vujsa

Well, the solder mask is what make the board green. Here is how it works... A non conductive core is made out of some type of resin, usually something like polyester resin you would find at a auto parts store to repair auto body damage. This core is coted on both sides with copper (in some cases a different material is used like gold). The board is then "printed" by removing the copper to separate the different circuits (lines on the board). This is done by etching the board with a chemical after printing a protective ink on the places you don't want removed. Now you have a printed circuit board but it is tan and copper colored. You a little more work prepares the circuit board for soldering of various electronic pieces onto the board like microchips. The board is then coated with the soldering mask which prevents stray solder from bridging between two or more circuits on the board, it also prevents the circuits from corroding or being scratched or damaged in some way. This coating is the source of your green tint! More than likely, this compound was the only available product. Keep in mind that you have to be able to see through it and it has to be resistant to the heat of the solder. It also have to be scratch resistant. So, my guess is that this was the native color of the first solder mask that was developed and remained the standard color for so long because it was the cheapest to buy either because the process is easier or because that is the most widely produced color. Most video cards today are not green. And even my motherboard from Intel is blue. The change in color has nothing to do with anything but product promotion. I've seen circuit boards in nearly every color now. Some even sport multicolored coatings. This is the same reason that you see different colored sockets for your addon components such as different IDE and SATA plugs on boards. The traditional was always black but now they even have neon colored slots. It is just a way to get people to buy a product based on how it looks instead of how it works. Back to the circuit board information, after the green solder mask is applied, the silk screened printing is applied. This is all of those little numbers and letters next to each item on the board and may also show the name and model of the circuit board. Finally, the board is loaded with various electronic pieces such as microchips in an automated soldering machine. The board might be tested or have additional work done on it then is packaged and shipped to the warehouse. Just remember, just because the manufacturer spent extra money for the red coating instead of the green, doesn't mean that the component is better! vujsa

In short, yes! You would save PM's in the database... You create a table in your database with at least 4 columns (fields) then each message gets its own row (record). I suggest the following columns: message_id user_id_from user_id_to message_title message_contents message_date message_read The first is the id of the message which should be incremented in MySQL each message. (1,2,3,...) The second is the user id (username, id number, whatever) of the sender of the message. The third is the user id (username, id number, whatever) of the recipient of the message. The forth is the title of the message. The fifth is the actual contents of the message. (message body) Sixth is the date which the message was sent. Finally, seventh is a flag as to whether or not the message has been read. (Yes | No) OR (1 | 0) The system is actually very simple to code and I have confidence that you will be able to do it. I wouldn't try doing a filing system for PM's and when a user deletes a message, then remove it from the database. The new message alert would just be a database query to find any messages with the user's ID being the same as the user_id_to and that hasn't been marked as read. Now for your time issue... The PHP manual does a very good job of explaining how to use time and date functions. Here is the link: http://us.php.net/manual/en/function.date.php One thing to consider, if you are using a UNIX timestamp (seconds since 1/1/1970) then you enter that as the second argument of the data function like so: echo date("F j, Y, g:i a", 3600); // January 1, 1970, 1:00 amBecause, 3600 seconds is 1 hour from the Epoch (1/1/1970)! Likewise, this is what you would use for the date of January 5, 1970 at 2:34 pm: echo date("F j, Y, g:i a", 484440); // January 5, 1970, 2:34 pmBecause, 484440 seconds is 5 days 14 hours and 34 minutes from the Epoch! There are many formate examples on the page I linked to as well as a complete listing of every date code you can use with the date function. Hope this helps. vujsa

