vujsa

Okay, I'm a little confussed as to what you want to do.My concerns have several aspects:First, why not access the database directly instead of trying to access a page that accesses the database. The process ia very inefficeint the way you are attempting it.Your script should access the database directly and the query results will be returned as an array that you can use as you wish. Second, as suggested, the inclusion of a file with a query string url is complicated! I've never seen a need to use that method which wasn't better accomplished some other way. Basically, the include function includes the PHP code from that file, not the output of that file. I suppose you could buffer the output first but again, there are better methods available. If you are trying to extract data from an outputed webpage, then file_get_contents is probably the better method. Additionally, you can assign the contents of the outputed data to a variable!Third, the foreach function is a little complicated if you aren't familiar with it. Basically, you are modifying the original array based on the statements in the loop. Until you get used to the concept of the foreach loop, I suggest a regular for or while loop to do the same task. It is a little less efficeint but easier to master.I would like to caution other members against refering to someone's coding method or question as being "stupid". We all had to learn at some point and belittling a new coder isn't helpful to anyone. If you could better explain what you are trying to accomplish, it would be easier to direct you in the right direction.Look forward to providing you with a little assitance.vujsa

I would like to thank everyone that has gotten involved with this challenge. The deadline for submissions has now come and gone. Please feel free to vote on your favorite submission here. vujsa

A little over a month ago, I issued a challenge to the members of Xisto to design a logo for my website, Handy PHP. The winner or winners could receive as much a 30 hosting credits from my credit bank if their design is selected to be used. Well, it didn't get too much attention until I moved it to another forum. If you would like more information on the challenge, please read the original topic: 30 Credit Logo Design Challenge!, Design A New Logo For Handy PHP And Win 30 Hosting Credits Please review each of the entries and cast your vote. Some of the resolution could have been compromised as I had to combine the images into one per entry since there is a limit on the number of attachments in a single post. The images are also probably scaled down to fit so you'll have to click on them or view the original topic to see them in full size. Please feel free to leave your comments as to why you voted how you did but please be sensitive to the feelings of the designers that submitted their work. It only makes it more difficult to get people to offer their ideas if they are afraid to be ridiculed! Anyway, here are the entries. I think it will be a close race. Voting ends May 15th! Saint Michael 001: Team Destiny 07 001: livingston 001: livingston 002: niru 001:

Well, it has been a while since I've dealt with such problems and without a look at your connections and of course the MB schematic, it is hard to get an idea. If your MB LED is coming on and the fans spin up, then you could have the following issue or issues.Your system immeadiately is failing the POST - Misconnected component or non-configured essential component. - Power switch connector incorrectly attached. - Reset switch connector incorrectly attached.Here is where I would start. Locate your MB manual! find the section that covers your BIOS setting jumper configuration. Configure your jumpers for setup mode for your BIOS. Some motherboards require this to tell the BIOS how to start the BOOT process. It allows you to configure memory, drive, and other boot options. It will jump to the BIOS setup screen as soon as POST is complete without the need to F2, F1, or Esc...If the system still won't POST, then double check the front panel connections. Some cases have unidirectional power and reset switches. Be sure that they are connected to the correct pins and the positive and negative leads are in the right position. Check all of the front panel wires. There are probably several white wires paired with various other colored wired. For example, Red/White, Green/White, Blue/White, Orange/White... In this case, the non-white wire is positive usually. The motherboard may have a single pin marked for positive or negative! This is relative! If from your point of view, the right pin is marked as positive, then the positve lead should be on the right side for every connection. Your motherboard manual will have much more information.Be sure that you have a keyboard and monitor connected before power-up. Failure to do so will cause the system to fail POST.These are essential components and must be properly attached. For monitor problems, you need to be sure that the BIOS has properly identified the graphics card which will require the BIOS setup jumper configuration I already explained.Generally difficult to do but if you install the processor, memory, or graphics card incorrectly, you won't POST. On some newer MB's, if you install the CPU fan incorrectly, you won't post. Be sure that the fan tachometer is connected correctly if a seperate lead is used. If the BIOS detects that the CPU fan isn't working correctly, then you couls fail to POST.As suggested before, I would disconnect everything except for the following:KeyboardMonitor1 Hard Drive1 Floppy Drive (if available)If you still can't POST, disconnect ALL drives as well.Finally, let us know what you have found...Any beeps?vujsa

