I made a Forum - Now I need help.

Jack Franklin · #1 Oct 10th, 2007, 17:39

Hey guys,

Followed a simple tutorial and made a working, functioning very basic PHP forum with a mysql database

Yay! I wish I had learnt PHP years ago - it's awesome

Anyway, the forums are here: forums.csstrickery.co.uk and as you can see you have to enter your name every time you post. However, I want the user to login, be redirected to the main forums page (which will be called main_forums.php - it's the index page atm) and then where it says 'Name' I want their username to be displayed. Is that gonna get complicated? I have a login script, which looks like this: (Also - is this login secure?)

PHP: Select all


<?php
$host="localhost"; // Host name 
$username="freesi_admin"; // Mysql username 
$password="<my password>"; // Mysql password 
$db_name="freesi_phpdatabase"; // Database name 
$tbl_name="members"; // Table name 

// Connect to server and select databse.
mysql_connect("$host", "$username", "$password")or die("cannot connect"); 
mysql_select_db("$db_name")or die("cannot select DB");
// Define $myusername and $mypassword 
$myusername=$_POST['myusername']; 
$mypassword=$_POST['mypassword']; 
$sql="SELECT * FROM $tbl_name WHERE username='$myusername' and password='$mypassword'";
$result=mysql_query($sql);
// Mysql_num_row is counting table row
$count=mysql_num_rows($result);
// If result matched $myusername and $mypassword, table row must be 1 row
if($count==1){
// Register $myusername, $mypassword and redirect to file "login_success.php"
session_register("myusername");
session_register("mypassword"); 
header("location:login_success.php");
}
else {
echo "Wrong Username or Password";
}
?>

That all works. I presume that I need to use the session function as it registers the usernames in a session.

So where it says Name, it needs to say the username of the person. I also need the forums to be accessable when not logged in but not allow people to post if they are not logged in. I think I can do this myself - I shall report back! Also, how would I make a 'Users Online' box? And how would I make a 'Last 5 posts' box? Lol I'll be less demanding next time, I promise

Thanks a million for all the help so far with my PHP, I bet you are all fed up of me already

Jack

karinne · #2 Oct 10th, 2007, 17:44

You created your own forum!?!

Are you insane!?

Are there free forums out there that I can use for my site? from the FAQ of September's edition of the newsletter

1840dsgn · #3 Oct 10th, 2007, 17:48

Quote:

Also, how would I make a 'Users Online' box? And how would I make a 'Last 5 posts' box?

For these I think...

Users Online, you'd need a checkbox or boolean field in the users table and you could do a query where it prints the names of all users whose boolean is set to online (1) AND not those who are offline (0) if that makes sense.

Last 5 posts,

Just query the place where the posts go to and grab the last 5 assuming you record the dates the posts were made you can do it like that.

Query posts, order by date descending and limit of 5, it will grab the 5 newest posts!

alexgeek · #4 Oct 10th, 2007, 17:49

You would be spending months on this if you choose to complete it.
And the end result would be something which doesn't even compare to the free forums available.
I seriously recommend you follow the link Karinne posted and use one right now

karinne · #5 Oct 10th, 2007, 17:50

Even tho I posted that your were insane for making your own, my hats off to you for making it this far

welshstew · #6 Oct 10th, 2007, 17:54

try this article, it may help

1840dsgn · #7 Oct 10th, 2007, 17:56

and yea, KariNNe (woohoo NN!) and Alex are right - although building your own forum is great for learning your never going to get something as good as the free ones that are available...

alexgeek · #8 Oct 10th, 2007, 17:58

Quote:

Originally Posted by 1840dsgn

great for learning

That's why I decided on a blog instead, half as much work!

1840dsgn · #9 Oct 10th, 2007, 18:00

yea I did a blog and a CMS for learning. abandoned them cos they were crap but good for learning and then made my CMS which is now...pretty good if i do say so myself

Jack Franklin · #10 Oct 10th, 2007, 18:04

Yeah I want to continue with this one! I now have a registration thing which adds to the database, a login, a forum which you need to be logged in to see and it's going well!