Okay, now that you have given me some variable data I realize what I did wrong. Remember when I explained that we want to add the remaining seconds back to the timestamp so that they would be included the next time the script ran; well, I forgot that to add time you have to subtract from the current time. So to fix that, you have to change your $new_update_time = to this: $new_update_time = $current_time - $remaining_seconds; Okay, I changed the code to fix that problem and eliminate the multiplier since we really don't need it if you are going to be controlling both increment and frequency. Now to start, $frequency must be calculated in seconds. 60 seconds = 1 minute, 120 seconds = 2 minutes, and 3600 seconds = 1 hour. You can either put the numeric value here or you can use a mathematical expression like so $frequency = 60 * 60 for 1 hour or $frequency = 30 * 60 for 30 minutes. Now as explained before the current time is a measurement of the number of seconds since 01/01/1970 and can be found using the time() fumction. $last_update_time is the value that the script stores in the database when an update has been made. The difference is however many seconds have passed between now and then. Now to get the hours passed or in your case the time units passed such as minutes passed, we have to divide the number of seconds by the frequency (number of seconds in your unit). So if 120 seconds have passed and your frequency is 60, then your hours passed equals 2 because 120 / 60 = 2! Now we need to calculate the number of full units that have passed because we don't want to get lost in fractions! So we take the number of hours passed and round it down to the nearest whole number. We use the floor() function for this. We then need to figure out what the ramaining seconds are from our full hours. We use modulus to figure the seconds left over. this is just the remainder from division like so: 5 % 2 = 1 because 2 goes into 5 2 times (2 * 2 = 4) with a remainder of 1 (5 - 4 = 1), additionally, 5 % 3 = 2 because 3 goes into 5 1 time (3 * 1 = 3) with a remainder of 2 (5 - 3 = 2). I hope that is clear enough. I'll explain more later, here is the new code: <?php$frequency = 60;$increment = 1;$current_time = time();$last_update_time = mysql_result(mysql_query("SELECT `value` FROM `configuration` WHERE `name` = 'last_update'"), 0);$time_difference = $current_time - $last_update_time;$hours_passed = $time_difference / $frequency;$full_hours_passed = floor($hours_passed);$remaining_seconds = $time_difference % $frequency;if($full_hours_passed > 0){ $new_update_time = $current_time - $remaining_seconds; $hp_increase = $full_hours_passed * $increment;mysql_query("UPDATE `characters` SET `temphealth` = CASE WHEN `temphealth` + $hp_increase <= `maxhp` THEN `temphealth` + $hp_increase ELSE `maxhp` END WHERE `temphealth` > `maxhp`");mysql_query("UPDATE `configuration` SET `value` = $new_update_time WHERE `name` = 'last_update'");}?> vujsa

I'm inclined to agree! However, you have been shown three ways to accomplish your desired task. At this point in time, you need to choose one and figure it out! You need to learn what the scripts are actually doing so that you can determine which step isn't getting completed. I have tried my best to explain each bit of code in the script I've supplied you. So, the question is, do you understand the code supplied? Look up any functions you aren't familiar with and try and figure out the logic. Since this project is as much a learning experience for you as anything, you should keep going. You need to learn how to perform checks and debug your code... For example, if you echo every single variable at the end of the script, you should be able to see if there is a problem. You really need to keep in mind that I haven't run this script! I wrote it as best I could but haven't tested it. So, there very well could be an error in my code, I don't know! Hope this helps, vujsa