Well, I'll take that as a request to extend the deadline. All of these submissions are very good and I'm excited to see how the members react to them. I think it will be a close poll! Anyhow, in and effort to provide everyone as much oppotuninty to enter the challenge as possible, I'm extending the deadline for submissions to April 30th, 2007. I'm really looking forward to getting one of these designs on my website soon! Keep up the great work and feel free to enter as many submissions as you wish! Remember, the more designs you enter, the better thachances you'll win. vujsa

Yes, m^e's articles are quite informative on his website. It has helped me generate more revenue on my website and he also offers a great deal of other very useful information I have studied. I think the thing that I most need to implement from his website is to add content. I mean he has added a lot of content. As a result, he is probably getting a lot more search engine hits and retaining many more visitors for a longer periods of time than I do! This difference directly relates to the amount of ads displayed and click which in turn directly relates to the amount of revenue he is generating. As for the ad from "AuctionAds", you should contact m^e about that. My guess is that it was served by Google AdSense since his article discusses how advertisers "bid" on ad placement. Google sometimes gets a little confused about what the reader is actually interested in. Just be sure that you track each of your ad placements on your website using channels. When you first start, you will need to adjust what kind of ads work in what positions on your website. For example, sometimes an Ad Unit will not work as well as a Link Unit near a menu or vice versa. Overly large ads might get ignored by the reader because they are obviously ads whereas a smaller ad could be seen as an information link and clicked on! Some pages on your website may benefit from a different approach to the use of ads. For example, I recently increased the amount of space I use for ads in my downloads section. Since most visitors in this section are just there for the free downloads, I have to rely on total ad impressions to generate revenue from this section of the website. I have also noticed an increase in the number of clicks I get a along with the number of impressions I receive. Because I set up a channel just for this section, I can see that the increase is directly related to the changes. Other than that, read through the AdSense article here and do a little trial and error! It won't take long until you figure out how to make some money with your website. vujsa

Please send an eamil to support for this:support[at]xisto.comInclude the following:Xisto UsernamecPanle UsernameYour Local IP Address - Will help locate any entries in the error logs.Affected Website(s) URL - Specify where the problem can be seen.Description of The Problem.Any Error Messages That You Might Receive.Any support for this issue can be dealt with through support!Closing Topic.vujsa

SM, those are very nice. Thank you for your submission. I'm getting pretty excited about this contest! I hope you'll have some more good enrtries to compete against! vujsa

Well, your router have few if any moving parts and the processor is very low bower and low heat producing so I say turn it on and leave it alone!My router has been on for the better part of 5 years now. It only gets turned off during power outages and on occasion when my network needs to be reset due to ISP issue. Basically, when I lose my broadband connection, I have to reset my modem and router in order to get them to work again. Anyhow, routers and other networking equipement are designed to be left on for very long periods of time if not indefinitely! Otherwise, the internet wouldn't work!If your router gets hot or is not working correctly after being on for a long time, you probably need to replace it.By the way, my router has a reset button but no power switch. I have to unplug it to turn it "OFF". I take this to mean that the designers didn't expect the unit to be turned off.Besides, if you turn your router off, how does your neighbor leech your broadband connection while you sleep?vujsa

