An old script that needs a little dusting off?

H2G_ORG · Apr 25, 2005

I am using a great free program for my directory called cplinks. It is almost perfect for my needs but has something that needs to be updated. The program was last modified in 2004? and I am not sure if the owner really wants to do much more with it. Well I do!

Here is my question, if you take a look at my new Home and Garden Directory ( www.h2g.org ) you see how I have the directory setup, if you click a category you go to a category page where it will display links. The issue is there is no cut-off for links; it will list 100s of links on just one page!! As some of you might know this is not good SEO so I am looking to only allow 15 links per page and have multiple pages as the number of links grows in the directory, make sense?

I asked support at cplinks and this is what they said:

The code is in static_generator/build_common.php.

You need to edit the create_sub_category function.

Could someone download this free program and try to break links pages 15 long? ( www.cplinks.com ) Would it help if I cut and past the code here?

If someone can edit this code and make this old script work I believe it will be useful for all, it's really cool and just needs a little dusting off!

Kind regards,

Aaron

LordShryku · Apr 25, 2005

No one is going to do it for you. That's not how these forums work.

H2G_ORG · Apr 25, 2005

That's how these forums work?

I am not a coder, I was looking for someone who might know about this.

If you notice this is my first post, I registered just today.

What a depressing welcome...

Oh well, looks like I am in the wrong place.

LordShryku · Apr 25, 2005

The important word in the "Community Help Forums" is the help part. Finding people who might know about this is possible, and they would help you figure out how to do this. But looking at your first post, you have no interest in how this would be done, you just want it done. In which case, you'll need to hire someone (some of us earn our living doing this). Also, in which case, you'd have to go somewhere else, because job ads aren't allowed here.

Sorry if this is a depressing welcome, but learning the rules and dynamic of the forums very early on will help you in the long run.

onion2k · Apr 25, 2005

Dear lord what a nasty way of running a link farm. Get a database.

Better still, write a proper website. With actual content.

H2G_ORG · Apr 25, 2005

I do know the unwritten rules of arrogance in forums and I do not take part. You see I know for sure I do not have the aptitude for .php (I have tried and failed). I was looking for someone who might enjoy looking at this old directory script to see if it can be tweaked. I was told that for someone who understand PHP well it would be fixed with a few lines of code?

This forum is @ PHPBuilder.com > PHP Help > Coding which made me believe that there might be someone here who could HELP with a snippet of code to make cplinks more SEO friendly.

I have often found kind folks who see stuff like this as a challenge and are glad to help. It is kind of the way you have to do things when you do not have any money.

I would love to play around in here with PHP code if I was able. If someone wants to trade code for marketing help I could do that but I thought this task would be a fun challenge for someone who enjoys and understands PHP.

I just saw the "link farm" comment, you just proved my point about arrogance. How can you call my directory a link farm, you don;t even know what I plan to do with it???

What and ugly place!

vaaaska · Apr 25, 2005

Originally posted by H2G.ORG
Could someone download this free program and try to break links pages 15 long? ( www.cplinks.com ) Would it help if I cut and past the code here?

No. Yes, post some code and maybe people will help. I'm certainly not going to download something for you...

One answer is LIMIT 0,15. It's an obious one. However, I bet then you'll want some pagination help. And then you'll need help implementing it...etc.

Do a search on pagination or look at the top of the coding page for resources on the subject.

Expect to either learn something or don't bother...it's probably going to be much more complicated than you'll expect.

H2G_ORG · Apr 25, 2005

Thank you Vaaaska for letting me in on a few things to search for. I will do so and give it a go!

Here is the build_common.php code, it will take two separate posts:

<?php
session_start();
if ( $_SESSION['logged_in'] != "true" )
{
print "Log in as admin";
exit;
}

function show_page_row ( $title, $url, $description )
{
echo "<tr>\n";
echo "<td class=\"mnllinklist\"><a href=\"" . $url . "\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"mnllinklist\">" . $title . "</a> ";
echo $description . "</td>\n";
echo "</tr>\n";
}

function create_links_page( $category, $sub_category, $show_progress )
{
global $db, $CONFIG_VAR;
global $cplinks_version;