Well, I figured this might be a problem eventually... time() gets the unix timestamp from the server. This is the total number of seconds since January 1, 1970. Yeah, it is a very large number. Anyhow, we work in second because it is the easiest format. Okay, the script I have given you works globally. This means that the update effects the entire system at once. We aren't accessing each user account individually so the last update value cannot be stored in the user's record. It has to be in its own record preferably in it's own table or in a configuration table. What I mean is that all users use the same value! So, the field in the 'characters' table named 'hptime' can be deleted! So, you need a new database table called 'configuration' and it only needs two fields, 'name' and 'value'. Here is the SQL for the setup: CREATE TABLE `configuration` ( `name` varchar(32) NOT NULL, `value` varchar(32) NOT NULL ) ENGINE = MYISAM ; Just go to your database and run that query to get it setup. Now, you have to put some value in the table for the script to work: 1202924951 You can get the most recent time here: http://www.unixtimestamp.com/ Remember, the servers are on in the Pacific Time Zone. I believe GMT -8 So that query is just this: INSERT INTO `configuration` ( `name`, `value` ) VALUES ( 'last_update', '1202924951' ); Once you have your new table set up, then you can adjust you code to use the table like so: <?php$multiplier = 1 / 5;$frequency = 3600 * $multiplier;$increment = 5 * $multiplier;$current_time = time(); // get the current server time in second$last_update_time = mysql_result(mysql_query("SELECT `value` FROM `configuration` WHERE `name` = 'last_update'"), 0); // This could be anywhere even in a separate text file!$time_difference = $current_time - $last_update_time;$hours_passed = $time_difference / $frequency; // convert sec to min then to hours --> 3600 second / 60 = 60 minutes / 60 = 1 hour$full_hours_passed = floor($hours_passed); // round the number of decimal hours down to the nearest whole hour$remaining_seconds = $time_difference % $frequency; // number of sec left when time difference is divided by 3600 sec --> 7 % 3 = 1 and 6 % 3 = 0if($full_hours_passed > 0){ $new_update_time = $current_time + $remaining_seconds; $hp_increase = $full_hours_passed * $increment;mysql_query("UPDATE `characters` SET `temphealth` = CASE WHEN `temphealth` + $hp_increase <= `maxhp` THEN `temphealth` + $hp_increase ELSE `maxhp` END WHERE `temphealth` > `maxhp`");mysql_query("UPDATE `configuration` SET `value` = $new_update_time WHERE `name` = 'last_update'");}?> Incidently, you could even put your other configuration values in the configuration table like the value for $multiplier. Okay, I can't think of anything else that might go wrong. By the way, I know that our schedules have been opposite this week but that doesn't really explain why you don't post the information I ask for to figure out why things aren't working... Had you done so, this could have been resolved sooner. vujsa

Okay, my fault... Since I didn't d any queries myself, I forgot a couple of things. Anyhow, I created a table on my account and used some sample data to run queries against and found the problem. "Quotes"!!!!! Here is a working query for you: UPDATE `characters` SET `temphealth` = CASE WHEN `temphealth` + $hp_increase <= `maxhp` THEN `temphealth` + $hp_increase ELSE `maxhp` END WHERE `temphealth` < `maxhp` As long as you don't have any other problems in the code, this should work now. vujsa

Still need those query echos. And check those queries as I explained in phpMyAdmin. It usually gives a little more information about errors. vujsa Lets try this: Change your query to this: UPDATE characters SET temphealth = CASE WHEN temphealth + $hp_increase <= maxhp THEN temphealth + $hp_increase ELSE maxhp END CASE WHERE temphealth < maxhp vujsa

Well, this is getting a little frustrating!!! First, does the query being used work? Echo your queries as explained previously then plug those into phpMyAdmin and see it they work. If they work in phpMyAdmin, then the trouble is in the code. If they don't work, then we need to fix the queries. Post the queries in your next reply. vujsa

Well, initially, I don't see a field for 'hp'. I don't know what you use the other fields for. Also, where are you storing the value for the last update? If you have a configuration table, that would be a good place to store your last update value or you can just create a new table just for that! Remember, the method I showed you will update every account at the same time and you only need to store one value for the last update time. So, either you need to adjust your table to include the 'hp' field or modify the query to use the correct field where 'hp' currently resides. So here is what I think needs to be done. Change 'hp' to 'temphealth' and 'user' to 'characters' in the queries: $multiplier = 1 / 5;$frequency = 3600 * $multiplier;$increment = 5 * $multiplier;$query_count = 1;$query_debug = 1; // Set this to 0 to turn the query echo off!$current_time = time(); // get the current server time in second$last_update_time = mysql_result(mysql_query("SELECT update_time FROM update_table"), 0); // This could be anywhere even in a separate text file!$time_difference = $current_time - $last_update_time;$hours_passed = $time_difference / $frequency; // convert sec to min then to hours --> 3600 second / 60 = 60 minutes / 60 = 1 hour$full_hours_passed = floor($hours_passed); // round the number of decimal hours down to the nearest whole hour$remaining_seconds = $time_difference % $frequency; // number of sec left when time difference is divided by 3600 sec --> 7 % 3 = 1 and 6 % 3 = 0if($full_hours_passed > 0){ $new_update_time = $current_time + $remaining_seconds; $hp_increase = $full_hours_passed * $increment; $query = "UPDATE characters SET temphealth = CASE WHEN temphealth + $hp_increase <= 100 THEN temphealth + $hp_increase ELSE 100 WHERE temphealth < 100"; mysql_query($query) or die('Query failed: ' . mysql_error()); $queries .= "$query_count:<br /><pre>$query</pre><br /><br />"; $query_count++; $query = "UPDATE update_table SET update_time = $new_update_time"; mysql_query($query) or die('Query failed: ' . mysql_error()); $queries .= "$query_count:<br /><pre>$query</pre><br /><br />"; $query_count++;}if($query_debug == 1){ echo $queries;} Please look at your queries! They have to match the data in your database. For example, have you created a table to file to hold the global value to last update time? You don't seem to need the field in the characters table named 'hptime'! Also, temphealth doesn't seem to need to be a varchar, I thin you should set this to int(11) since I think it should be a numeric value there. I coulld be wrong, I don't know how the rest of your system functions. vujsa