Yes, I agree with allowing your users to opt-out of the newsletter. Of course, I think with the amount of spam and junk mail most people get these days, they won't worry too much about a newsletter. But to be safe, allow them to remove themselves so they won't get irritated and never visit again. As for the business cards, now that it is pretty easy to print how ever many you want on your own computer and printer, you don't have to go out and buy a bunch unless you need to. Most laundry mats have a bulletin board that you can pin your business card or flyer on. I suggest hitting as many local laundry mats as you can about once a month and check your business cards and add more if needed. You will be amazed at all of the places that have such bulletin boards once you start looking around. You'll also be amazed athe the amount of people that will see and even better use your business cards. Many local computer shops have such boards and many computer gurus tend to visit them so if your website is related to computers, this would be a good environment to target. Besides, business cards are pretty cheap, you might as well give it a try. I have found that with my forced link scripts, I am now getting about 200 new links to my site each day! That means by the end of the week, I'll have another 1400 links to my website. Imagine if each of those links is clicked once a day on average, I'd have 1400 more visitors each day! But more than likely, based on my average, I'd get about 10% of that which is an increase of 140 visitors per day per week!The number could increase much more quickly if my visiotrs also voluntarily link to my website. This has really started to translate in to more traffic and as a result more ad revenue. Xisto, the corporation that owns Xisto, also offers very reasonalble banner advertising on it's websites that you may want to look into. http://forums.xisto.com/no_longer_exists/ WeaponX, hey thanks for the compliment. I've been working on it and still need a bunch of content but it is doing well. I've been thinking about recruiting authors but still need to set a few things up before then. There are many ways to promote your website that are either free or cheap but you have to try different methods to see which works best for your website. Also, something that works now may not work later if your members or content is changed. LArger site benefit from different promotional techniques than smaller website. Keep at it and let us know what has worked for you. vujsa

This is kind of a difficult question to even try to answer but I'll be honest with you! Right now, my average CPM is $0.36. That means for every 1000 ad impressions, I earn 36 cents. That is for a website about PHP and Content Management Systems. So most of the ads on my website are related to those subjects. If I were to change my subject material or even have a single article about something different, my ads would change and I could get higher or lower paying advertisers. You really need to read this article by microscopic^earthling: http://forums.xisto.com/no_longer_exists/ So, there really are a lot of variables to consider. Additionally, due to the size of his website, the diverse content, and a lot of hard ad optimization on his part, m^e's website has a much higher CPM than I do. So until I add more content , I have to rely on increasing traffic to earn more money. With more or different content, I should be able to get a larger advertiser base and as a result, my CPM should increase if the new advertisers are better than the ones I'm getting now! Right now, I get anywhere from $0.02 to $4.06 per click! Obviously, I need to try more for the $4.06. To get more targeted, I'll need to track what content is getting that type of ad and add more content about that subject. But, keep in mind I started my AdSense account in December 2006 and have an average CPM of $0.15 but so far this month my average CPM is $0.49. So the more optimization and content, the better. It also helps that I have about 3 times as much traffic now as I did in December. I hope this helps. vujsa