$category_name		= str_replace ( "_", " ", $category ); 
$sub_category_name	= ucwords ( str_replace ( "_", " ", $sub_category ) );
$type				= "link";

if ( $show_progress )
	{
	echo "creating page ..." . $category_name . " -> " . $sub_category_name; 
	}

ob_start();
$location		= "sub";
$title			= $CONFIG_VAR['website_name'] . " :: " . $category_name . " :: " . $sub_category_name;
$keywords		= $sub_category_name;
$description	= "These websites provide information about " . $category_name . " and " . $sub_category_name;

//This creates the page header
require ( "../templates/mnl_page_header.php" );

// This creates the start of the main body table
echo "<!-- Start of main body table -->\n\n";

echo "<table width=\"" . $CONFIG_VAR['body_width_value'] . "\" align=\"" . $CONFIG_VAR['main_body_align'] . "\" cellspacing=\"0\" border=\"0\" cellpadding=\"0\" bgcolor=\"#" . $CONFIG_VAR['main_body_colour'] . "\">\n";
echo "<tr>\n";

//This creates the left hand column	
require ( "../templates/mnl_left_hand_column.php" );

// This creates the middle table
echo "<!-- Start of middle column -->\n\n";
echo "<td valign=\"top\">\n";

// This creates the breadcrumbs
echo "<table width=\"100%\" border=\"0\" cellpadding=\"3\" cellspacing=\"0\">\n";
echo "<tr>\n";
echo "<td class=\"mnlbreadcrumbs\"><a href=\"../index.html\">Home</a> >> <a href=\"index.html\">" . $category_name . " </a> >> " . $sub_category_name . "</td>\n";
echo "</tr>\n";
echo "</table>\n";

echo "<table width=\"100%\" border=\"0\" cellpadding=\"5\" cellspacing=\"0\">\n";
$query = "SELECT title,
			url,
			description	
			FROM mnl_links
			WHERE category='$category'
			AND sub_category='$sub_category'
			AND approved='yes'
			ORDER BY status, rec_timestamp DESC";

$result		= $db->get_results ( $query );
if ( $db->num_rows == 0 )
	{
	echo "<tr>\n";
	echo "<td class=\"tbody\">There are currently no links for " . $sub_category_name . ".  To add a link select \"Submit A Link\" from the menu.</td>\n";
	echo "</tr>\n";
	}
else
	{
	foreach ( $result as $val )
		{
		show_page_row ( $val->title, $val->url, $val->description );
		}
	}
echo "</table>\n";

//This creates the search form
search_form ( "sub" );

//This creates the main menu along the bottom of the main column
navigation( "link", $category, $sub_category );

echo "</td>\n";
echo "<!-- End of the middle_column -->\n\n";

// This creates the right hand menu column
require ( "../templates/mnl_right_hand_column.php" );

// This ends the main body table
echo "</tr>\n";
echo "</table>\n";

//This creates the page footer
require ( "../templates/mnl_page_footer.php" );

$output = ob_get_contents(); 
ob_end_clean(); 
$fp = fopen ( "../" . strtolower ( $category ) . "/" . strtolower ( $sub_category )  . ".html", "wb"); 

fwrite ($fp, $output); 
fclose ($fp);

if ( $show_progress )
	{
	echo "....done<br>";
	}
}

function show_category_links ( $title, $url, $description )
{
echo "<tr>\n";
echo "<td class=\"mnllinklist\"><a href=\"" . $url . "\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"mnllinklist\">" . $title . "</a> ";
echo $description;
echo "</td>\n";
echo "</tr>\n";
}

function create_directory ( $directory )
{
global $ftp_server_name, $ftp_user_name, $ftp_password;

$new_dir = strtolower ( $directory );

if ( $directory = "" )
	{
	return array('error' => true, 'error_msg' => "No value was assigned for the directory" );
	}

$connection = ftp_connect( $ftp_server_name );
$username	= $ftp_user_name;
$pass		= $ftp_password;

$login_result = ftp_login($connection,$username,$pass);
// check to make sure you're connected:
if ( (! ( $login_result ) ) or ( !( $connection ) ) )
	{
	ftp_close ( $connection);
	return array('error' => true, 'error_msg' => "Cannot log in to the FTP server" );
	}

