Try out my first PHP web app!

[drose379]

True, I have a good Wi-fi connection right now and the registration just took me normal time. What do you think of the functionality of the rest of the site? I have some ideas for what I really want to do with it if you would email me I could share with you. My email is [email protected]

Thanks for the help.

[chrisburton]

@drose379 Please share here. This forum is the perfect place for that.

[drose379]

Ok, well I wanted to make a forum and messaging based website (kind of like this one) for web developers and designers. The main function of the site would be to submit their work (websites and designs) and code to the forum, and other developers could comment and help each other out. The user could also post to the forum with general questions they may have with web development or graphic design in general. I think having a user messaging feature along with a public forum area would be great.

[chrisburton]

So basically like Stack Overflow?

[drose379]

A little bit, but this site will encourage users to submit their websites and get feedback from other users. I remember I tried to do that on stack overflow once and my post got deleted by the “Admin”. This website will also allow messaging between users which could promote users to stay on the site instead of sharing emails.

[chrisburton]

It sounds like a mix between dribbble and Stack Overflow which is what Forrst is. Last time I was on there you could chat (I think). At least it seemed you could.

It sounds like a good idea but I don’t see anything unique there that hasn’t already been done. Not that you shouldn’t go through with it because it can certainly be a learning experience.

[drose379]

Looks like dirbble but geared more towards web developers.

[drose379]

I also want to have a tutorial video section of the website where people from the user community can post videos for newer web devs to learn from. Kind of like a “Learn.Create.Share” type of site.

[chrisburton]

Sounds cool. I think you need to work out some preliminary things before jumping into development (e.g. design, privacy, security, UX, features, software, hardware). Many people tend to jump into their ideas before fully preparing themselves and just wing it as they go along. As it stands right now, your site doesn’t seem to be user friendly and can be a bit confusing. Is this what the forum will look like or is this just a test?

[drose379]

You make some great points. Absolutely not, this is just bare bones making sure all the features work correctly. I plan on making the site tons more user friendly then how it looks now. This is like the foundation of what will be built upon_, and_ only a few parts of the foundation are built yet. Also, what do you mean by software and hardware?

[chrisburton]

Absolutely not, this is just bare bones making sure all the features work correctly.

Gotcha.

Also, what do you mean by software and hardware?

Software that could improve your web app, like a CMS for example whether you create it from scratch or use an existing one. As for Hardware, VPS, backup server, etc.

[__]

I think people think that their registration failed so they try it again, this could be why it is showing twice in the username list.

If that is even possible, then you have a design flaw. If the username needs to be unique, then the database should reject duplicates.

Do you think it could be because the web server the site is hosted on is slow?

It’s possible but it’s also possible that my connection was bad…

While this is possible, I’d imagine the problem is elsewhere. I had a decent connection each time I tried. There still might be a slowdown closer to your host, but I’d recommend checking the code for bottlenecks before assuming that.

As for building your site, chrisburton is absolutely correct: you need to work out the design (i.e., overall application design, not layout/styles) before jumping into code. A project like this usually turns out to be much bigger than you imagine in the beginning. Having a roadmap really helps.

[drose379]

A project like this usually turns out to be much bigger than you imagine in the beginning. Having a roadmap really helps. >

Do you mean “bigger” by more work or more users? Also, instead of using a CMS, I want to build my site from scratch. Also, id love to use a back up server, but have no idea how to set one up? How would I go about doing that?

[drose379]

Woah, logged into my site this morning to find that there are over 50 new users signed up on there? Was it one of you guys on here just testing out my database? If not, where did all these new users come from over night? They all have really unique usernames too…

[chrisburton]

Not me. Check your logs.

[Author]

Posts