I've been working on my website, Handy PHP, pretty hard for the last few months and it has really paid off. According to Yahoo, there are about 1,500 links to my website. This number has been steadily increasing over the past few months and wasn't really that hard to accomplish. The best part is that I have done all of this without spamming! I thought that I'd offer some ideas for promoting your website without the need to spam. To begin with, every time I talk about my website, I include the name and link. This is true in forums, comments, reviews, etc... This only works if the post, comment, or review isn't about your website! You need to have something relevent to say and then figure out a way to refer to your website in the text. If your primary reason to offer a block of text to another website is to promote your website, don't! This is spamming and will be seen and probably removed as such. It is also important to follow the posting rules of any website that you migh t be able to promote youe website on. Some have a strong "no link" policy and you should never violate such a rules. Another way to generate a number of links back to your website is to use the signature feature on most forums. Most forums allow links, non-referal, in your signature where you can let everyone know about your website. An image link works best! Many people want to use a flashy, personalized signature image then not link it. Kind of a waste in my opinion. That area could be utilized to inform the public about your website. Dynamiclly generated signature images that include some type of website statistics can really help boost your traffic. Probably the quickest way to make a website popular is to make people think it is popular! If you have a forum and you tell everyone that you have 1,500 members, people will want to find out why you have so many members... The very best part about forum signatures is that the more active you are, the more frequently you signature is shown. Submit your link to as many search engines as possible! Most people think this is a waste of time and that the spiders will find you by themselves. They probably will find you in a few weeks or even months but if you tell them where to start looking, you'll see better results. You need to add a robot.txt file to your root directory. This tells the robots (spiders) how to crawl your website. You can also use a meta command for the robots but it isn't as effective. Welcoming the robots will insure that your site is index properly. Additionally, create a sitemap for Google. Google has all the instructions you need to crate a sitemap. This will help make sure that yall of your pages are indexed even if you forgot to link some on all of your pages. Content is probably the most important way to promote your website! If you don't have any decent content on your website then you can't get visitors. I don't care how well you distribute your link! You need to offer something that people want to read, download, or use. For example, I offer free PHP assistance, functions, and downloads. I got something people want to see, I just have to let them know where they can see it! Also, offering free stuff to your visitors provides even more chances to promote your website. Self propagating web promotion is your ultimate goal and can only be achieved with good content. Forced links are a great way to get your link out there. This requires your visitors to use something you offer. For example, I have written a number of scripts that I offer for free that perform a number of tasks on Joomla! based websites. These scripts have a short line of code that displays a link to my website on the user's website. The user is free to remove the link if they edit the code and I have no problem with that. In fact, if they asked, I'd give detailed instructions for removing the link. But most people are lazy and would rather not go to the trouble to try to remove the link. So everytime someone uses one of my sripts, their visitors have the opportunity to view my link. The more they promote their website, the more chances there are that someone will click on my link! Of course targeted direct advertising is and has always been effective. Buy some ad space on a website that you think could send you some traffic. A lot of smaller websites are willing to sell adspace cheaply if they are guaranteed income from it. Buy 1000 impressions and see if they are worth the money. If they are, then buy more impressions. Since most website owners are getting some kind of commission based advertising income that they can't predict, they are willing to accept a lower than average per impression payment if they get it in advanced or atleast know exactly how much they'll get from the ads. Look around, you would be amazed at the deals you can make with other webmasters! Finally, if you have a membership system for your website, you need to send out a monthly newletter! If you only send an email once a month, people don't get too upset and a few will even read it! The real purpose of the email is to remind people that your website is still around. Hopefully they will stop by and check for updates. Keeping your members informed about the website will make them feel more involved and as a result some will actually get more involved. A newsletter should recap the activities of the website since the previous newsletter. Be sure to include enough information to spark your readers interest but not so much that they feel like they don't need to visit the website for more information. By balancing the methods used to promote your website and tracking the results of your efforts, you should start noticing an increase in your websites traffic. The process never ends but if you get started in the right direction, it is much easier to maintain your promotional efforts. The only other suggestion I have for you is that you should print some business cards and hand them to friends and family. They will probably stop and look but might remember your website when omeone asks for a website related to yours. Kind of a simple system but it works. If you need more information, please refer to these links: Robots.txt Google Webmaster Tools Hope this helps. vujsa

Well, I originally stated that I wanted all submissions by April 25th but I'm thinking of extending that to the 30th.Then voting would open on May 1st. and end on the 15th.But for now, I am going to stick with the original April 25th deadline.I'm glad to see that there are a few people with ideas for this project. My website is doing really well with just text links and I'm hoping that some graphical advertising will give me a big boost. According to Yahoo, I have about 1,500 links to my website. Google is a little more conservative at 1,100 links and those numbers go up everyday. I never thought that I would get so many unsolicited links to my website. I guess I have something that people want to see. :ph34r:I'm really looking forward to seeing everyone's ideas.vujsa

Those sizes sound about right! I'm glad to see someone interested in the challenge. I'm afraid I don't have any artwork or pictures for you to use. My mind has been a complete blank on this which is why I have nothing at all. I guess, if I at least had an idea, I could have designed something temporary. I have a more analytical than creative mental process so I can design nearly anything I want if I have an idea but I have a really hard time coming up with creative ideas! I was hoping that at the very least, I could get some decent design ideas to build on but I didn't get a very good responce to this topic. I may extend the submission deadline until April 30th to allow more people to get involved. Thank you for your interest. vujsa

This may just be a problem with your MySQL tables.In phpMyAdmin, check to see if any of your tables have 0 (zero) records but >0 (greater than zero) table size, then you need to repair those tables. This should resolve any "missing" data. While you are in your database, it might be a good time to optimize each table for best performance for everyone's website! If every MySQL Database Table is optimized, then the MySQL server will run more efficiently and everyones website will load a little faster. Thank you OpaQue for the hard word and quick resolution of these issues. vujsa