//find the current directory
$explode_path	= explode ( "/", getcwd() );
$num_elements	= count ( $explode_path );

$root_path		= $explode_path[ $num_elements - 2];

//change to the cpLinks root directory
$i = 0;
while ( !ftp_chdir( $connection, $root_path ) AND $i <$num_elements ) 
	{
	$root_path = "";
	for ( $j = $num_elements - 2; $j > $i; $j-- )
		{
		$root_path = "/" . $explode_path[$j] . $root_path;
		}
	$i++;
	}

if  ( ftp_mkdir( $connection, $new_dir ) )
	{
	$new_dir = "CHMOD 777 " . $new_dir;
	ftp_site ( $connection, $new_dir );
	ftp_close ( $connection );
	print "Directory creation succeeded and permissons set... ";
	}
else
	{
	print "The " . strtolower ( $new_dir ) . " directory already exists... ";
	}		

return array('error' => false, 'error_msg' => "" );	
}

function show_category_row ( $cat, $category, $directory )
{
global $db;

$query = "SELECT Count(category ) As number_links
			FROM  `mnl_links` 
			WHERE sub_category='$directory'
			AND category='$cat'
			AND approved='yes'";
$results = $db->get_var ( $query );

echo "<tr>\n";
if ( $directory == "" )
	{
	echo "<td width=\"50%\">&nbsp;</td>\n";
	echo "<td width=\"50%\">&nbsp;</td>\n";
	}
else
	{
	echo "<td width=\"3%\"><img src=\"../images/triangle_bullet.gif\" alt=\"\"></td>\n";
	echo "<td width=\"97%\" class=\"mnlcategorylist\"><a href=\"" . strtolower ( $directory ) . ".html\"><b>" . ucwords ( $category ) . "</b></a> (" . $results . ")</td>\n";
	}
echo "</tr>\n";
}

function create_sub_category_page( $category, $show_progress )
{
global $db, $CONFIG_VAR;
global $cplinks_version;

$category_name	= str_replace ( "_", " ", $category ); 
$type			= "sub";

if ( $show_progress )
	{
	echo "building the " . $category . " directory......";
	}

ob_start();
$location		= "sub";
$title			= $CONFIG_VAR['website_name'] . " :: " . $category_name;
$keywords		= $category;
$description	= "This is a list of subjects about " . $category_name;

//This creates the page header
require ( "../templates/mnl_page_header.php" );

// This creates the start of the main body table
echo "<!-- Start of main body table -->\n\n";

echo "<table width=\"" . $CONFIG_VAR['body_width_value'] . "\" align=\"" . $CONFIG_VAR['main_body_align'] . "\" cellspacing=\"0\" border=\"0\" cellpadding=\"0\" bgcolor=\"#" . $CONFIG_VAR['main_body_colour'] . "\">\n";
echo "<tr>\n";

//This creates the left hand column	
require ( "../templates/mnl_left_hand_column.php" );

// This creates the middle table
echo "<!-- Start of middle column -->\n\n";
echo "<td valign=\"top\">\n";

// This creates the breadcrumbs
echo "<table width=\"100%\" border=\"0\" cellpadding=\"3\" cellspacing=\"0\">\n";
echo "<tr>\n";
echo "<td class=\"mnlbreadcrumbs\"><a href=\"../index.html\">Home</a> >> " . $category_name . "</td>\n";
echo "</tr>\n";
echo "</table>\n";

echo "<table width=\"100%\" border=\"0\" cellpadding=\"0\" cellspacing=\"1\">\n";
echo "<tr>\n";
echo "<td width=\"50%\" valign=\"top\">\n";
echo "<table width=\"100%\" border=\"0\" cellpadding=\"5\" cellspacing=\"0\">\n";

$query = "SELECT DISTINCT sub_category 
			FROM mnl_categories
			WHERE category='$category'
			AND approved='yes'";

$result		= $db->get_results ( $query );
$num_rows	= $db->num_rows;
$round		= round ( $num_rows/2, 0 );

$count = 0;

foreach ( $result as $val )
	{

H2G_ORG · Apr 25, 2005

// don't build a directory if there is no sub directory for this category
if ( $val->sub_category == "" )
{
continue;
}

