help so far and will report how it goes once I get it all set up and running, and then testing the board scripts.

Thanks!
KewlFlasher