Keep in mind that this entire method only works after you request the script. So, the script should be placed near the top of the master file for the system... For example, if you use the usual index.php file as the traffic cop that controls the flow of data through your script, then somewhere near the beginning, after your configuration information, place either this code or an include for the file that this code is in. The script should update everyone's hp when someone accesses the game and the proper amount of time has passed since the last update. Okay, lets try and see if we missed something else. Some debugging could be in order: Try something like this: mysql_query("<<<INSERT YOUR QUERY HERE>>>") or die('Query failed: ' . mysql_error());This is a good idea any time you are building a script since it prevents the system from continuing on and it lets you know that there is a propblem. Another method we can use to check what is going on it by echoing the querys like so: $query = "<<<INSERT YOUR QUERY HERE>>>";mysql_query($query) or die('Query failed: ' . mysql_error());echo $query; If you want a fancier method of echoing your queries, you can concatenate (link together) all of your queies then output them at the end like so: $some_count = 1;$query = "<<<INSERT YOUR QUERY HERE>>>";mysql_query($query) or die('Query failed: ' . mysql_error());$queries .= "$some_count:<br /><pre>$query</pre><br /><br />";$some_count++;....MORE CODE....echo $queries;This would give you very easy to read query debug information. Anyway, back to the main event. It is possible that there is a problem with your PHP code that is breaking your queries in which you might see some strange data in your queries. If this is the case, then try and figure out which section of code generated that query and try and determine why your script is malfunctioning there. It is also possible that the SQL queries that I have given you are bad! Since I didn't go to the trouble to create the required tables to do a live test with these queries, there could be an error. The error may not cause an error message to be shown if the query just doesn't actually match any of the records as it is written. So, you should copy and paste the queries into phpMyAdmin and manually test each one. You may need to give us some database structure information so that we can see if there is something we are just overlooking. Going into your database without selecting any tables to view, select Export and be sure to uncheck the Data checkbox and click Go. All of the other default settings will be fine and this will display the structure of all of your tables in that database. If you copy and paste that in your next reply, then I could see if there is something that I missed in your previous posts about your database. If I can't see it, I can actually use the export data to recreate the structure of your database on my account. vujsa

Well, if it ain't broke don't fix it! ;)I'm not a DNS guru by any means so I can't really say with any certainty but I would think that if you have your own DNS setup and you point your domain to it and end up at your webpage without any trouble, then go for it. It appears to be working fine so I wouldn't change it now. If you later have difficulties with it, then you can always change to the Xisto DNS information!As for your domain name, again leave it be. The domain that you entered in the setup form is what is assigned to your account so you don't need to change it. The information in the application just give use general information needed to determine if you should get hosting approved or not.Remember, we allow you to add as many domains as you wish so you use your preferred domain if it ever becomes available.vujsa

