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Kimchi Cowboy
Joined: 17 Sep 2006
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 Posted: Sat Jul 28, 2007 12:55 pm Post subject: Any website designers / php programmers out there? |
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Can anyone recommend some good resources for learning PHP? I'm interested in creating a discussion forum in a style similar to this (not related to teaching, Korea, or ESL, by the way), but I really have no idea where to start. I've been doing some research on my own, but most of what I've found is kind of over my head, as I've virtually zero programming experience...
Thanks,
KC |
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SuperHero
Joined: 10 Dec 2003
Location: Superhero Hideout
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| Posted: Sat Jul 28, 2007 3:04 pm Post subject: |
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| Why reinvent the wheel? There are already numerous message board scripts available. You can go for phpBB, Vbulletin, SMF, or a hundred other well known scripts. All you need to do then is install them on your server and maintain security upgrades, mods, and or customization of appearance. Much easier than starting from scratch. |
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tfunk
Joined: 12 Aug 2006
Location: Dublin, Ireland
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| Posted: Sat Jul 28, 2007 6:27 pm Post subject: |
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| SuperHero wrote: |
| Why reinvent the wheel? There are already numerous message board scripts available. You can go for phpBB, Vbulletin, SMF, or a hundred other well known scripts. All you need to do then is install them on your server and maintain security upgrades, mods, and or customization of appearance. Much easier than starting from scratch. |
I don't think this is good advice unless you are familiar with web development theory in general. It's true that you don't need to learn php in theory to use these pre-packaged solutions but if you are going to maintain them there's invariably some tweaking of the code involved.
Try and install one of the programs above and you'll come across terms such as chmod'ing, FTP uploading and checksum verification, MySQL DB authentication settings, file include path, Apache binary path etc.
As superhero said, you don't need PHP to install these scripts so I'd give it a shot but if you are looking to maintain it over time and want some customisation then you should at least know the fundamentals/theory of web development.
Personally, I'd invest in a book because I find I can concentrate more and the writing is generally of a higher quality than online work (for abstract topics anyway). There are 100's of tutorials out there and 100's of scripts for you to mess around with. I can't answer your question directly though because different styles of learning serve different people. If you don't mind the ads:
http://www.devshed.com/c/a/PHP/Website-Database-Basics-With-PHP-and-MySQL/
You've set yourself a very ambitious task, good luck. |
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SuperHero
Joined: 10 Dec 2003
Location: Superhero Hideout
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| Posted: Sun Jul 29, 2007 12:19 am Post subject: |
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I agree that learning some basic php will be beneficial, but you only really need basics as the developers of whichever script will update and patch it as necessary.
Of course learning basics of web stuff such as chmod'ing, FTP uploading and checksum verification, MySQL DB authentication settings, file include path, Apache binary path etc are important, but it's still not necessary to reinvent the wheel. KISS is what I live by. |
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The King of Kwangju
Joined: 10 Feb 2003
Location: New York City
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| Posted: Sun Jul 29, 2007 6:34 am Post subject: |
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As Superhero said, if you want a message board like this, you can get one EXACTLY like this for free, from phpbb.
You really don't need to know much of anything, you just click some options and ban troublemakers. Choose a host that has it pre-installed. If you really get into a hole you can hire a phpbb guy for next to nothing and he will fix it or modify it.
If you want to learn how to make a message board, or learn php, then buy a book, or start with www.w3schools.com or just jump in, however you best learn.
Keep in mind that you have "zero programming experience" and this is programming, so you're going to be starting at the bottom. Go slow.
These free boards are all right, but if you want something that they don't have, it's hard to hammer them into shape. |
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