New To PHP and MySQL PLEASE HELP !!

drkshenronx

Hello Everyone,

I am new to the whole PHP5 + MySQL thing and I need help with alot of things.
First off I am creating a website that I want to be able to use to communicate with it's users and also have a members area that users can customize (personal info, avatars, add friends, send private messages, and so on). I also want to integrate a search field and a forum. I need help getting started and I really want this to be professional. Can anyone point me in the right direction as to where to start. And also right now my main concern is the forum and the search engine so if someone could help me with that it would be much appreciated. Oh and also I really don't have money to spend on books to learn so if anyone knows where I can get free (and legal) documentation that would be great.

Thank You

sid

for an initial project, you put quite a bit on your own plate. the most thorough knowledge and practice you'd get with php/mysql, if you wrote that yourself. however - you are looking into a few months of work (depending on your programming knowledge and ability to pick up a new language).

alternatively, you could look at open source solutions, that offer similar functionality like what you are looking for. i suggest http://www.hotscripts.com - and maybe look into something like PHPNuke or Joomla to see if that's what you are looking for.

rock on.

drkshenronx

Hey man thanks for the quick reply !!

I've already looked at the open-source solutions and it seems that they don't really have the functionality I am looking for. I'd also rather learn the language because then I would have much more flexability with what I want to do with it. And as far as the learning part, it's something I love to do. I already know HTML, JavaScript, CSS, and I know how to set up a server for use with PHP5 and MySQL (I actually just got done learning how to do this and I am now ready to start scripting). I also know the basics for Java and C++ (just the basics I really didn't get into them yet), and I know a bit about unix/linux and using the bash shell. I picked all of this up from documentation online and I just got a hold of the PHP and MySQL documentation and I have started looking it over but I just want to get the forums and search engines rolling (I really want these things on the site ASAP so I can communicate with the users and have a easy navigation system for my site), but as far as the members area goes I don't mind waiting for months to complete that. And also I like doing things myself .... I don't mind help with some scripts and learning to make my own but I don't like using other peoples "complete" works. I don't want to snag something like phpBB and use it on my site. I just don't really like the idea of it. But if you could help me learn some of the scripting or even give me a sample or full script with comments (so I can look it over and figure it out) I wouldn't mind that at all. And also I do need help with setting up the html to use the scripts.

Thanks Again

sid

i learned php the way you are trying to get into it. ultimately, the page really needed to be re-coded, but i did learn a lot and had a big playground to try stuff.
maybe in this case the most crucial part is the data model, so you can still use the database once you decide to scrap the "prototype" and redo the thing. put your emphasis on security and start by looking into how to create user authentication scripts. thats what i would suggest at least ;-)

leatherback

read - read - read 🙂

Read the forum / the boards here. That should get your started. If you know C already, you also know that starting with the easy stuff is hardest, once you master that, you can start building. sid is absolutely right about the datamodel. However.. I also know that if you have no experience in database design, you will most likely not get that right. So do not worry tooo much about it (But do worry ;-))

Start with:
- Getting a form to post to another page, and displaying the info on the next page. Look at $POST, $GET and print_r()
- Sanitizing user input, look at [man]mysql_escape_real_string[/man]
- Inserting, and retrieving data from databases. Just look at mysql.org and more specifically, this website, database forum.

From there you should start looking at sessions, create a basic login script, the use of CAPTCHA to reduce the number of spamm messages on your forum.

Have fun, and welcome to phpbuilder!