Well, this is rather common. cPanel is really expensive and is difficult to force ads with. These usually are off the shelf account interface systems but usually are limited in the features they offer. I had only had either web upload or FTP upload prior to Xisto and never really minded. I also never had MySQL and so many other standard options before so I was a little overwhelmed when I got hoting here. The 50 FTP connections is actually pretty common. We have a limit here as well and I think it is 50! cPanel File Manager doesn't count toward that limit I believe but if the server is busy doing FTP transactions, it will be slower to serve webpages. FTP usually takes up a lot of bandwidth. Most hosts oversell their servers. They take the chance that most accounts won't max out their allocation. Usually, you can oversell by 10% - 20% without issue since most people don't use all of their bandwidth and storage. Of course, the closer you get to full capacity, the more trouble most computers have. Temporary and system files may not be properly allowed for causing the server to sieze. Glad to hear it. If it works for you, keep at it. No, open discussion is alway welcome here. We don't ban discussions here because they are about our competition. Even if it is a positive discussion for the competition. We are pretty confident with our system and service and also understand that it may not be for everyone. If someone else has a quality hosting service and our members want to discuss it here, more power to them. There is plenty of need for free hosting on the internet and we only can supply a small amount so there has to be other free hosts. I think it is healthy to talk about stuff like this here. It gives us the opportunity to see how we compare to the other free hosting services here. Let's us know if there is a common feature that we should try and add. I believe that everyone should have a voice on the internet and a lot of times that starts with free web hosting. Besides, the more free hosted websites available, the more chance that someone will need to come to my website for help! vujsa

Okay, from my understanding, all of the data is safe! Your databases are okay and if you have 404 errors, your files are intact! An Expalination: Database Connection Errors. Most of the database errors are coming from overuse! This is a situation I have discussed in the past and is what is happening now. Basically, since everyone is trying to test their website and databases at once, the server starts to deny requests. The server has a limit and we keep reaching it!. Under normal opperation, the server doesn't get so many simultaneous connection requests but when we have problems, it does and then the error returned causes even more people to reload and inturn perform more database requests which make sthe problem worse. Also, the fewer changes made in the databases now the better. Think of the server errors like puzzle pieces, it is hard to put the puzzle together if the picture keeps changing while you work on it! phpMyAdmin is not working yet. It either hasn't been installed or hasn't been turned on. Probably hasn't been turned on to prevent everyone from trying to make a bunch of changes to their databases because they think there is a problem. With the request limit problem described above, this will provide a little relief for the server. Whatever the case, one phpMyAdmin is properly configured and the MySQL server is stable, it will be turned back on. Fantastico is another example of a system that has probably been disabled to make it easier to fix any other problems with the server. Fantastico is a secondary system and as a result is a secondary priority when working to fix the server. This will probably be the last issue resolved. Email errors, I'm no longer having any! If you have email errors, you need to reply here! Site suspension, I have no idea what that is about. Probably a simple fix for it and should be resolved soon. 404 errors, my 404 error has been resolved but I don't know if this is on a case by case situtation. It seems that the new cPanel was having a hard time associating the correct folders for each hosting account. If your website has 404 errors, you need to post them here. If you don't know if you have 404 errors, then you don't. It will be painfully obvious if you have this error since none of your file structure will exist! Don't worry, the data is safe, just a little misplaced. The server techs are working to resolve all of the issues but it could take some time to get all of the feature working as before. Most of the big stuff is done and your website should operate normally. You may have trouble making changes to you website if it requires some of the more advanced cPanel features. I hope that this answers any questions that you may have. vujsa