	$sub_category = str_replace ( "_", " ", $val->sub_category ); 
	show_category_row ( $category, $sub_category, $val->sub_category );
	$count++;
	if ( $count == $round )
		{
		echo "</table>\n";
		echo "<td width=\"50%\" valign=\"top\">\n";
		echo "<table width=\"100%\" border=\"0\" cellpadding=\"5\" cellspacing=\"0\">\n";
		}
	}
echo "</table>\n";
echo "</td>\n";
echo "</tr>\n";
echo "</table>\n";
echo "<br>\n";

//show the latest links
$query = "SELECT * 
			FROM mnl_links 
			WHERE approved='yes'
			AND category = '$category'
		    ORDER BY id DESC
			LIMIT 0 , 5";
$result		= $db->get_results ( $query );

if ( $db->num_rows > 0 )
	{
	echo "<!-- Start of the latest link tables -->\n\n";	
	echo "<table width=\"100%\" border=\"0\" cellpadding=\"3\" cellspacing=\"0\">\n";
	echo "<tr>\n";
	echo "<td class=\"mnlhighlightheading\">The latest " . $category_name . " links:</td>\n";
	echo "</tr>\n";
	echo "</table>\n";
	echo "<table width=\"100%\" border=\"0\" cellpadding=\"5\" cellspacing=\"0\">\n";

	foreach ( $result as $val)
		{
		$strlength = 70;
		$description = $val->description;
		if ( strlen ( $description ) > $strlength )
			{
			$description = substr ( $val->description, 0, $strlength ) . "...";
			}
		show_category_links ( $val->title, $val->url, $description, $val->category );		
		}
	echo "</table>\n";
	}

//This creates the search form
search_form ( "sub" );

//This creates the main menu along the bottom of the main column
navigation( "sub", $category, "" );

echo "</td>\n";
echo "<!-- End of the middle_column -->\n\n";

// This creates the right hand menu column
require ( "../templates/mnl_right_hand_column.php" );


// This ends the main body table
echo "</tr>\n";
echo "</table>\n";

//This creates the page footer
require ( "../templates/mnl_page_footer.php" );


$output = ob_get_contents(); 
ob_end_clean();

//suppress all error reports
error_reporting(0);

$result = create_directory ( strtolower ( $category ) );
if ( $result[error] == true )
	{
	//FTP error occurred
	print $result[error_msg];
	die;
	}

//restore error reporting
error_reporting  (E_ERROR | E_WARNING | E_PARSE);

$fp = fopen ( "../" . strtolower ( $category ) . "/index.html", "wb"); 
fwrite ( $fp, $output ); 
fclose ( $fp );

if ( $show_progress )
	{
	echo "done<br>";
	}
}

function show_index_row ( $category, $directory )
{
global $db;

$query = "SELECT Count(category ) As number_links
			FROM  `mnl_links` 
			WHERE category='$directory'";
$results = $db->get_var ( $query );

if ( $category != "eCommerce" )
	{
	$category = ucwords ( $category );
	}

echo "<tr>\n";
if ( $directory == "" )
	{
	echo "<td width=\"50%\">&nbsp;</td>\n";
	echo "<td width=\"50%\">&nbsp;</td>\n";
	}
else
	{
	echo "<td width=\"3%\"><img src=\"images/triangle_bullet.gif\" alt=\"\"></td>\n";
	echo "<td width=\"97%\" class=\"mnlcategorylist\"><a href=\"" . strtolower ( $directory ) . "\"><b>" . $category . "</b></a> (" . $results . ")</td>\n";
	}
echo "</tr>\n";
}

function show_index_links ( $title, $url, $description, $category, $sub_category )
{
echo "<tr>\n";
echo "<td class=\"mnllinklist\"><a href=\"" . $url . "\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"mnllinklist\">" . $title . "</a>";
echo "  (" . str_replace ( "", " ", $category ) . " > " . str_replace ( "", " ", $sub_category ) . ")";
echo " ";
echo $description;
echo "</td>\n";
echo "</tr>\n";
}

function create_index_page( $show_progess )
{
global $db, $CONFIG_VAR ;
global $cplinks_version;

ob_start();

$title			= $CONFIG_VAR['index_title'];
$keywords		= $CONFIG_VAR['index_keywords'];
$description	=  $CONFIG_VAR['index_description'];
$type			= "index";

