|
|
|
|
|
How to create simple forum in PHP from scratch
In this lesson we will cover most of the basic PHP knowledge and will learn how to create a very simple forum by using PHP and MySql database.
|
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
1.
|
|
|
First we will create MySql database for storing data with the following fields:
id - int
user - text
message - text
date - datetime
You can read more about creating database in tutorial:
|
|
| |
2.
|
|
|
Now we will create a form for posting messages.
The following code should be put between <head> and </head> tags.
<form method="get" action="forum.php">
<p>User:
<label for="user"></label>
<input type="text" name="user" id="user" />
<br />
</p>
<p>Message: <br />
<label for="message"></label>
<textarea name="message" id="message" cols="45" rows="5"></textarea>
</p>
<p>
<input type="submit" name="submit" id="submit" value="Post message" />
</p>
</form>
To learn about forms and PHP, please see tutorial:
|
|
| |
3.
|
|
|
You should get a result that is shown on the picture.
|
|
| |
4.
|
|
|
At the start of the script we will first connect to the database.
Insert the code below at the top of your php script>
<?
$mysqli = new mysqli("localhost", "root", "", "my_db");
if ($mysqli->connect_errno) {
echo "Failed to connect to MySQL: (" . $mysqli->connect_errno . ") " . $mysqli->connect_error;
}
?>
You should also set correct hostname, username, password and database name for your database.
You can learn more about using PHP and MySql in tutorial:
|
|
| |
5.
|
|
|
After establishing connection to MySql database we will check if there was new message posted.
If this is the case we will insert the data into our database.
if (isset($_GET['message'])) {
$user=$mysqli->real_escape_string($_GET['user']);
$message=$mysqli->real_escape_string($_GET['message']);
$date=date('Y-m-d H:i:s');
$sql="INSERT INTO forum(id, user, message, date) VALUES(0,'$user','$message','$date')";
$mysqli->query($sql);
}
|
|
| |
6.
|
|
|
Now all that is left to do is to show all the messages from the database.
This code should be placed after the <body> tag.
<?
$sql = "SELECT * FROM forum";
$result = $mysqli->query($sql);
while($row = $result->fetch_assoc()) {
echo $row['user'].', '.$row['date'].' <br />';
echo $row['message'].'<br />';
echo '------------------------ <br />';
}
?>
To learn more about SQL, please see tutorial:
|
|
| |
7.
|
|
|
Now your simple forum is ready and you can use it to post messages.
Congratulations.
Below is also a complete code so it will be easier for you to copy it to your php script:
<?
$mysqli = new mysqli("localhost", "root", "", "my_db");
if ($mysqli->connect_errno) {
echo "Failed to connect to MySQL: (" . $mysqli->connect_errno . ") " . $mysqli->connect_error;
}
if (isset($_GET['message'])) {
$user=$mysqli->real_escape_string($_GET['user']);
$message=$mysqli->real_escape_string($_GET['message']);
$date=date('Y-m-d H:i:s');
$sql="INSERT INTO forum(id, user, message, date) VALUES(0,'$user','$message','$date')";
$mysqli->query($sql);
}
?>
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
<head>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8" />
<title>PHP and MySql</title>
</head>
<body>
<h2>My First Forum</h2>
<?
$sql = "SELECT * FROM forum";
$result = $mysqli->query($sql);
while($row = $result->fetch_assoc()) {
echo $row['user'].', '.$row['date'].' <br />';
echo $row['message'].'<br />';
echo '------------------------ <br />';
}
?>
<form method="get" action="forum.php">
<p>User:
<label for="user"></label>
<input type="text" name="user" id="user" />
<br />
</p>
<p>Message: <br />
<label for="message"></label>
<textarea name="message" id="message" cols="45" rows="5"></textarea>
</p>
<p>
<input type="submit" name="submit" id="submit" value="Post message" />
</p>
</form>
</body>
</html>
|
|
|
|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
this is excellent..... simple and straight forward
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Ohhh this is excellent...You just saved me... I am taking a PHP course and I have an assignment which requires exactly what this tutorial is about...I had no idea how to solve it. Thank you very much!
|
|
|
|
|
Create MySql database with phpMyAdmin
Create a simple PHP form
Use PHP to connect to MySql database
Learn to use select query in SQL