Is that a table or a field named maxhp? If it is a table, then we have some additional work to do on the system. Otherwise, you should be okay. Now, for shortening the time, consider the following: 7200 / 60 / 60 = 2 Likewise: 7200 / ( 60 *60 ) = 2 Now, we know that 3600 second equals 1 hour so lets create a variable for that! $frequency = 3600; Might as well make a variable for the number of HP to increase by each interval: $increment = 5; Now, we modify the previous code to include that! $frequency = 3600;$increment = 5;$current_time = time(); // get the current server time in second$last_update_time = mysql_result(mysql_query("SELECT update_time FROM update_table"), 0); // This could be anywhere even in a separate text file!$time_difference = $current_time - $last_update_time;$hours_passed = $time_difference / $frequency; // convert sec to min then to hours --> 3600 second / 60 = 60 minutes / 60 = 1 hour$full_hours_passed = floor($hours_passed); // round the number of decimal hours down to the nearest whole hour$remaining_seconds = $time_difference % $frequency; // number of sec left when time difference is divided by 3600 sec --> 7 % 3 = 1 and 6 % 3 = 0if($full_hours_passed > 0){ $new_update_time = $current_time + $remaining_seconds; $hp_increase = $full_hours_passed * $increment; mysql_query("UPDATE user SET hp = CASE WHEN hp + $hp_increase <= 100 THEN hp + $hp_increase ELSE 100 WHERE hp < 100"); mysql_query("UPDATE update_table SET update_time = $new_update_time");}Note that I replaced / (60 * 60) and / 60 / 60 with / $frequency.Additionally, the value of 5 for the increment value was change to the variable $increment. These changes make it easier to change how often and how much the HP in increased for the users. See, this way we could do the following to increase the value by 1 point every 12 minutes instead on 5 points every 60 minutes: $frequency = 3600 / 5; // 720 seconds = 12 minutes$increment = 5 / 5; // 1 Or even better, we could add one more variable as the multiplier!7200 / ( 60 *60 ) = 2 Now, we know that 3600 second equals 1 hour so lets create a variable for that! $frequency = 3600; Might as well make a variable for the number of HP to increase by each interval: $increment = 5; Now, we modify the previous code to include that! $frequency = 3600;$increment = 5;$current_time = time(); // get the current server time in second$last_update_time = mysql_result(mysql_query("SELECT update_time FROM update_table"), 0); // This could be anywhere even in a separate text file!$time_difference = $current_time - $last_update_time;$hours_passed = $time_difference / $frequency; // convert sec to min then to hours --> 3600 second / 60 = 60 minutes / 60 = 1 hour$full_hours_passed = floor($hours_passed); // round the number of decimal hours down to the nearest whole hour$remaining_seconds = $time_difference % $frequency; // number of sec left when time difference is divided by 3600 sec --> 7 % 3 = 1 and 6 % 3 = 0if($full_hours_passed > 0){ $new_update_time = $current_time + $remaining_seconds; $hp_increase = $full_hours_passed * $increment; mysql_query("UPDATE user SET hp = CASE WHEN hp + $hp_increase <= 100 THEN hp + $hp_increase ELSE 100 WHERE hp < 100"); mysql_query("UPDATE update_table SET update_time = $new_update_time");}Note that I replaced / (60 * 60) and / 60 / 60 with / $frequency.Additionally, the value of 5 for the increment value was change to the variable $increment. These changes make it easier to change how often and how much the HP in increased for the users. See, this way we could do the following to increase the value by 1 point every 12 minutes instead on 5 points every 60 minutes: $multiplier = 1 / 5; // One fifth of an hour is 12 minutes$frequency = 3600 * $multiplier; // 720 seconds = 12 minutes$increment = 5 * $multiplier; // 1 So the final code would look like this: $multiplier = 1 / 5;$frequency = 3600 * $multiplier;$increment = 5 * $multiplier;$current_time = time(); // get the current server time in second$last_update_time = mysql_result(mysql_query("SELECT update_time FROM update_table"), 0); // This could be anywhere even in a separate text file!$time_difference = $current_time - $last_update_time;$hours_passed = $time_difference / $frequency; // convert sec to min then to hours --> 3600 second / 60 = 60 minutes / 60 = 1 hour$full_hours_passed = floor($hours_passed); // round the number of decimal hours down to the nearest whole hour$remaining_seconds = $time_difference % $frequency; // number of sec left when time difference is divided by 3600 sec --> 7 % 3 = 1 and 6 % 3 = 0if($full_hours_passed > 0){ $new_update_time = $current_time + $remaining_seconds; $hp_increase = $full_hours_passed * $increment; mysql_query("UPDATE user SET hp = CASE WHEN hp + $hp_increase <= 100 THEN hp + $hp_increase ELSE 100 WHERE hp < 100"); mysql_query("UPDATE update_table SET update_time = $new_update_time");}So, now you only need to modify the first 3 variables to change the frequency and amount of HP that is increased. However, if you have a field in the 'user' table named maxhp for EACH player, then you should change every instance of the number 100 in the query to maxhp like this: mysql_query("UPDATE user SET hp = CASE WHEN hp + $hp_increase <= maxhp THEN hp + $hp_increase ELSE maxhp WHERE hp < maxhp"); Now as I hinted previously, if you are using some other method for storing each users maximum hp value, then I'll need some database information from you to know how to write the correct MySQL query for this operation. I must warn against trying to update the system every 1 minute as this will overtax the server and probably cause all of us a lot of trouble with our hosting accounts. It would be okay for testing purposes but in a live environment, it will probably crash the server. I hope this gets you on your way to finishing your project. vujsa

