Posts by FlashCreations

I just tried the margin-left: 25% and sadly it didn't work. Maybe it's because I have my list set to display: inline-table so that the navlist displays right...no wait I tried it without any other properties and it still won't align center...this is wierd!!! Also I like your idea for the text. I was planning on using a black or really dark gray (just for some variety) text color, but do you think all the post text needs to be black or just the text inside the light gray boxes?
Also if anyone can figure out why this av box won't align center, I'd be grateful!!! :D

Ok so I've fixed some of the problems with the nav lists and such, but there still are a few problems.

1. The ul list with id navigationbox is still not aligning to the center. I have checked several times and it is not floated to the left or right. I have also tried margin: 0 auto; and text-align: center;
2. The divs that contain the post content with class post do not fill the area given to them. They won't stretch to fill the whole space between the side of the wrapper and the edge of the user details.
3. Text Color/Contrast: cfajohnson suggested that the contrast of the white text on the gray background. I need some help deciding what color I should use for text. Here are my options (Or if you have a better idea please post it!! :) ):
   • The gray post boxes become a dark orange (#F60) with white text
   • The gray post boxes become a dark orange (#F60) with black text
   • The gray post boxes become a dark orange (#F60) with dark gray (#333) text
   • Make all post text black
   • Make all post text dark gray (#333)

Thanks for your help!!

Ash, Back, Bash, Cash, Wash, Wack (Or Wac)

board

Hello everyone....I've been working on the design for my forum on my website and while everything else has gone to plan...one thing hasn't. On my topic page, the DIV with class greybox and id navigationbox that displays the text Home, New Posts, Members, Stats, Rules, etc. just wont align to the center of my 800px wrapper. I realize that it is set to float to the left and this is because for some reason when I don't float it to the left or right, the DIV's border does not display right in any browser (Well, I know it doesn't work in FF or Chrome, and I think it didn't it IE..). When not floated the border doesn't surround the DIV and instead just stretches across the 800px wrapper. Can anyone help me figure out a way to fix this? (And preferably not a non-standard...I know I could use a table with three columns or add a div before it with width of 33.3%)
Thanks Everyone!

P.S. And while your at it..could you tell me how it looks? I'd love to hear some feedback before I actually start the server side of the forum.

Ale, Bad, Bale, Bold, Dale (If names count...), Dole, Lad, Lead, Rob, Role.

That's about all I can thing about........

programming

That was my second choice! :D

I currently have TrendMicro Pc-Cillin Internet Security 14 as protection for my computer. After reading some more, I have found that BitDefender might be a better (and free!) alternative. Do you think I should switch from Pc-Cillin Internet Security 14 to BitDefender? Why or why not? If not, can you recommend a better solution (free if possible). I have read some stats on AVG and I am definitely not going to use that. It has a OK protection rate but there have been many problems. On my desktop I've tried Norton 360; it was a terrible nightmare that totally...well..screwed up my computer. I now have Avira on my Desktop, but I would prefer free, but without the ads to upgrade to pro after updates. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!
Thanks!

And Firefox has a javascript error console too!

Yes I didn't get any spam either. I was just wondering why our emails were needed. But this is indeed a very good series. I look forward to the next series and hope there are more to come. Maybe some other security concerns/tips. But keep up the good work! Great videos!

Interesting site. Provides some good points. But one question, why do you need our emails?

Yes but he wanted to know the height of a div. As long as the div has an id you can figure that out.

Well the only way to do this would be to find a PHP extension that converts files to DOC Word files. Then create a PHP script that run when the save button is clicked that saves the text from the HTML page as a document and then converts it to a DOC file. Search Google for a php converter like so: http://www.google.com/search?q=DOC+file+in+PHP

No I didn't say that. You can try AlmostBob's suggestion or my JavaScript solution.

And that's exactly what I'm saying. It could be done with JavaScript but it won't be compatible everywhere and there's no guarantee it will work. It would be something like this...

