[RESOLVED] need advices- HELP- article

Pehape

hi all,
i want to make a form where users be able to submit an article, what i'm doing now is setting upload form to have users upload their file.
nah, but now i'm very doubt and confuse, because when i looked at many other article website, i found all using textarea to let user write their articles. That's mean, at least What i think is that they only use field (text type) to store the article words on their database, while i'm using a field (varchar) to store a file name.
which one i should use...? plz, would u mind to give some suggestions and advices from all of you the expert and a lot of experiences ?
thanks in advance.

dougal85

varchar has a maximum of 255 characters (i think)

Text can hold a rediculiously large string, more than easily hold any length of article you are likely to come accorss.

If you allow users to upload articles in formats such as RTF or DOC with means you need to check these are secure, for example a DOC could contain malitious marcos. Also it will mean users need to download these articles each time somebody wants to view them. This will mean lots more bandwidth is used compared to database queries.

also, working within a database is easier as you can print the file out on the screen rather than make them download it. also you can easily manipulate the text too.

So... I'd go with storying in a database 🙂

Pehape

thank you very much...
in my web, user doesn't need to download it, the file that comes in, would be checked by me of course and then if good, i will place it on the web for user to read, but anyway, i'm starting to like the text field idea, yah like you said, it's easier to maintain.
but if user submit an article, is it right for me to store it on a temp table, and wait for me to check on it, if it's good, i'll move it to real table which one i used to get and display article on my web.
ok, i think i'm sure to use text field, but i'm really new working on project like this so could u help me again (plz.. 🙂 ), i need more information about what to do (like what process i need to add ) and tips or trick in building my article web.
thanks again...

dougal85

Pehape wrote:
in my web, user doesn't need to download it

Are you the only one thats going to view the file? Some browsers wont display it inside the browser and you still need to download a temporary copy for the browser to view it inside the browser anyway.

Piranha

Pehape wrote:
but if user submit an article, is it right for me to store it on a temp table, and wait for me to check on it, if it's good, i'll move it to real table which one i used to get and display article on my web.

Or store it in teh correct table and add a column "checked" that have to have a value of 1 to be viewed by others.

dougal85

sorry, i was half asleep and missed half your post. but yeah, following on from what Piranha said, you would be creating like a boolean (TRUE or FALSE) for each article and then its easy to make is checked or not.

You say your new, How familiar with PHP are you? Have you worked with submitted forms and connecting to databases? because that's the majority of the functionality right there!

Have you constructed any of the website yet?

Pehape

You say your new, How familiar with PHP are you? Have you worked with submitted forms and connecting to databases? because that's the majority of the functionality right there!
Have you constructed any of the website yet?

i make some but only as exercise so i don't make it like 'full version'
yeah i do know to connect my web with db (mysql), and also know basic function like update,insert,delete,select. i'm using form to submit post var or using link to get post var.
that's as far as i know...

Or store it in teh correct table and add a column "checked" that have to have a value of 1 to be viewed by others.

yeah, i will use it. thanks.
there is another question :
how if the article has pictures..? while i only store article text on textfield?
thanks

dougal85

if the article stores pictures this can make it more complicated.

in a .doc file, rtf etc this isn't a problem obviously.

to do it with a database, you need to store the name of the image in the database, then when you output the data, you output the name&path into an HTML IMG tag.

If articles will require more than one image you will need to put it into a different take and then create a many to many relationship.

Also, you will need to consider upload images, resizing, will you need thumbnails? etc. etc. Images can quickly get complicated when you are dealing with user adding them. however, don't let you put that off, I'm sure you can find examples and functions that do lots of this, just Google for it.

Pehape

hmm... yah, i think i got clear enough from ur explanation. i'll go lookin it.
again, thanks for ur help and for ur great explanation. this is resolved.
thank you again.