Well, let's try and get this figured out now! I think a simpler approach is in order. Instead of looking at each user individually, lets look at the whole system! I'll start by explaining what I have in mind: Load the system and get the current time. Check the database and get the last update time (global) Calculate the difference between the current time and the last update time.$time_difference = $current_time - $last_update_time We then convert the number of seconds that have passed to the number of decimal hours that have passed$hours_passed = $time_difference / 60 / 60 We then calculate the number of whole hours that have passed.$full_hours_passed = floor($hours_passed) Round down to the nearest whole hour Determine the number of seconds left over.$remaining_seconds = $time_difference % (60 * 60) We have to add the remaining seconds to the new update time if there is an update.if($full_hours_passed > 0) {$new_update_time = $current_time + $remaining_seconds; } We then calculate the number of HP to increase by based on the number of hours passed and the rate of increase$hp_increase = $full_hours_passed * 5 Finally, we increase each user's HP (Requires MySQL 5.0+)This is kind of tricky because we have to be sure that we don't go over 100 if that is the highest possible HP value mysql_query("UPDATE user SET hp = CASE WHEN hp + $hp_increase <= 100 THEN hp + $hp_increase ELSE 100 WHERE hp < 100") Now, this will update every user at one time and won't place too high of a load on the server. Don't forget to update the last update time in the database! Don't forget that we only update the database if at least one full hour has passed. Here is what I had in mind: $current_time = time(); // get the current server time in second$last_update_time = mysql_result(mysql_query("SELECT update_time FROM update_table"), 0); // This could be anywhere even in a separate text file!$time_difference = $current_time - $last_update_time;$hours_passed = $time_difference / 60 / 60; // convert sec to min then to hours --> 3600 second / 60 = 60 minutes / 60 = 1 hour$full_hours_passed = floor($hours_passed); // round the number of decimal hours down to the nearest whole hour$remaining_seconds = $time_difference % (60 * 60); // number of sec left when time difference is divided by 3600 sec --> 7 % 3 = 1 and 6 % 3 = 0if($full_hours_passed > 0){ $new_update_time = $current_time + $remaining_seconds; $hp_increase = $full_hours_passed * 5; mysql_query("UPDATE user SET hp = CASE WHEN hp + $hp_increase <= 100 THEN hp + $hp_increase ELSE 100 WHERE hp < 100"); mysql_query("UPDATE update_table SET update_time = $new_update_time");} The reason that we have to add the remaining seconds back to the current time is basically because we didn't use them and as a result, if we left them out then you would probably update more than 24 times each day! Now, we could modify this script to update by 1 every 20 minutes if needed. One last important note: I don't know how you intend to connect to and use your database. Adjust your PHP to match whatever technique you will use to read information from the database results. I hope this helps. vujsa