<html>
<head><titleDynamic iFrame Height</title>
<script type='text/javascript'>
var divName = 'testDiv'; //ID of the div you want to adjust height for
function dynamicIframe(name)
{
 if(name=='') name = divName;
 document.getElementById('iFrame').style.height = document.getElementById('iFrame').document.getElementById(name).style.height;
}
</script>
</head>
<body>
<iframe src="thispage.html" height="100" width="100%"  id="iFrame" onload="javascript:dynamicIframe();"></iframe>
</body>
</html>

Simply replace divName with the name of the tag you would like to adjust height of iFrame for.

Yes simply add the height property to the iframe like so:

<iframe src="http://externaldomain.com" height="50"></iframe>

Now that I think about it, there might be a JavaScript fix that could help, but I'm not sure it would work, nor would it work everywhere.

Probably not, there is no simple way (or any way at all for that matter) to determine content height unless it is a style on the page (Ex. something like maybe:

.myDivThatIWantTheHeightFrom {
 height: 50px;
}

I'm not sure though even in that case if you could determine height.

Well first it might help to actually list what is required instead of putting . and numbers. Also, we are not PHP contractors. We can help you with code that's already written (or in the process of) but we aren't here to write a full site and hand it over to you. If you would be intersted in coding this yourself, W3Schools has a great PHP tutorial that should get you started. Try it here.

Hi,
That error message was on my personal computer and not on the university server. That is the error message I receive when going to http://localhost/phpmyadmin.

To clarify, if ISS 6 is installed then the error message was created by ISS because accessing localhost would be also the same as accessing the server. Besides XAMPP doesn't create those kind of errors. From what I read, you can uninstall XAMPP. The servers should have all the necessities. As for phpMyAdmin, you can download a copy for your server at www.phpmyadmin.net.

Yes well that seems to be pretty good. Here are some others that fix your needs (I'm assuming...):
http://www.free-webhosts.com/search-webhosts.php?ADV=00100000001000000000000000100000000010000000

But Freespace seems to be OK (Get ready because it seems like that they reject lots of sites, even though on their site they say "Instant Activation"). Also, I had a heck of a time trying to do a search. Their CAPTCHA's are very hard to read and they make you type "www.free-space.net" in a box to make sure you aren't spamming (Don't understand this, let's remember this is only the forum search). I'm not sure though if they allow the PHP mail command (They should though since you have 5 mail accounts).

To check whether the mail function works make a PHP file and call it mailcheck.php and add this code:

<?php
if(function_exists('mail')) echo "Mail function is enabled! Yay! :D";
else echo "Mail is not enabled. :(";
?>

Open the page and well, I think the results are quite clear. Be sure to delete the file afterwords (Hackers these days can exploit Hello World scripts!! :O)

If you need any help with further picking a host or checking/designing your site, feel free to PM me. I check DaniWeb regularly.

It will work, but there should be no problems with the mailing. Who are you using to host your website?

Well with that in mind, do you know if your university already has PHP and MySQL installed on their server. I would ask them because if so, then they would have to be the ones to talk to about configuring databases and such. Also note that XAMPP is for a Windows computer. The university servers might be running Linux (lots of servers do) so in that case you will need LAMPP. This might though interfere with the current university setup of servers (the error message that was produced shows that the server at least has Apache installed to handle the errors). I would verify with your university that their isn't already a pre-setup for you to use. Also just a check, make sure you access http://localhost/phpmyadmin from the server you installed XAMPP (or if its Linux, LAMPP) onto. If you wish to have access from other computers, you will have to find the IP address of the server (On the server go to a site like www.whatismyip.com). Write down this URL and then whenever you want to access this page you may navigate to the IP address you copied earlier address (should be a bunch of numbers and periods). Be warned though this might not work. Depending on server configuration they all might be routed through a central router and have the same IP address. In this case you would then probably have to change router settings to route a special port (Probably not …

Probably not too long. You would have to ask your host but it should take somewhere between 2-5 minutes. Also you should change $testname=$_POST[username]; so that it looks like this: $testname=$_POST["username"]; .

