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[Aaron_Robertson]

Hey,
Can anyone help me or show me where i can get help for designing message boards and/or Guestbooks? Im using Macromedia Dreamweaver MX2004 Anyone that could help it would be handy as it is part of my NVQ course work.


Thanks If you can Help!

Aaron

[Johnny Mac]

just download a free php bulletin board.... that should give you ideas.

[soundian]

Originally Posted by Aaron_Robertson

Hey,
Can anyone help me or show me where i can get help for designing message boards and/or Guestbooks? Im using Macromedia Dreamweaver MX2004 Anyone that could help it would be handy as it is part of my NVQ course work.


Thanks If you can Help!

Aaron

You're going to need a database for that to work.

[Aaron_Robertson]

Thanks

[soundian]

Originally Posted by Aaron_Robertson

Thanks

You won't be saying that when you figure out how much work you've got to do.

[Neil]

soundian is quite right. You want to start with something simplier. My advice would be to check out the web sites that offer you free message boards and guestbooks and host them for you (they are usually covered in ads though).

If you do have your own web space then what forums, guestbooks etc you can use is restricted to what technologies your web hosts will allow you to use (e.g. Perl, PHP, ASP etc). Most free web hosts will not usually support such technologies but ask them and find out. Once you know what technologies you can use then take it from there.

If you are a big fan of Macromedia Dreamweaver then also check out the Dreamweaver Extensions you can download and install from the Macromedia web site. My guess is that there might be some cool guestbook/bulletin board extensions in there somewhere.

[rhino]

This is weird, just last night i decided to try and learn PHP and then this thread starts, i dare say if your going to try and design a Message board or something similar i recommend starting off a little smaller especially if your a newbie to HTML etc...
another option for you could be using Java Servlets and JSP, as its pretty good for None dynamic web pages. You could set up the database on a remote server. have the JSP talking to a Java servlet which would provide your JSP with all the DB information it requires...

but i guess it all depends on what your course asks you to use, but all i have to say is be prepared for the challenges of trying to set up PHP, Apache and mySQL on your home computer!!

http://webmonkey.wired.com/webmonkey...tw=programming
- is a pretty good website for the basics of setting up PHP and Apache doesnt give much on how to plug in mySQL into the picture tho...

also http://www.w3schools.com/php/default.asp
- this is a pretty good php tutorial site to get you through the basics of PHP and behond.

hope this is helpful

[soundian]

Originally Posted by rhino

http://webmonkey.wired.com/webmonkey...tw=programming
- is a pretty good website for the basics of setting up PHP and Apache doesnt give much on how to plug in mySQL into the picture tho...

also http://www.w3schools.com/php/default.asp
- this is a pretty good php tutorial site to get you through the basics of PHP and behond.

hope this is helpful

Use PHP5 and Apache 2 though, not PHP4 and Apache 1.3

I'd also advise Linux as your OS because PHP isn't fully supported in Windows, but dual boot is a whole other world of pain.

EDIT: NOW I find out there's a cheats way to install Apache on Windows, that could have saved me several hours banging my head off the keyboard.

[Mr. Tristen]

Originally Posted by Aaron_Robertson

Hey,
Can anyone help me or show me where i can get help for designing message boards and/or Guestbooks? Im using Macromedia Dreamweaver MX2004 Anyone that could help it would be handy as it is part of my NVQ course work.

If you need to use a message board there are plenty available out there, but as for designing one its a HUGE project. Aberdeen music uses software developed originally by one very talented professional and these days a whole TEAM of them. I've been working on my own forum software for over 6 months now, and its still so so primitive by comparison.

Guestbooks are a great start to learning php, as a simple guestbook is just a user inputs --> database ---> public display. I think I have a copy of a very simple one I made for one winged angel last year, will try and send it later. Best way in my opinion to learn code is to disect someone elses work piece by piece. By disecting modules made for phpNuke and then later the main software itself I got a very good selection of useful tricks.

[soundian]

Aaron, if your coursework is just HTML, give them what they want, a few pages linked together, some photos etc. HTML can't do much else on it's own.