Personal Blog - [ Database Required ]

Neutrality

Jun 27 2005, 06:54 PM

Okay, after a week, I have successfully created a personal web blog.
I first created it using a flat text file, I but realized that it was just too limited like that. So, I redid it in a database-compatible manner.

NOTES:

CODE

- This blog does not support comments yet. If you want, you can build
on this script by creating a comment system as well. I may also
update it with a comment system in the future.

- You should have an average to intermediate knowledge of MySQL
commands and database manipulation in general, especially if you
want to add a comment system to it.

- There are three files: BLOG.INC, ADDENTRY.INC, and MESSAGES.INC.

CODE

BLOG.INC

/* Use this as an include in one of your webpages, preferrably not on one visible to the public */

/* Replace [ page url ] with the name of the page you want to send the data to [ ie. index.php ] */

<?php

echo "<table width=100%>";
echo "<form action=[ page url ] method='post'>";
echo "<tr><td width=20%><font>Name:</font></td>";
echo "<td width=80%><input type='text' name='name'></td></tr>";
echo "<tr><td width=20%><font>Title:</font></td>";
echo "<td width=80%><input type='text' name='title'></td></tr>";
echo "<tr><td width=20%><font id='content1'>Message:</font></td>";
echo "<td width=80%><textarea name='message'></textarea></td>
</tr>";
echo "<tr><td colspan=2><center><input type='submit' name='blog'
value='Post!'></center></td></tr>";
echo "</form></table><br>";

?>

CODE

ADDENTRY.INC

/* Use this as an include in the page that will be accepting this information */

/* Substitute <server> with the name of the server [ which is usually "localhost" ], <username> with your database username, <password> with your database password, and <database> with the name of your desired database. */

<?php

if(isset($blog))
{
$dbase = mysql_connect (<server>, <username>, <password>);
mysql_select_db (<database>);

$todaysDate = getdate();
$date = $todaysDate[weekday]." ".$todaysDate[month]." ".
$todaysDate [mday].", ".$todaysDate[year];

$todaysTime = getdate();
$realHours = $todaysTime[hours] + 3;
$time = $realHours.":".$todaysTime[minutes].":".$todaysTime[seconds];

$createEntry = "INSERT INTO blog(id, name, title, message, date, time,
comments) VALUES(NULL, '$name', '$title', '$message', '$date',
'$time', 0)";

mysql_query($createEntry);

mysql_close($dbase);
}

?>

CODE

MESSAGES.INC

/* Use this as an include in the page that will be displaying the Blog entries to the public */

/* Substitute <server> with the name of the server [ which is usually "localhost" ], <username> with your database username, <password> with your database password, and <database> with the name of your desired database. */

$dbase = mysql_connect (<server>, <username>, <password>);
mysql_select_db (<database>);

$dbase = mysql_connect ("localhost", "proxima_chris", "gh62jj");
mysql_select_db ("proxima_myblog");

$findInfo = mysql_query("SELECT id, name, title, message, date, time,
comments FROM blog");

for($n=mysql_num_rows($findInfo)-1; $n>=0; $n--)
{
mysql_data_seek($findInfo, $n);

list($id, $name, $title, $message, $date, $time, $comments) =
mysql_fetch_row ($findInfo);
echo "<table width=100% bgcolor=#000000 cellpadding=5 border=1
bordercolor=#444444><tr><td bordercolor=#000000 name='entry'>";
echo "<font>#".$id."</font> ";
echo "<font>".$title."</font><br>";
echo "<hr width=100%></hr>";
echo "<font>".$message."</font><br><br>";
echo "<hr width=100%></hr>";
echo "<font>Posted by ".$name." on ".$date." at ".$time.
"</font><br>";
echo "</td></tr></table><br>";
}

mysql_close($dbase);

?>

You have any questions, concerns, suggestions, or if you need further clarification/support feel free to post here and make yourself heard. I don't bite.

slu

Jun 27 2005, 09:38 PM

I justed skimmed your code, and one thing I would suggest is using a template system. This would make your blog more flexible and maintainable (getting rid of all the ugly echo "<...>" lines).

I've used Smary for several projects, and it's really cool - fast and simple. See http://smarty.php.net/

snlildude87

Jun 27 2005, 11:43 PM

I second the template comment by stu. I just finished applying the new layout for my site, and if I had a template engine, it would have taken much less because the only thing I had to do when editing my pages was to move text around, and that took weeks.

By the way, where can we see your new creation? What is its URL?

slu

Jun 28 2005, 08:57 AM

QUOTE(snlildude87 @ Jun 28 2005, 01:43 AM)

If doing a redesign of a complete site PHP-Mesh is the way to go. You can change the layout without changing your original files! PHP-Mesh inserts code before and after all php/html pages and takes the html apart and puts it together again. You describe how to put your page back together again (i.e. the (new) layout) with one or more Decorator classes. A simple decorator would look like this:

CODE

<html>
<head>
<title>MySite :: <?php $page->title(); ?></title>
<?php $page->head(); ?>
</head>
<body>
<h1><?php $page->title(); ?></h1>
<?php $page->body(); ?>
</body>
</html>

In the above example all pages will get a title that starts with "MySite :: " and the title of the page is repeated in a H1 at the beginning. There's an $page object available in all Decorators, it contains methods corresponding to html-tags. Each method returns the contents from the original page. As the Decorators are just php files you can do all kinds of coding (like switching designs on certain pages).

It's awesome and seems like magic...

See http://trypticon.org/software/phpmesh/

The concept is based on SiteMesh, which does a similar thing for Java-based web sites.

Neutrality

Jun 30 2005, 03:00 PM

Yeah, I've seen software like that before. IPB uses that template system as well [ or at least I think it does ]. I could use something like that. Typing out all of those "echo" statements was hellish and tedious. I'll consider it.

Oh, and here is how the blog looks [ *NOTE: This is my website's blog, it's coded in the exact same way save for the stylesheet classes ]:

Neutrality's Blog

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