First you will need to create a database. From the computer you installed XAMPP on navigate to this page: http://localhost/phpmyadmin Once there enter the username root and no password. Then submit. From the phpMyAdmin interface you can add databases and manage tables, rows, columns, and other settings. It is also suggested that you changed the root password so that only you can access phpMyAdmin or MySQL. And yes, you can use PHP to access MySQL and change and retrieve tables. W3Schools tutorials are (in my opinion) the best way to learn PHP and MySQL, so make sure to read their PHP article (this is how I started). Good Luck!

Well for development purposes I would download XAMPP, a simple and small application that turns your computer into a personal webserver. This way you can develop and do testing on a local server (which is much faster!). From here I would assume you know how to code in PHP (If not take a look at the W3Schools PHP Tutorial). If you would like to learn how to use MySQL, try the W3Schools MySQL Tutorial (For PHP and MySQL help, see this part of their PHP tutorial). From there you can start looking for a web host with MySQL and PHP. Buy a domain and then purchase an account with the host and you should be done! Good luck and if you have any questions, feel free to PM me or post again on DaniWeb!

Thanks for the code. I think I have found a solution myself though. Simply name the action input field act and give it an id of act and then add onSubmit="document.getElementById('act').name = 'action';" . Then simply you can make changes to both (I just have to change document.go.act instead of document.do.action to edit the value of the input.

Anyone have a solution, I could really use some help here!!
Thanks!! :D

Well I'm assuming your trying to ask how to calculate the server uptime in PHP. Really there are not defined function of methods for this. You can ask your host, they should know. If you want to find out, you would have to have direct access to the servers. Take a trial period, say a month and monitor how long the server is up. This includes closings for updates, power outages, etc. Then simply calculate the total hours of the trial period (well call that t), and the total hours of maintenance or downtime (well call this d). Then use this formula:

(d/t)*10

That should give you a percent you can use, but determining the server uptime with a script is pretty much impossible, you can do constant test like the one above and update the script with the results, but that's the best you can do.

Thanks for the reply, but that's not exactly what I'm looking for. Let me explain further. When a link calls the JavaScript go function (Lets say the page is "home") JavaScript changes the normal go form:

<form name="go" action="index.php?sid=123" method="post">
 <input type="hidden" name="action" value="view" />
 <input type="hidden" name="view" value="" />
</form>

And changes the value of the hidden input view to the name of the page, in our case home:

<form name="go" action="index.php?sid=123" method="post">
 <input type="hidden" name="action" value="view" />
 <input type="hidden" name="view" value="home" />
</form>

I would like for JavaScript to also add &page=(Page name ex home) to the action of the form (index.php?sid=123) like this:

<form name="go" action="index.php?sid=123&page=home" method="post">
 <input type="hidden" name="action" value="view" />
 <input type="hidden" name="view" value="home" />
</form>

This is achieved by using the javascript command document.go.action (Where go is the name of the form and action refers to the action, index.php?sid=123, of the form). The problem with this is there is a input named action too and document.go.action refers to the hidden input and not to the action of the form (index.php?sid=123). How can I add code to my JavaScript go function that adds &page=(Page Name) to the action of the go function (So it looks like this: index.php?sid=123&page=[Page Name])
Thanks!

Also note that I realized that the first form was incorrect. There was not equal sign between action and the beginning of the form action. This is not the problem with my code...I only made a mistake when I wrote …

Hey Everyone!
I have come across a very interesting problem that seems to be impossible to solve. Basically a web application that I am working on relies on a JavaScript function called go to change the input named view to the page name and submit the form. This form's type is post, so no values are included in the actual URL string. There is also another input called action and it's value is view. This is to tell the application that the user would like to view a page. The problem is because of the variables being of method post, page refreshes and back and forwards return errors because the post variables view and action aren't sent with the required data. To somewhat solve this problem I have created a feature that tells the application that if the post value page is empty then to try and get a GET var called page. To insert this var into the go javascript function I simple add this code

document.go.action = document.go.action+"&page="+page;