AstaHost does not allow links to be posted in the shoutbox. This is part of the forum and shoutbox rules. Staff will delete any shout that they find a link it. So, why is this you ask! If we let everyone post links in the shoutbox, then the shoutbox will always be filled with shouts like the following: We have a list of recent topics and recent posts at the bottom of every page. People know that your post is there, they just either don't have anything to add to it or do want to read it! The other reason for this is that we want discussions in the forums. If you have a new link, please make a new topic about it. The shoutbox is limited inthe amount of time a shout will be seen but a topic will last forever! Just don't post spam, referl links, or other unsolicited links in the forums! Basically, no free advertising! Now, from time to time, you'll see a staff member post a link to assist a memebr. This is perfectly acceptable. Most of the time, these are internal links to help topics, rules, or sometimes topics that will otherwise answer the members question. This is because it is our job to assist the members and keep the forum orderly. pointing a member to an existing topic instead of letting them start a new one about the same thing keeps the forum tidy! On occasion, you even see a link to another website. Again, this is usually to answer a question for a member. It is easier and quicker than sending PM's back and forth. The real difference is the manner in which the link is posted! Was the link solicited or unsolicited (Was the link asked for or not)? If someone says, "Hey, anyone know the link for Google AdSense?" and someone posted it without referal data, it would be acceptable usually. So, it is easier to just say no links in the shoutbox and then allow the staff to determine the proper exceptions. If you are unsure, please don't post links inthe shoutbox. If you have any questions, post them here. vujsa

I keep seeing messages in the shoutbox that there are issues with the server and cPanel. If this is true, then why hasn't anyone made a post about it? To begin with, I have no control over the server so complaining to me or in the shoutbox doesn't help. None of the staff has control over the server so they can try and contact those that do but in the end, we really need a post about the problems. The shoutbox simply has too short of a life span for reporting problems. So please reply to this topic and this topic only if you have any problems NOT already posted in this topic. I can't figure out for sure what is working and what is not since my account seems to be having a different problem at this time! vujsa

A suggestion: Joomla! is a Content Management System that works very well. It has many third part addons available and there are at least three classified ad components available for it. You can set the website up so that only the classified ad system is used but there are a lot of great features in all CMS programs. Other than that, you'll have to check out a code index like PHP Resource Index. vujsa

Wow, I'll need another 100 credits to get the free domain name. ;)And what domain to get this time. I've got forum500.com, vwone.com, and handyphp.com so I'll have to really think about it. Maybe something non-related. Well, this is a great deal for anyone that wishes to use it. Thanks OpaQue. vujsa

WOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I mean really, what is your problem here? You can't spell, use grammar, type, express a coherent thought, or make a post without irritating everyone that reads it! fined means to have a fine applied to you. fened has no meaning in the English dictionary. Maybe your should try find! Please doen't have a "z" in it! We don't do cutesy double spaced and centerd posts done in pink! Now, there are a great number of people here that can help you and you can make a new post about this but do so in a professional manner! vujsa