//This creates the page header
require ( "../templates/mnl_page_header.php" );

// This creates the start of the main body table
echo "<!-- Start of main body table -->\n\n";

echo "<table width=\"" . $CONFIG_VAR['body_width_value'] . "\" align=\"" . $CONFIG_VAR['main_body_align'] . "\" cellspacing=\"0\" border=\"0\" cellpadding=\"0\" bgcolor=\"#" . $CONFIG_VAR['main_body_colour'] . "\">\n";
echo "<tr>\n";

//This creates the left hand column	
require ( "../templates/mnl_left_hand_column.php" );

// This creates the middle table
echo "<!-- Start of middle column -->\n\n";
echo "<td valign=\"top\">\n";

// This creates the introductory text
include ( "../templates/mnl_introduction.php" );

$query = "SELECT DISTINCT 
			category 
			FROM mnl_categories
			WHERE approved='yes'";

$result		= $db->get_results ( $query );
$num_rows	= $db->num_rows;
$round		= round ( $num_rows/2, 0 );

if ( $num_rows > 0 )
	{
	echo "<table width=\"100%\" border=\"0\" cellpadding=\"3\" cellspacing=\"0\" align=\"center\">\n";
	echo "<tr>\n";
	echo "<td class=\"mnlhighlightheading\">Browse through our link categories:</td>\n";
	echo "</tr>\n";
	echo "</table>\n";

	echo "<table width=\"100%\" border=\"0\" cellpadding=\"0\" cellspacing=\"1\" align=\"center\" bgcolor=\"#" . $CONFIG_VAR['main_body_colour'] . "\">\n";
	echo "<tr>\n";
	echo "<td width=\"50%\" valign=\"top\">\n";
	echo "<table width=\"100%\" border=\"0\" cellpadding=\"5\" cellspacing=\"0\">\n";

	$query = "SELECT DISTINCT 
				category 
				FROM mnl_categories
				WHERE approved='yes'
				ORDER BY category";

	$result		= $db->get_results ( $query );
	$num_rows	= $db->num_rows;
	$round		= round ( $num_rows/2, 0 );

	$count = 0;

	foreach ( $result as $val )
		{
		$category = str_replace ( "_", " ", $val->category ); 
		show_index_row ( $category, $val->category );
		$count++;
		if ( $count == $round )
			{
			echo "</table>\n";
			echo "<td width=\"50%\" valign=\"top\">\n";
			echo "<table width=\"100%\" border=\"0\" cellpadding=\"5\" cellspacing=\"0\">\n";
			}
		}
	echo "</table>\n";
	echo "</td>\n";
	echo "</tr>\n";
	echo "</table>\n";
	}

//show the latest links
$query = "SELECT * 
			FROM mnl_links 
			WHERE approved='yes'
		    ORDER BY id DESC
			LIMIT 0 , 5";
$result		= $db->get_results ( $query );
if ( $db->num_rows > 0 )
	{
	echo "<!-- Start of the latest link tables -->\n\n";	
	echo "<table width=\"100%\" border=\"0\" cellpadding=\"3\" cellspacing=\"0\" align=\"center\">\n";
	echo "<tr>\n";
	echo "<td class=\"mnlhighlightheading\">The latest links:</td>\n";
	echo "</tr>\n";
	echo "</table>\n";
	echo "<table width=\"100%\" border=\"0\" cellpadding=\"5\" cellspacing=\"0\">\n";
	foreach ( $result as $val)
		{
		$strlength = 90;
		$description = $val->description;
		if ( strlen ( $description ) > $strlength )
			{
			$description = substr ( $val->description, 0, $strlength ) . "...";
			}
		show_index_links ( $val->title, $val->url, $description, $val->category, $val->sub_category );		
		}
	echo "</table>\n";
	}

//This creates the search form
search_form ( "index" );

//This creates the main menu along the bottom of the main column
navigation( "index", "", "" );

echo "</td>\n";
echo "<!-- End of the middle_column -->\n\n";

// This creates the right hand menu column
require ( "../templates/mnl_right_hand_column.php" );


// This ends the main body table
echo "</tr>\n";
echo "</table>\n";

//This creates the page footer
require ( "../templates/mnl_page_footer.php" );