This line basically adds &page=[page] to the action of the form. The problem is, this code doesn't work because action is also the name of a form element. Referencing document.go.action refers to the input element named action and not to the form's action. Changing the named of the action input value is out of the question (Way to much changing of code, and possible room for error). What can I do to change the action of the form …

also even though if i am not logged in if i put this link manually

../del.php?com=2

i can still delete comments, how would i stop this?

could you please tell me how i can add a if statement here

$commentDate = formatDate($commentrow[6]);

		echo "<div class=\"commentbody\" id=\"$commentrow[0]\">\n
		<p>$commentbb</p>\n
		<p class=\"postedby\">Posted by ";
		if($commentrow[3]){
		echo "<a href=\"$commentrow[3]\">$commentrow[2]</a> ";
		} else {
		echo "$commentrow[2] ";
		}
		echo "on $commentDate | #$commentrow[0];</p>\n
		\n</div>";
	}

i would like to add this there and it gets the right id number

if($_SESSION['userID'] == 22)echo "<a href=\"del.php?com=$commentrow[0]\">delete post</a>";

after this is or around there ifpossible

echo "on $commentDate | #$commentrow[0];

To prevent somebody from deleting comments besides an administrator then use the same code that you use to hide the Delete Comment Link. Just enclose the delete script with an if statement:

<?php
/*
* Change the first line to whatever
* you use to connect to the database.
*
* Change tablename to the name of your 
* database table.
*
* This example would delete a row from
* a table based on the id of the row.
* You can change this to whatever you
* want.
* You would need a login system, and simply make an (if admin then echo '<a href="del.php?com=[comment id]"/;'/;
*/
if($_SESSION['userID'] == 22)
{
 $dbh=mysql_connect ("localhost", "username", "pass") or die ('I cannot connect to the database because: ' . mysql_error());
 mysql_select_db ("dbname");
 $pid = mysql_real_escape_string($_GET["com"]);
 mysql_query("DELETE FROM comments WHERE commentid='$pid'");
 echo "The comment has been deleted.";
}
else
{
 echo "You cannot delete comments."; …

The problem with your script is under each comment you must include this link (for the administrator), but you have to invalid a valid comment id. Make sure that a comment with that id is in your database. Also you might want to use the url del.php?com=[comment_id] since in your previous script you used com instead of id. You could also change the previous script to get the id var instead. Either way works.

It probably is a problem with a file being used for the installation while you are trying to run the installer. Make sure to only install one program at one time and close all other applications when installing. You may also want to run the installer in Administrator mode (if you have these privileges, if not ask your system administrator). This can be done by right clicking on the installer program and clicking Run As Administrator... and then clicking allow when prompted by the UAC.

can we please forget the previous posts, but could you please help me with this. i found this for deleting, but this does not work.

<?php
/*
* Change the first line to whatever
* you use to connect to the database.
*
* Change tablename to the name of your 
* database table.
*
* This example would delete a row from
* a table based on the id of the row.
* You can change this to whatever you
* want.
* You would need a login system, and simply make an (if admin then echo '<a href="del.php?com=[comment id]"/;'/;
*/
$pid = $_GET["com"]/;
$dbh=mysql_connect ("localhost", "username", "pass") or die ('I cannot connect to the database because: ' . mysql_error())/;
mysql_select_db ("dbname")/;
// Your database connection code
//db_connect()/;

$query = "DELETE FROM comments WHERE commentid = ('$pid')"/;

$result = mysql_query($query)/;

echo "The data has been deleted."/;

?>

It seems that before the end of every line (before the semicolon) is a / (Probably the site you copied it from used this to prevent their web server from interpreting the code as PHP. The fix is simple remove all these slashes (I also made the script safer and cleaned it up a bit):

<?php
/*
* Change the first line to whatever
* you use to connect to the database.
*
* Change tablename to the name of your 
* database table.
*
* This example would delete a row from
* a table based on the id of the row. …

Well still, trying to clone a web script that you do not have access too it a pretty advanced task. Trying to do such a thing would be like handing a report about something written in Chinese to a person that only speaks English and ask them to understand the report and then determine the author. It would be near impossible since:
1) The reader speaks no Chinese.
and
2) Words aren't unique to their authors, so only style would be able to tell (and even that would be unreliable)