I was recently asked about suggestions for tutorial layouts. I'll attempt to give some insite and guidence in this area but not sure that I am the right person for the job. Many people find my tutorials easy to understand and as a result I get questions like this one from time to time. [/hr] When writting a tutorial, it is important to know what it is that you want to talk about. That is, choose a subject and stick to it. Don't stray off the path or leave important information out. Having a detailed knowledge of the subject is important but not always required. As long as you have a working knowledge of the subject and know how to get detailed information about it, you should be okay. The most important thing to remember is to not leave anything out just because you think that your reader should already know it. You don't have to explain the simple stuff usually but you need to point them to a resource where they can get that information if they need it. Knowing who you are talking to is also important. If you are talking to a bunch of programers, you freely discuss new ideas without a full overview of the code behind it. I like to make a few notes before I begin writing to help keep me on topic and to be sure that I don't leave something out. Then I begin writing. I usually write freestyle and just let the words flow out! This isn't an approach everyone can take but it works for me. Whenever you have a chance to provide an example, you should! Including examples in your tutorials is absolutely essential to the success of your article. Any examples used must work and must have some type of focus placed on it. If you are talking about programing, you need to include a working example script and that section of code should be different from the rest of the text on your page. For this forum, we use the CODE tag that offeres the same result. The readers eye will automatically recognize that this section is different. Do not include an example without explaining it fully. It may be that the example is actually explaining the text around it but in either case, there must be an example to text connection. The reason for this is that many people only read what they think is important to them. So they see the example, think it is what they need then they read the text above and below it to understand what they are seeing. It is also a important for scripting that you provide the result with the code. Your reader shouldn't have to run the script to see what it will do. Show them the code then show them the output. Many programers won't even have to read the text if the input and the output are displayed together! It is not good enough to place a bunch of screenshots on your page and call it a signature creation tutorial if you didn't bother to explain each of the images in detail. This is because a picture is worth a thousand words but your reader might only read the wrong 800 words of the picture. Even if they understand exactly what you are trying to show them, their sofware might be a different version or a completely different title altogether! If a signature creation tutorial is written well enough for photoshop, a person using GIMP should also be able to accomplish the same thing. Flash based tutorials are great to look at but many time lack the ability to keep a users attention. For most Flash based tutorials, the user cannot fast forward to the part they are interested it and they can't control the speed at which the information is provided so they can't do while they learn. They have to watch th whole thing and remember all of the information then try it themselves just to have to watch the video 10 more times. If you do Flash based tutorials, that is great but you have to have a written version as well. [/hr] When it comes to layout for a tutorial on a forum, you are pretty limited in your choices. You can't caption your images and code well enough and everything is in a vertical format. On your own website, you have the option to place a note or caption above, below, or beside any examples you might have. You can also place those examples above, below, or next to the text that it is relevant to. This allows you to present examples without interupting the flow of text. This is the way that books are written. Again, be sure that your example is as close to section of related text as possible. This way your readercan quickly find the information they need. Be sure to break your tutorial into sections. If your screen is filled with endless text from top to bottom, nobody will read any of it. We want our information given to use more directly. Find the example on the page that is what I need and read the text that explains it! Using a horizontal rule will give the reader a reference point while scanning the text. Their answer is either above or below that line! [/hr] Now for the look of your tutorials, it should stand out from your regular website pages. To avoid the black and white ugliness that a lot of text will create, I suggest that you use a tinted background color and a charcoal text color. A very dark but not black font will dull the contrast from normal black and white. Also, using a very light but not white background will make the page less intense and make the text easier to read. Using a rather plain background image is fine as long as the text is easy to read on every color of the background. Also, a busy background will make focusing on the text difficult and as a result hard to read. I highly believe in linking as much as possible. If you come to a word that is best defined on a different website, link to the page it is defined on. Words that you can define yourself should use <span title="My definition">word</span>, <span title="My definition" style="text-decoration: underline;">word</span>, or some type of info bubble script that will pop up when the cursor hovers over the text! Basically, your tutorial is meant to help others with something that you have knowledge in. It doesn't matter if the person ends up somewhere else as long as you have helped them. So, if there is information that can help your reader, link to it! Well, I think that this should get you started on writing tutorials on your website. Providing this type of information to your users will undoubtedly attract more visitors to your website and when you show someone the answer even if it isn't on your website, they will remember and return. Truly original and useful content will also catch the eye of the search engines which will again increase your traffic and page rank both resulting in an increase in ad generated income. It is also a good idea to seek the assistance of other when adding tutorials to your website. Hope This Helps. vujsa

