News Website V2.

[Straight]

Hello, Some of you may remember my old website named As It Happens. I decided that it was good for a learning point of how PHP works along side of MySQL and databases (and I still reference it for some aspects), I didn't really like the design. It didn't have any modern features or interactions.

Therefore, I created a new site. Not only has it helped me brush up on my PHP skills, but it has also been intergrated with Javascript, AJAX, CSS, HTML, MySQL and soon to be JQuery.

The main features that I concentrated on was keeping to a design style. In the end, I chose the 1px border-celled look which lots of modern websites are using including YouTube and The BBC. Also, I will use color themes to indicate News stories, Sports stories and Culture stories.

One thing to notice is how the Central feed actually refreshes without refreshing the whole page. This is done by AJAX, which is used all over modern websites including google's predicted text and show results before finished. There is so much more to AJAX than this and I hope to be able to add more functions without the need to refresh the page (like polls and commenting).

My website will also have a CMS. I have made an admin panel which can (right now) only create stories (if your account has been authorized to do so) and create members (if your account has been authorized to do so). In the future, I hope to add functions to edit existing stories and members, and also the function for members to comment on other people's stories to give them feedback on how to improve.

There is so much more I want to do. Right now, rating, commenting and users being able to send their own content (such as images, stories or videos) springs to mind. But those will have to wait.




EDIT: FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU UUUUUUUUUUUU
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHH HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!! I EDITED THE WRONG BIT OF CODE TWICE AND LOST THE LIVE FEED ON MY NEWS SITE AAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! YOU DO NOT KNOW HOW LONG THAT TOOK! AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I DONT KNOW IF I CAN DO IT AGAIN!!!!!!!!!!!!!! AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! WHY DO I FIND IT IMPOSSIBLE TO MAKE SOMETHING GOOD AND NOT SCREW IT UP! AGHH! AGHH! AGHH! FML!

[Darkness.]

Very impressive, I can tell that you have put a lot of work into the new site. Good job. Although I don't really like the font on the new site. I prefer the font used on the old one.

[Straight]

Thanks for the responce, And yes I have put alot of work into the site. The main purpose was to learn new techniques and languages. One of my favorite things I have learnt is the php Explode command which can seporate words from strings into an array with ease.

The only thing I regret is not having a knowledge of JQuery or AJAX when I started. However, they would only add subtle effects and I can just add them in later.

I do plan on making more BlueLink sites, so soon I will make the main Homepage for BlueLink.site90.com (I am trying to contact the owner of bluelink.com so I can buy it!). I have a pretty good idea what I want. I was thinking of a big image which goes across the whole background, a horizontal menu which fills the width of the page, Live boxes simmilar to the ones on Windows 7 which show whats recent on each bluelink site.

Font wise, I am not too sure which one I prefer. But I think I have to agree with you, arial does look better. But, every site uses arial and this fon't doesn't look too bad maybe I can make a new trend of Calibri :)

[Gandalf]

Thanks for the responce, And yes I have put alot of work into the site. The main purpose was to learn new techniques and languages. One of my favorite things I have learnt is the php Explode command which can seporate words from strings into an array with ease.

The only thing I regret is not having a knowledge of JQuery or AJAX when I started. However, they would only add subtle effects and I can just add them in later.

I do plan on making more BlueLink sites, so soon I will make the main Homepage for BlueLink.site90.com (I am trying to contact the owner of bluelink.com so I can buy it!). I have a pretty good idea what I want. I was thinking of a big image which goes across the whole background, a horizontal menu which fills the width of the page, Live boxes simmilar to the ones on Windows 7 which show whats recent on each bluelink site.

Font wise, I am not too sure which one I prefer. But I think I have to agree with you, arial does look better. But, every site uses arial and this fon't doesn't look too bad maybe I can make a new trend of Calibri :)

Cool little website, but I did notice immediately that there is a broken button on this page:



Otherwise I do want to say well done, I liked the layout and it seemed to be generally less cluttered than most websites at the moment which is something I really like, also using the BBC as your sources is good in terms of reliability.

Well done again :)

[Straight]

Cool little website, but I did notice immediately that there is a broken button on this page:


Otherwise I do want to say well done, I liked the layout and it seemed to be generally less cluttered than most websites at the moment which is something I really like, also using the BBC as your sources is good in terms of reliability.