As you can see by my analogy it would be very hard to clone the script as it appears on the site (The reader in my analogy had the benefit of at least seeing some writing, you don't). I would suggest a less evasive method. How about examining the site and determining the main functions (logging in, uploading, etc). Then go to www.w3schools.com/php and read up on the basics of PHP. This will give you a little knowledge so you aren't just copying and pasting code from other sites. Then try to break the site down into different coding sections like you did in step one. Think about the actions, goals, and methods that need to be used. If you need help with a section, try googling it. You will most always find what you are looking for.
The DaniWeb forums are not for requests for an expert to write a whole site …

First off, I believe the site is illegal, to start. To get their code would require someone to hack their site (which is also illegal). So technically it would be double illegal to do something like that (You'd probably get in trouble if they find your IP involved with the site). I am no lawyer or anything, but I would strongly advise against it. Plus the only way to become a good coder is to actually do some coding instead of ripping of some other coder's work.

That would be exactly what i was looking for! Thanks.
(And a side note, I actually was looking through PHP.net's Class reference and came across that page. I just didn't scroll down far enough!)

Hey Everyone!
I have a question about oop. I am trying to write a MySQL class for managing my MySQL db's and calls. So far I have almost completed it, but I am missing lots of functions. These are the result functions (ie. mysql_fetch_array() or mysql_num_rows() etc.). Instead of creating a function in my class to handle each of these I would like to be able to call my class like $mysql->fetch_array($result) and have that translate to mysql_fetch_array() within my class. The only way I see of doing this would be to create a function that handles invalid function calls for my class. Then using an if statement, see if the invalid function call was to a mysql function and then send it to that. Does this sound possible. If not, might there be another way to do this?
Thanks,
FlashCreations

Sure here's a suggestion. Find a host with MySQL (or ask your host to install it for you) and create a database for your site. Then create a table and call it years. In this table create three columns: a name column, a year column, and a code column (all of them can be varchar). The name column should contain the names, the year column the year (first, second, third, etc.), and the code column the abbreviation (sci, etc).
Then use this code:

<div class='year'>
<a href='#' onfocus="showIt('firstyear');" onclick="showIt('firstyear');"  onblur="hideIt('firstyear');" taborder=1>First Year</a> <!-- onfocus onclick allows for keyboard tab as well as mouseclick-->
<div id='firstyear' style='visibility:hidden'> <!-- initially invisible -->
<?php
$con = mysql_connect("HOST", "USERNAME", "PASSWORD") or die("Cannot connect to MySQL");
mysql_select_db("DB", $con);
$result = mysql_query("SELECT * FROM years WHERE year='first'");
while($row=mysql_fetch_array($result)
 echo "<input type='checkbox' value='".$row['code']."'>".$row['name']."<br>\n";
}
?>
</div></div>
<div class='year'>
<a href='#' onfocus="showIt('secondyear');" onclick="showIt('secondyear');"  onblur="hideIt('secondyear');" taborder=2>second Year</a> 
<div id='secondyear' style='visibility:hidden'> 
<?php
$result = mysql_query("SELECT * FROM years WHERE year='second'");
while($row=mysql_fetch_array($result)
 echo "<input type='checkbox' value='".$row['code']."'>".$row['name']."<br>\n";
}
?>
</div></div>

You need to create a system to translate the page name (maybe like admin or home) to a number using switch. Example:

<?php
//Get Page
$page = $_GET['id']
//Translate Text to Number
switch($page)
{
   case 'home':
      $id = 1;
      break;
   case 'admin':
      $id = 2;
      break;
   default:
      $id = 0; //Invalid page message or similar to handle invalid pages
}
?>

Then simply replace all links and form actions the number id to the id's name. Ex. cms/?id=1 could become cms/?id=home and so on

Yeah I'm not sure either. Probably something you can't do on a free host (like redirecting port 3306 to 80). Still though I don't know how well that would work! I have an alternative to the redirecting SQL to PHP, but it involves adding code to check and see what mode the software is in (MySQL, or using the method you described). If it's using the method described here then I will have to write some more functions to connect to my PHP script (which might be hard to do since some hosts prevent curl/remote execution). If there is anybody that knows how to redirect MySQL to PHP please let me know how to! Thanks!