Jack

Jack Franklin · #11 Oct 10th, 2007, 18:20

Hey,

I know it wont be anywhere near as good or anything but it is so I can learn. Can anyone help with my main forums page. It is not even showing now!

Code: Select all

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
<head>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8" />
<title>Untitled Document</title>
</head>
<body>
<?php
$host="localhost"; // Host name 
$username="freesi_admin"; // Mysql username 
$password="mutley"; // Mysql password 
$db_name="freesi_phpdatabase"; // Database name 
$tbl_name="forum_question"; // Table name  
// Connect to server and select databse.
mysql_connect("$host", "$username", "$password")or die("cannot connect"); 
mysql_select_db("$db_name")or die("cannot select DB");
$sql="SELECT * FROM $tbl_name ORDER BY id DESC";
// OREDER BY id DESC is order result by descending 
$result=mysql_query($sql);
?>
<table width="90%" border="0" align="center" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1" bgcolor="#CCCCCC">
<tr>
<td width="6%" align="center" bgcolor="#E6E6E6"><strong>#</strong></td>
<td width="53%" align="center" bgcolor="#E6E6E6"><strong>Topic</strong></td>
<td width="15%" align="center" bgcolor="#E6E6E6"><strong>Views</strong></td>
<td width="13%" align="center" bgcolor="#E6E6E6"><strong>Replies</strong></td>
<td width="13%" align="center" bgcolor="#E6E6E6"><strong>Date/Time</strong></td>
</tr>
<?php
while($rows=mysql_fetch_array($result)){ // Start looping table row 
?>
<tr>
<td bgcolor="#FFFFFF"><? echo $rows['id']; ?></td>
<td bgcolor="#FFFFFF"><a href="view_topic.php?id=<? echo $rows['id']; ?>"><? echo $rows['topic']; ?></a><BR></td>
<td align="center" bgcolor="#FFFFFF"><? echo $rows['view']; ?></td>
<td align="center" bgcolor="#FFFFFF"><? echo $rows['reply']; ?></td>
<td align="center" bgcolor="#FFFFFF"><? echo $rows['datetime']; ?></td>
</tr>
<?php
// Exit looping and close connection 
}
mysql_close();
?>
<tr>
<td colspan="5" align="right" bgcolor="#E6E6E6"><p><a href="create_topic.php"><strong>Create New Topic</strong></a><br />
  <a href="logout.php"><strong>Logout</strong> </a></p>
  </td>
</tr>
</table>
</body>
</html>

The error:

Parse error: syntax error, unexpected $end in /home/freesi/public_html/forums/main_forum.php on line 61

Edit: It only has the error when the user is not logged in.
Edit: It now seems to be working!

I think I might try making a PHP blog...

Jack

alexgeek · #12 Oct 10th, 2007, 18:22

Quote:

Originally Posted by jackfranklin

The error:

Parse error: syntax error, unexpected $end in /home/freesi/public_html/forums/main_forum.php on line 61

Edit: It only has the error when the user is not logged in.

Jack

Usually an unclosed "{" or "?>".
Count how many "{" are in your in code and check if it's the same as the amount of "}".
Aswell as checking your php tag is closed.
If this doesn't work, port the code from lines 56 - 65.

Jack Franklin · #13 Oct 10th, 2007, 18:37

There is no code on line 61! The </html> tag is on 59 at that is it lol.

alexgeek · #14 Oct 10th, 2007, 18:46

Did you do what I recommended? Check if you PHP tags are closed and the curly braces are all closed?

Similar Threads
Thread	Thread Starter	Forum	Replies	Last Post
Paid Forum Posting - Political Forum	entropy	Job Opportunities	0	Sep 22nd, 2007 03:13
PLEASE HELP ME! Swish made flash is blocking fireworks made navbar	Sope	Flash & Multimedia Forum	12	Jun 19th, 2007 12:29
Director made exe	snow	Flash & Multimedia Forum	7	Dec 13th, 2006 20:09
HotSeoTalk.com - SEO Forum Search Engine Optimization Ranking Marketing forum	hotseotalk	Link Building and Link Sales	1	Aug 19th, 2006 09:43

		Webforumz.com > Main Forums > Program Your Website > PHP Forum
I made a Forum - Now I need help.