Form and image submission query.

[Beowulf]

Hi Guru's,

I have a query regarding using PHP to maintain a user profiles list. I
want to be able to have a form where users can fill in their profile
info (Name, hobbies etc) and attach an image, which will upload the
record to a mySql db so users can then either view all profiles or
query.. I.e. show all males in UK, all femails over 35 etc.

Now, I'm not asking for How to do this but more what would be the best
way? I've looked at form PHP scripts, File upload PHP scripts, User
management PHP scripts, Database Scripts.. and on and on and on!
Nothing I've seen so far does exactly what I'm looking for and I don't
know exactly what I need to do to write (or attempt to write) one
myself.

Also, how best should I deal with validation? i.e. I'd like to have a
submission "holding bay" where I can check submissions before I add
them to the profiles list (To make sure there's no rude or obscene
entries). Can any of you give me any pointers, ideas or code snippets
that will aid me in my quest??

Thanking you in advance..

Pete

[Beowulf]

[email]plittle1970@hotmail.com[/email] (Beowulf) wrote in message news:<396f98be.0306300308.19425c36@posting.google. com>...

> Hi Guru's,
>
> I have a query regarding using PHP to maintain a user profiles list. I
> want to be able to have a form where users can fill in their profile
> info (Name, hobbies etc) and attach an image, which will upload the
> record to a mySql db so users can then either view all profiles or
> query.. I.e. show all males in UK, all femails over 35 etc.
>
> Now, I'm not asking for How to do this but more what would be the best
> way? I've looked at form PHP scripts, File upload PHP scripts, User
> management PHP scripts, Database Scripts.. and on and on and on!
> Nothing I've seen so far does exactly what I'm looking for and I don't
> know exactly what I need to do to write (or attempt to write) one
> myself.
>
> Also, how best should I deal with validation? i.e. I'd like to have a
> submission "holding bay" where I can check submissions before I add
> them to the profiles list (To make sure there's no rude or obscene
> entries). Can any of you give me any pointers, ideas or code snippets
> that will aid me in my quest??
>
> Thanking you in advance..
>
> Pete

Anyone??

[lawrence]

[email]plittle1970@hotmail.com[/email] (Beowulf) wrote in message news:<396f98be.0307030048.48e534ee@posting.google. com>...> >

> > Also, how best should I deal with validation? i.e. I'd like to have a
> > submission "holding bay" where I can check submissions before I add
> > them to the profiles list (To make sure there's no rude or obscene
> > entries). Can any of you give me any pointers, ideas or code snippets
> > that will aid me in my quest??

You're asking for a content management system. You want a system that
brings together a lot of other features: files, users, user info, some
system admin checking, etc. What you're asking for is fairly big.

There are a lot of CMS's out there. Many of them are open source. A
few them are pretty good. [url]www.php.net[/url] used to have list of all the
ones done in PHP. Maybe the list is still there. You could ask over at
evilwalrus.com, they'd tell you.

Some possible ideas:

You might be able to get PostNuke to do what you want. If not, try
Pmachine. If not that, you might be able to tweak Phorum to do what
you want, but that is more of a stretch. I'd also recommend my own
CMS, but only when version 2.0 comes out, and that is a month away:
[url]www.publicDomainSoftware.org[/url].

[Beowulf]

<Lawrence and Chris wrote in two very helpful messages>

"I'm not sure what kind of answer you're looking for exactly - and
that's probably why you haven't had any responses..."

Sorry about that.. I don't have enough knowledge to know what I want
and therefore I do not know what to ask for. I figured that I'd
probably have to do some editing to get what I require but I don't
know exactly what path to go down. I'm not looking for a step by step
guide to put the ring into Mount Doom.. just a vague "Turn left at
Lothlorien, then keep going until you smell smoke and sweaty orcs!"

I've looked at Form processing PHP's , File management PHP's , BLOG
PHP's and I'm lost. I thought there'd be something simple like a form
processing php that would allow a user to fill in details and attach a
file. Then any other behind the scenes stuff could be done with
seperate PHP's. But try as I must, I just can seem to find anything
close (That doesn't mean it's not there.. I'm just being blinkered by
ignorance at the moment!)