Good idea. Though my password encryption is a bit more advanced I like the idea and I'll probably use it. There's just one problem. I would like users to connect via mysql connection. Is there any way to redirect the mysql connection to a php file that reads the data?

MySQL is great, especially for storing large amounts of data such as users, event logs, and tables for forms or CMS systems. There is one big problem though that faces PHP/MySQL developers: MySQL injection. Hackers usually try something like a username and password of ' a='a'. This is a MySQLer's worst enemy. But there are ways to prevent against this. Some common functions used are strip_slashes() and mysql_real_escape_string(). They provide an extra and pretty sufficient layer of security to MySQL queries. There is something interesting to note. Most variables are inserted into MySQL queries like this "SELECT * FROM test WHERE test='$var'". Note the variable is not included like ".$var." but is actually included inline between the quotes. So wouldn't it be a simple fact to say that if variables are included like ".$var." there is an extra layer of security added because of the extra set of quotes that were put it. This means hackers now have to evade the stripslashes()/mysql_real_escape_string() and also put "' a='a'" instead (Which most wouldn't think to do)? What is your opinion?
*EDIT: Let's also remember that it has been proven too that including variables like ".$var." is much faster, more efficient, and saves memory then just including the variable between quotes ("$var").*

That sounds like a good idea, but usernames, passwords, emails, and other sensitive data will be stored here so maybe a little bit more security should be in order? Maybe that is enough security though? What do you think?

I am working on a project that requires a MySQL database to store important information (So a little security would be nice). I realize that some users can't find or don't have MySQL databases with their hosting accounts. I would like to provide users with the ability to get a database like such for free (It doesn't have to be that much of a quota per db because their will only be about 3-4 tables and only one will have a good sized amount of rows). That said, I am looking for a Free MySQL host that will allow multiple MySQL users account and let me control over what tables/databases (If they have unlimited or a a lot of databases) the users can access. This might seem a little far-fetched, but if anyone has any suggestions or links to free hosts that meet my criteria I would be grateful! Thanks so much!

FlashCreations

We would need to see the code line it is referring to. Also, for quick fixes highlight the error and remove the personal information (ie. line number and file) and do a Google text. (Hint: The error is probably going to be the bold text)

Exactly. All I'm looking for is the best that can be done with PHP.

Hello,
I am working on a login script for a personal site. The problem is though, I need to have the best and most secure protection there is for the login system I am creating (I will not go into specifics but the users will have access to very sensitive data). The users will each have a password and username. I need a way that is possible with all PHP installations (I am planning on using this script on other hosts for other sites and need something that can be easily installed without the need for any special functions not included in a normal PHP installation) to secure user passwords in the most secure way possible. I have other methods of security, but they are not for password encryption and more for validation of users. Currently now, I am just using md5() to encrypt the passwords. Could someone (that has a great deal of security experience) point me in the right direction for a very secure system. Any links to articles, code samples, or explanations will be greatly appreciated!!!
Thanks So Much Guys (And Girls)
FlashCreations

Update for Soogle:
http://soogle.110mb.com
(It adds some features and the old site is now gone).

What you have to do is get a hosting account with MySQL (Probably a really big database or an unlimited one) and PHP. Then simply run the .sql files from your PhpMyAdmin (or other MySQL manager) and copy the files to your site. You might consider using an old computer (with lots of free space) that is connected to the internet. Search Google for XAMPP. It has PHP and MySQL and should be able to get you going. The .cs files that "crawl" the internet should be able to run on a windows/linux based system. If you need some further help, I am a expert PHP coder and know my way around C and XAMPP so just PM me!!!
Good Luck!
(And beware Google, you have some competition!! lol :D )

Simply close the last else statement:

}else{
echo @$_REQUEST['code'].' Codigos falso';
}

Also, I would blank out your mysql password. A simple googling could reveal the mysql host you use and allow someone to edit your mysql databases.