Well, this isn't going to be as useful as you were hoping for but I think it is important to say just the same. You've been spoiled by Joomla! Joomla is an amazing open source CMS project that owes it's popularity and success to the fact that it has so many extensions developed for it. As you said, the World is your sandbox (litterbox) with Joomla! Due to the ease in which extensions can be developed for Joomla, there are a lot of them and you can do nearly anything. However, as you mentioned, Joomla has some serious limitations. While it is great that you can display different menu items and modules based on the component requested, this doesn't work if the component "ItemID" is omitted or changed in the URL. The user access control is awful! Since Joomla uses a hierarchal access control structure, You cannot single out a specific user group and display special content just to that group. Also, you can't add groups to the system. This would be slightly less irritating if there weren't only 3 user groups despise the fact that Joomla allows you to put a user in anyone of 7 groups. There are hacks that you can add to Joomla to give you better access control but they are limited and very difficult to install/uninstall and upgrading to a new version of Joomla leaves your life a mess. You can actually create HTML pages and include them in the website using the wrapper menu item type. So those were the problems with Joomla. The new issue is component compatibility with the new version which greatly limits the number of usable extensions for Joomla 1.5! I wouldn't mind the lack of backwards compatibility and limited extensions for Joomla 1.5 if they had actually fixed the real issues in the system! Aside from adding a few really cool developer tools and cleaning up the code a bit, the new Joomla is just the same as the old one but less compatible. So we took the most well rounded free CMS with its annoying flaws and removed all of the extensions that made it useful! This leave us with nothing which is what you have just realized. The upside is that eventually, the Joomla extension developers will write new scripts and Joomla will have even more uses. Until then, you're kind of stuck which leads us to the next point! There are a lot of really good CMS's out there that overcome the limitations inherent in Joomla. User access control issues are less in most of the CMS's and managing content is of course good no mater what method you use but there is one major issue to consider, extensions. Most CMS's do not have the variety of extensions and ease of extension development which Joomla has so being able to use your new system to do anything outside article management will be much more difficult to accomplish. Don't get me wrong, using a different CMS will be very rewarding and you can extend it by requesting add-ons to be developed but it may cost you extra. Personally, when I get the time, I'm going to create my own CMS suited to my needs and add extensions as I need them but I know PHP and can do it. For now, I'll stick with Joomla until I either develop my own or switch to a different system. Like I said, now the super helpful reply you were looking for but important none the less. This should give you something to think about. vujsa

Well, last things first and first things last...The tutorial actually uses a loop to add the options to your select field.Even if you have your loop and a template as you wish, you still need to code the rest of the script to use your variables...This tutorial was meant to should how you could format any variable into any type of output but since PHP is primarily used to output HTML to a web browser, I thought that this example would be easiest for readers to relate to.Looking at the tutorial from a beginners point of view, here are the concepts you learn:Writing Custom FunctionsCalling FunctionsLoopsString OutputUsing count()As far as when do you need to write HTML with a PHP chunk is only when you want people to see the results! Generally speaking, if you see it on your browser and it has a .php extension, then PHP wrote the HTML. Oddly enough, even when I use a template file or files, I usually use several functions in it. Each template bit is it's own function. I then try to make the template file use as little PHP as possible and try to make the PHP file use as little HTML as possible so that when the end user tries to change the way the HTML looks, they don't get overwhelmed with PHP code. But at the end of the day, the PHP file just reads the desired template bit adds the variables and outputs the desired HTML where the function is called.But, I don't want to get too advanced for this beginner topic.vujsa

Well, I'm not about to try and figure out what your script is or isn't doing but we can look at the most common causes! First, you need to get you PHP info! If your host is using PHP 5, by default mysql is turned off and mysqli is required instead. echo phpinfo(); Next, you should try and echo your queries as well so that you can see what the server sees. change: mysql_query("insert into players (user, email, pass, question, answer, class) values('$new_user','$new_email','$db_pass5', '$sec_question', '$sec_pass','$charclass')") or die("Could not register.. trouble with adding you to the players table.");to: $query = "insert into players (user, email, pass, question, answer, class) values('$new_user','$new_email','$db_pass5', '$sec_question', '$sec_pass','$charclass')";echo $query; mysql_query($query;) or die("Could not register.. trouble with adding you to the players table.");That'll make a mess of your pages but will show you if the query is not being built correctly. It is a good idea to actually run those queries manually in phpMyAdmin to be sure that they work. The style in which your code is written makes it very difficult to debug! I also don't connect to my database the way you do and never use the persistant connection but if you haven't had trouble before, then I can't imagine that it is the trouble now. vujsa

Well, just looking at your method, I have no idea what p_connect is! Did you mean pg_connect or pg_pconnect? If so, those are for PostgreSQL Databases which are different than MySQL databases! Anyway, nobody will be able to help you with your problem without seeing some code. Additionally, this sounds more like a PHP issue than a SQL problem. vujsa