"As for your first question, if you're not looking for a how-to, what
are you looking for? What's the sticking point?

If you're asking "How do I learn how to do this", then I'd suggest
taking another look at all those premade scripts you've rejected. Find
the bits that do what you need. Learn exactly what they do and can do,
then combine them in your own way..."

yes.. I should follow that advice. It's not easy though learning yet
another programming/scripting language! Some times it feels like
running just to stand still!

Lawrence added..
"You're asking for a content management system. You want a system that
brings together a lot of other features: files, users, user info, some
system admin checking, etc. What you're asking for is fairly big."

Eek! And I thought it would be something simple.. I think I'm asking
for a Gold plated lear jet but only only want to pay for a paper dart!
As a software engineer myself (yeah, it's hard to believe isn't it!) I
often come accross users who want a system that does EVERYTHING! I've
just realised I've become one of those myself! (Sob). I think I'll
have to break it down into modules .. get a simple(?) form submission/
image upload PHP going first and add other bits on as and when
required.

Thanks for both your help. Sorry for being such a rank newbie!

[lawrence]

[email]plittle1970@hotmail.com[/email] (Beowulf) wrote in message

> Eek! And I thought it would be something simple.. I think I'm asking
> for a Gold plated lear jet but only only want to pay for a paper dart!
> As a software engineer myself (yeah, it's hard to believe isn't it!) I
> often come accross users who want a system that does EVERYTHING! I've
> just realised I've become one of those myself! (Sob). I think I'll
> have to break it down into modules .. get a simple(?) form submission/
> image upload PHP going first and add other bits on as and when
> required.

I'm wasn't trying to scare you off, I was just pointing out that your
description involved many operations.

Can you write exactly what you want? I mean, in normal English
sentences. Just specify, in detail, the actions you'd like to be able
to do? If you could write a reasonably detailed spec list, I think I
could point you to one of the open source CMS's that might do what you
want.

From what little you've said, I'm guessing that PostNuke will do the
job for you. My own CMS, being smaller than PostNuke, is easier to
learn and, I think, easier to customize. You can see it running
[url]www.monkeyclaus.org[/url]. That is the beta version of 2.0 - a little rough,
but coming along. The idea of that site is that every artist
associated with the monkeyclaus studio should have their own weblog.
Let me know if that interests you and I can give you a
username/password so that you can take a tour inside the control
panel.

A question: you're a programmer but you don't know PHP. Why bother
learning PHP? Why not use some language you already know? If you know
Perl, or Python, or Java, or ASP, you can find a CMS in any of those
languages. Why bother with PHP?

-- Lawrence Krubner

[lawrence]

[email]plittle1970@hotmail.com[/email] (Beowulf) wrote in message news:<396f98be.0307100332.3708e5e8@posting.google. com>...

> [email]lkrubner@geocities.com[/email] (lawrence) wrote in message news:<da7e68e8.0307070840.2a9d9c5b@posting.google. com>...
>

> > My overall impression is that you're underestimating the work or
> > you've more free time than I do. >
> >

> Sorry , My Quote "Don't think a bog-standard page content script
> should be TOO hard to code." Wasn't meant to refer to the WHOLE
> project just the small part that generates the actual page. I thought
> if I have a list of profile records then basically itterating through
> the list in a while not end of list construct and outputting a small
> HTML template for each table cell wouldn't have been to complicated.
>
> By Easy I meant going by my limited grasp of PHP I thought it would be
> easy COMPARED to the other tasks. What I meant was EASIER. not EASY. I
> have a mammoth task ahead of me, compounded by the fact I'm learning
> PHP as I go. Not au fait with web technologies. But your advice has
> been very usefull and I thank you for giving up some time to help an
> obviously un-knowledgable newbie like me find the path! Tell me, Where
> you Yoda in a previous life? ;-) Thanks! Will look at Post-Nuke as you
> recommend too.

Good luck with PostNuke. If it doesn't do what you want, we'll be
posting a reasonably stable beta of version 2.0 of the monkeyclaus cms
this weekend, and it'll do most of what you want, and if you want to
customize it I'll help you out. On Sunday you can check out
[url]http://www.publicDomainSoftware.org/[/url]