Well done again :)

Thanks for the reply :)

Is the broken button on the menu bar at the top? If so, I'll get round to that soon :)

Also, I did try to have a un-cluttered layout. I wanted it to be a feed, like twitter so it is obvious whats important and whats recent.

Soon I want to start adding my own stories, but I don't have enough time :( I did do one on Johnny Lee and a report on Should shootings be shown on TV

[Mirage]

It actually looks pretty nice.

Good work and keep up the coding! You could maybe even get a job in the field and make tons of money.

[Straight]

It actually looks pretty nice.

Good work and keep up the coding! You could maybe even get a job in the field and make tons of money.

Ha ha, I am going to study computer science at A level and then Degree, so maybe :P I want to learn some more application languages though.

[logangarcia]

While they look great, I'd say go with a paid host. I wish I could do your level of skill!

[Silicate Wielder]

Compared to your sites my site looks like shit.

I already know javascript and HTML, but could you link me to some tutorials on Ajax and PHP?

[Straight]

While they look great, I'd say go with a paid host. I wish I could do your level of skill!

I'm going to get a domain name soon because facebook filters the .site90 bit :( But, the free hosting works fine for me :P Maybe when I have too many sites i'll get paid (its only $3 a month :O).

My skill isn't amazing :P I mean, its pretty good and I am good at thinking of ways to solve problems.... But I do want to improve my design skills because I think it does look a bit outdated :/



Compared to your sites my site looks like shit.

I already know javascript and HTML, but could you link me to some tutorials on Ajax and PHP?

Do you have a URL for your site? I'll love to have a look at it and give you some tips :)

And if you ever want to learn any web scripting language, I would sincerly reccomend w3schools! Everything I know about webscripting (HTML, CSS, JavaScript, AJAX, PHP, JQuery and soon to be ASP!) has came from that website!

Do you know how to code CSS? If not, I would start by looking at http://w3schools.com/css/default.asp until you get to transitions and whilst doing so try and make some features using the skills you learnt! Search how to make things like horizontal menus and look at the code and see how it works and then edit the code to make it fit the style you want.

Then, when you are done with that you can go to this URL :- http://w3schools.com/php/default.asp for PHP. I skipped to using php with MySQL (http://w3schools.com/php/php_mysql_intro.asp) because I knew what I wanted to know. If you want to display data on your website from a database, MySQL is what you need.

Then, AJAX is used to display what the PHP echo's (displays) without refreshing the page. For example, my website has a live feed which refreshes every couple of seconds or you can choose Google's auto fill when you start to type in a textbox. You can find AJAX here (http://w3schools.com/ajax/default.asp).

Good luck!



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All my friends always put me down when I show them and just say why would anyone use your website? and say it looks shit....
Anyway I am making the websites to learn new languages and improve my skills, So I would rather them say why they think it looks so bad instead of mocking me for trying :/ The feels.

[Steve Jobs]

This is why you should always backup. You can restore it later if anything goes wrong :bounce:

[Silicate Wielder]

Do you have a URL for your site? I'll love to have a look at it and give you some tips :)
Here's the link: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/28430704/Home.htm

It was hosted on dropbox so the URL is uneedingly long.

how do I create a background and then have a center image for text that scrolls with you? could I possibly use a grid and fill in the center collum the proper color for the same affect?
Also what resolution do you suggest for a background? I'm going to use a non repeated image and have it stretch to proper dimensions.

I'm thinking of having a cloud as the header, navigation bar and then have a slot that makes it look like the page is pouring out :) this will be one cloud and at the sides will be multi-colored raindrops


EDIT: FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU UUUUUUUUUUUU
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHH HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!! I EDITED THE WRONG BIT OF CODE TWICE AND LOST THE LIVE FEED ON MY NEWS SITE AAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! YOU DO NOT KNOW HOW LONG THAT TOOK! AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I DONT KNOW IF I CAN DO IT AGAIN!!!!!!!!!!!!!! AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! WHY DO I FIND IT IMPOSSIBLE TO MAKE SOMETHING GOOD AND NOT SCREW IT UP! AGHH! AGHH! AGHH! FML!

that is why you do backups... if websites didn't do these most websites would have crashed and been taken down by now.