$output = ob_get_contents(); 
ob_end_clean(); 
$fp = fopen ( "../index.html", "wb"); 
fwrite ($fp, $output); 
fclose ($fp);

if ( $show_progress )
	{
	echo "done<br>";
	echo "<a href=\"../admin/admin_category_list.php\">Return to Category Management</a>";
	}
}

?>

Nixon · Apr 25, 2005

1st - Use

tags for your code

2nd - At least TRY and have an understanding of your code so you can pinpoint the part you need to change

3rd - This is a piece of code that will get you started on what you want to do, it will not work straight off but can be easily implemented, all you would need to do is change the links and chnage your database query slightly, somebody else may do this for you.


    if (($_GET['num1']-5) < 0)

    {

    print "<a href='articles.php?num1=".($_GET['num1']+5)."&num2=5'>Next 5</a><br><br>";

    }

    if ($_GET['num1']+5 > $no_articles )

    {

    print "<div align='center'><a href='articles.php?num1=".($_GET['num1']-5)."&num2=5'>Previous 5</a><br><br>";

    }

    if ( ($_GET['num1']-5) >= 0 && ($_GET['num1']+5) < $no_articles )

    {

    print "<div align='center'><a href='articles.php?num1=".($_GET['num1']-5)."&num2=5'>Previous 5</a>";
    print " | ";
    print "<a href='articles.php?num1=".($_GET['num1']+5)."&num2=5'>Next 5</a><br><br>";

H2G_ORG · Apr 25, 2005

NOW THAT IS WHAT I AM TALKING ABOUT THANKYOU SIR!!!

I CAN WORK WITH THAT!

EXCELLENT!

(i always try to understand things, but i am in no way a coder type of human)

Thanks!

tekky · Apr 25, 2005

First off, damn, thats a lot of code
second off, before you go off on so many people maybe you should try to understand a couple of things... namely this... and this... and maybe even this one too

Thirdly, this place comes with a twisted sense of humor, if you let everything you read here upset you, you wont get very far... and you truly wont find a more helpful group of people...

Fourthly, I'm glad you were able to get some help, but as was suggested, you really should try to understand the basics, even my mother has picked up some programming basics, and web design basics and she's getting up there in years

With that being said... chill dude, I would normally react the same way the others did to your comments, but I think you got enough of that for one day...

Till your next post of this sort, you are safe from me Hope you take some of this to heart and atleast read more into this community rather then being bitter about 1 ill asked question.

H2G_ORG · Apr 25, 2005

Ill asked question??? You want to try me you %$$#$!!!

LOL, and yeah I kind of get it, I worked in IT for years. There is just people who will always know more and have more patience for this stuff. I often walk up to their desks and make friends with them because they have the tools I need.

Want a date with a really hot blond tonight? Give me the code!!!

:evilgrin:

dalecosp · Apr 25, 2005

Originally posted by H2G.ORG
Want a date with a really hot blond tonight? Give me the code!!!

:evilgrin:

Sorry, no job postings allowed...besides, I'm hetero ... (BlondE, right, BuzzLY?)

second off, before you go off on so many people maybe you should try to understand a couple of things... namely this... and this... and maybe even this one too

Well, actually, how about this one?

"Help" does not mean "Solve my problem for me". It means "Help me solve my problem". There is a difference.

That's the stuff, from Our Belov-ed Leader ...

tekky · Apr 26, 2005

Originally posted by dalecosp
....Well, actually, how about this one?.....

Uhm if I wanted to include that one... I would have dontcha think!?!?! :glare:

And in regards to the hot blonde, since you brought up the looks, you would need to submit a picture for approval and include a means of communication as to verify you arent one of wanna be's (internet drag-queens you know... they can be scary sh!t you know?)

H2G_ORG · Apr 26, 2005

H2G quickly digs around for a picture of his sister, in an attempt to get the code!

=P

An old script that needs a little dusting off?

HH2G_ORG

LLordShryku

HH2G_ORG

LLordShryku

Oonion2k

HH2G_ORG

Vvaaaska

HH2G_ORG

HH2G_ORG

NNixon

HH2G_ORG

Ttekky

HH2G_ORG

dalecosp

Ttekky

HH2G_ORG