PHP / SQL help needed, not a big job (I think)

theonemanyuri · Jan 16, 2015

I've basically finished my site using a number of tutorials and help from some of you guys on here, I've not had a chance to look at it for a few months now though and I think it would be easier to get someone else to finish the last few bits I'm stuck on and then learn from that, rather than spend any more time scratching my head. Plus I would like to get it live asap.

The layout is basically done, the bits I'm stuck on are:

- Getting the search bar to work and pull articles from a db, I've made the form for the search box but that's it. I'm guessing some tags would need to be added to my articles and then these used for the search?

- Getting the contact form to work. It works in every aspect other than actually sending the message to the designated email addy. It says message sent, but no message ever appears.

- There's a check box on the contact form for newsletter subscription, I'd like any messages submitted with this 'ticked' to have the email field saved in a table, along with the senders name field.

- Getting the newsletter sign up form to work, similar to contact form issue.

I'm pretty sure it wouldn't be too much work for anyone who codes PHP / SQL for a living, I'll paypal a beer token or two if there's anyone who could help me out...?

AssetDomains · Jan 16, 2015

What's the site is it just raw PHP or is it built on a framework or WordPress or simalar

theonemanyuri · Jan 16, 2015

Ye it's raw PHP, WP or similar would of been much easier but I wanted to really see how it all worked

AssetDomains · Jan 16, 2015

The email issues are probably down to your server configuration are you on a shared host or your own server.

Coding on top of a framework such as Laravel will make life much easier if your hosting support it. I'm just getting stated with it myself but so far I love it.

It takes care of email, databases connections and other stuff so you can get on with coding.

I'd be happy to have a look at what you have so far but the email issues are likely to be host dependent.

theonemanyuri · Jan 16, 2015

I've only developed it locally with xampp at the moment, and used hotmail accounts and an email on my shared (free) host to test if it sends. Once this is finished though I'll get some proper hosting again.

I'll definitely look into some framework in the future, no doubt it's much more efficient. This was more of a learning exercise than anything else but I'd like to finish it before changing direction, I've got too many unfinished projects lol.

Is it ok to compress and send to the email in your sig?

Thanks mate

AssetDomains · Jan 16, 2015

Yep feel free and I'll take a look tomorrow

Have a look at getting a DigitalOcean Box to play with as a test server
ive found them quite handy to test on a more real Linux environment. You get $10 / a two month basic server for free when you sign up.
you can create one with LAMP preconfigured or use something like serverpilot to mange it

theonemanyuri · Jan 17, 2015

All sent, I sent from a hotmail account though so it may be in your junk folder. Thanks I'll have a look into DigitalOcean tomorrow

DaveP · Jan 18, 2015

Sounds like you've done well so far. Don't let someone else do the work for you, let them guide you but ultimately you do it, experience is the best way to learn by far. Good luck!

theonemanyuri · Jan 19, 2015

Thanks mate. Anthony gave me enough help to get me on my way again and I can understand what the code he wrote is doing, so I don't feel like I cheated (too much)

theonemanyuri · Jan 19, 2015

Although now I've managed to change something and broke the site and subsequent changes have broken it more lol. I hate coding

AssetDomains · Jan 19, 2015

Go with Laravel let it do validation, email, database connections and all the other boring stuff out of the box. You can then just concentrate on what you want the site to look and what you want it to do

theonemanyuri · Jan 19, 2015

I'm working my way through laravel set up at the mo, but I think even with laravel there are still going to be a few things that are beyond me. It's also going to be sometime next year before the site goes live at the rate I'm going lol

DaveP · Jan 19, 2015

AssetDomains said:
Go with Laravel let it do validation, email, database connections and all the other boring stuff out of the box. You can then just concentrate on what you want the site to look and what you want it to do

Depends how serious he wants to take this. If his a beginner it's better for him to get stuck in raw to learn and not let his hand be held by a framework. That is of course if he wants to learn more than just the language and actually learn about programming fundamentals, concepts etc.

theonemanyuri · Jan 19, 2015

I'm definitely a beginner, I made the site by using tutorials and working out which bits to change to suit my needs pretty much, anything much more difficult than that and I'm stuck, more so now because I've forgotten most of what I took in when I started the site before xmas. I really just want to get it live so I can concentrate on growing my social media and youtube channel

AssetDomains · Jan 19, 2015

Which bit broke

theonemanyuri · Jan 19, 2015

I somehow stopped the summary, publication date and thumbnail from working when viewing all articles, or any category of articles. I've fixed that one now though by copy/pasting code from an older 'archive.php' that i hadn't mucked around with.