Help Creating A Profile Website - how do i make a profile website

Ok this is my idea: I am making a website about anime. Its function is add anime, review anime, search anime, anime information. Users can make a profile. People can make a profile which they can edit to theire likes with html to give it a fancy look.(this is what my problem is about) What i would like to know is how can i accomplish this. I already have the database for the anime titles etc ready, the only thing that needs to be done is the profile section. If you have any tutorial, tip or guide i would really really appriciate it. Thx in advance.

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Well making the basic framework for the Profile section is easy enough, give each user a row in a table with fields like Nickname, Headline, Basic info (contains ag2, sex, location) Interests, Fav Anime etc....... That will then give you the data to load into their profile. As for customizing it with HTML be very careful here, along with HTML they could use JS, AJAX, maybe even PHP and CSS to hack the site. My suggestion would be instead of using HTML make your own markup language like BBCODE eg <p> becomes [p] and only do this for certain tags in HTML like colour, size, and style tags. Filter their input with strip_tags() and enter the allowed tags, then have another line with a str_replace to re-write all tags.

Or an easier way is simply to use strip_tags to remove anything that isnt a colour, paragraph, U, I, B, H1...etc..... so you would remove any JS, AJAX, PHP or links (as many spam bots love to post links)

If you were thinking instead of having like a WYSIWYG editor it would be more complicated but still possible. The problems are going to be with security though, anything that allows users to input data is dodgy but anything that allows users to enter any amount of HTML or other code is like suicide unless you're really careful. As always be sure to strip out all quotes, slashes, and semi-colons to prevent the PHP from bugging and exposing code to the user.

 

 

 

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Thank you for that fast reply ^^.

And you gave me just the right info to start with.
And yeah i realise the risk of letting users use html, and i am considering to let users
shoose a layout which i created (this is the safest whay) instead of letting them use theire own html.

Thx again, now i am able to work further on my page, which you will see when my hosting request gets aproved.


Greets,

Edd

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I recommend you to use a free cms like joomla.org or a blogger like wordpress.org so you can focus on the content and not on the desing

regards

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Using Joomla or similar CMS is a good idea but it offers less customization over the backend of things. Its a brilliant idea for non PHP/ASP'ers but as i think sinisteredd knows PHP i would say its better to write from scratch, it isnt too much work to do and it will offer better control over the backend framework and he will know the system inside-out making troublshooting and improvements easier

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Hmm the sugestion from menotti gives me another idea I could use some of the scripts from joombla or any other content management system
as a reference.

And yea, I' don't want to use a content management system because it has so many features i wont use, and i love to have full controll about the code/design
etc.

Also I like to start from scratch because in the end it gives me the satisfaction that i've made the whole website to my likings and it would be easier
to customise my own code (like shadowx says).
And because the site is 50% ready I dont want to stop working on it and use a template or any other thing. I've put alot of work in it, so to move to another
"content system" is no option ^^.

If you have more sugestions/tips etc please post them, maybe it helps other people to who want to do something like I am.

Thx for your help you 2.

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Well for any website that lets a user register themselves a PHP CAPTCHA is always a good idea, or even just email verification. Email verification is a doddle, when the user first registers have an "active" field in the DB and set it to NO, send out the link to them to confirm with and that link takes them to a page with a unique ID that then updates the DB and sets their active status to YES. and when they login check the username, password, and the active field. If you're interested in a CAPTCHA there is a tutorial on T17: http://www.trap17.com/forums/simple-php-ca...ion-t45058.html

CAPTCHAS are something im lucking atm so ill have a look at that too

Let us know when the website is finished, i was thinking of making a profile site too, similar to most social networking sites like myspace etc... but with a big twist, but its just an idea at the moment (and no i wont tell what my secret ingredient is )

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Hey thx for that tutorial, i prefer email valdiation & captcha because automated scripts getting,
smarter and smarter every day. I once had a webpage (i wasn't that familier with php),
and after a week there where 50 or more regsitered users, but they where al made by an automated script.

So this time I'm gonna do it the right way .
But i have a some more to learn about good protection.

Haha yeah never reveal your secret ingredient.
I'm also on a "secret project", and I think it's very orriginal because i never seen this consept on the web.

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Will it be on your profile website?

Ive seen my feature once on a website but im developing it further than they have

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haha nope, it has nothing to do with my current website.
hmm here's a smalllll hint: rigor mortis .... .

And no it's not a suicide site ...... blehhh.

ahh nice ... so you are gonna pwn them .
whats the theme of youre project?

I have found some good snippets for my profile website. *whohoo*
Altough it may take some time because i have a busy 10 weeks on work .....

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