Issue resolved. ^_^User had difficulty changing the file permissions. Once the CHMOD was completed, everything was fine. On a side note, the installation readme specified the CHMOD!Topic Closed!vujsa

Yes, please do this as soon a possible! vujsa

GoDaddy is so easy to use though! I changed all of my domains in about 30 seconds since there is a mass edit option at GoDaddy. I'm pretty excited about this change! I have had numerous issues with the previous nameserver from a user point of view but not on the admin side. Meaning, I've never had any trouble pointing a domain to the server but frequently have trouble connecting to the server from my computer. Others could connect but there is all too frequently an error that prevents me from seeing it. I hope the new server alleviates this problem. Many thanks to OpaQue for his continued efforts to improve our host experience. vujsa

Maybe if in the time you waited, you read the rules instead of posting copied content for wikipedia, you would have hosting now! Why do people think that documented material on the internet needs to be copied all over the place? It would be a lot easier to find the information you really need on the internet if the search engines weren't filled will links to the same content on 50 different websites! vujsa

Well, I've avoided this topic long enough I think... My Other PC: CPU:.............................. Pentium 4 1.7GHz Motherboard:................ Intel D845WN Memory:....................... 1024MB (1GB) PC100 Video Card:................... ATI All-In-Wonder AGP 8X Hard Drive:................... 80GB Western Digital IDE Hard Drive:................... 40GB Western Digital IDE OS:................................ Windows XP Home / Fedora Core 6 Optical Drive:................ Sony CD-W/DVD±RW Network Interface:....... LinkSys 10/100 PCI Network Card My Current PC: CPU:.............................. Intel Pentium 4 641 Cedar Mill 3.2GHz LGA 775 Single-Core Processor Motherboard:................ Intel DG965WH (LGA775 Socket) Memory:....................... 2048MB (2GB) DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Video Card:................... Built In Hard Drive:................... 160GB Western Digital sATA OS:................................ Windows XP Home Optical Drive:................ Sony CD-W/DVD±RW Network Interface:....... Built In - Intel Pro 10/100/1000 Network Interface My motherboard allows for plenty of upgrading... I have room for another 4GB of memory but 2GB DDR2 memory modules are hard to find and expensive so I am going to upgrade to a total of 4 GB soon (1GB+1GB)+(1GB+1GB) = 4 GB I can put an Intel Core 2 Duo or Core 2 Quad processor in the board which would boost my system even more. Looking to add hard drives soon as well. At least 1 more 160 GB drive to create a mirrored RAID. I'm considering doing 3 more 160 GB drives and arranging them in a RAID 0+1 which would mirror and stripe the disks. (The computer would see 1 320GB hard drive which would have a real-time clone from the mirror). This provides a very large storage capacity, quicker read times and best of all data protection. Both of my systems share a ViewSonic VA721 17" flat panel monitor, Microsoft thumb controlled trackball, and Microsoft keyboard on a KVM switch. I would like to add a second video controller to my current system along with a second flat panel monitor. Having dual or triple screens would really increase my productivity when writing scripts. I'm pretty happy with my current system except for all of the extras I mentioned. vujsa

There is no way to change you domain... Your domain is sonic-deck.uni.cc. There is no www in a domain name. The www is used to indicate that you want the publicly accessible portion of a website. www is a subdomain on your website that is publicly accessible! In your case, there is no distinction between http://forums.xisto.com/no_longer_exists/ and sonic-deck.uni.cc have a look: http://forums.xisto.com/no_longer_exists/ http://forums.xisto.com/no_longer_exists/ I believe that you specified the www in your site address (url) in your portal software. In fact, all of your internal links except forum are www! So you'll need to take another look at your software settings. vujsa

Well, you have a free web hosting account here at Xisto, why not use that instead of your local system? And answer my other questions. vujsa

What is the name of the database you created? Did you actually create the user "bhupinder_gl"? Did you give the user "bhupinder_gl" permissions on the database you created? Why aren't you just doing this all on the Xisto server where I can give you step by step instructions for database setup? vujsa