Well, it is true that you can't simply use any variable in your script inside of your function without a little preperation. Here is why. Think of it as having 2 different variable scopes. Global and local scopes. That is a loacl variable won't work in the global environment and a global variable won't work in the local environment. Your script is the global scope and your function is the local scope. Additionally, a local variable will only work in it's local scope, it won't work in a different local scope. Basically, a variable in function "A" won't work in function "B" or anywhere else in the script outside of that function. In order to use a variable from the global scope in a function, you have to specify that the variable used is global. <?php$a = 5;$z = 13;function difference(){ global $a, $z; $z = $z - $a;}difference();echo $z;?>This would output 8 since the function had access to both $a and $z. Since the function had access to these variables, it was able to manipulate those variables. If a variable isn't asigned prior to declaring it as a global variable in a function, the variable will still work once the function is called! <?phpfunction show_global(){ global $a, $b; $a = 20; $b = 30;}echo "Before Function:<br>\n";echo "A = $a <br>\n";echo "B = $b <br>\n<br>\n";show_global();echo "After Function:<br>\n";echo "A = $a <br>\n";echo "B = $b <br>\n<br>\n";?>Will show the following: Before Function: A = B = After Function: A = 20 B = 30 This is because the as far as the script was concerned, the variables were not assigned prior to the function being called. So not only does "global" allow a function to use a global scope variable, it also allow the script to use a function assigned in a function. [/hr] In addition to being able to use your variables at will in your functions, you can also use functions in functions. In the first post, you saw me use predefined functions like sort(), split(), and implode() in the function I created called list_sort()! You can use functions that you create in your other functions as well. In fact, you can create several small functions like pieces of a puzzle and then use one larger function to put all of the pieces together for you! Another thing to keep in mind is that it doesn't matter what order you create the functions in. As long as every function called is defined somewhere in your script, it will work. And a function can be called before it is defined! <?phpecho "Before Function:<br>\n";echo "A = $a <br>\n";echo "B = $b <br>\n<br>\n";show_global();echo "After Function:<br>\n";echo "A = $a <br>\n";echo "B = $b <br>\n<br>\n";function show_global(){ global $a, $b; $a = 20; $b = 30;}?>The above script will display the exact same output as the one before even though the function is defined after the call!Many people get used to the idea that the parser executes line 1, line 2, line 3 etc... and it does. As a result, you have to assign a variable on a line before the line that tries to use it. A function does not have to be defined on a line preceeding the line that uses it. Again, think of the functions like pieces of a puzzle. the pieces are disorganized and out of place and it is the rest of the code that puts those pieces in order. If the functions are the pieces, then the script is the person working the puzzle. You start with the border then match the pieces together for the corect fit. That is what the script does. The script arranges the functions so that they build the complete picture. Using functions in this way is the first step to Object Oriented Programming. While this discussion could very easily go on to Objects and Classes, it should remain concentrated on the creation of user defined functions. I will attempt to discuss error checking and handling in your new functions when I am able to add to this topic. Until then, write some functions. Don't understand something, look it up or just give it a try and see if the output can show you what the function is doing. If the function works, was it what you expected? Try writing a function that will calculate sales tax for you: . $2.00 $13.00 + $5.00 ---------- $20.00 (5%) $1.00 ---------- $21.00Having a goal in mind usually helps me work through a script.Also, working on small sections of scripts or functions helps me break a large project into several small projects. For example, how do we get the dollar amounts used for addition? Pehapes a function just to gather all of the values and aadd then together would be a good place to start! Please don't post the solution here as it would only spoil the exercise for future readers. vujsa

Well, I can try to explain my understanding of how Joomla and Mambo accomplish this.Joomla has 3 specific types of addons.Components, Modules, and Mambots.A component is it's very own system that relies on the Joomla structure to intereact with the user.Basically, any PHP script can be converted to a Joomla component by following the rules that Joomla requires.A component can be nearly completely stand alone and only interact with Joomla when otuput is displayed. Then, the configuration file of the component tells Joomla what to look for. When the corect URL is requested, the script is executed./index.php?option=com_frontpage&Itemid=1 tells joomla to execute the frontpage component in the main content area of the template! For the most part, Joomla doesn't care what that script does or what it displays!A module on the other hand is a much smaller script usually and can interact with components and mambots if needed. These are loaded in the order which they are arranged by the admin based on the menu item and user level at the time of the request. Again, Joomla really doesn't care what the module does or what it displays.With both Components and Modules, you can nearly completely avoid the use of any Joomla functions or classes but rely on your own method of programming. It is easier in the end to just learn to use the Joomla code to write your scripts since they already have the security and error checking needed for best results. For example, it is much easier to use the Joomla database class to perform your database queries through since it does most of the work for you. Basically, when Joomla comes to a place in the template asking for content like a module, it includes the installed modules for that position in the specifed order. In the end, Joomla just uses require () or include() to insert the content.Mambots on the otherhand require much more specific Joomla code to work since you have to return certain values to Joomla for the mambot to work in most cases. For example, a Joomla searchbot requires the returned search results to be presented to Joomla in a very specific way and not following the guidelines for this will result in errors. This is so that Joomla knows how to use the returned data. BAsically, a Joomla Searchbot simple performs a search of the database for a particular component. Content Mambots are usually more complicated since they interact with the content prior to being passed to the browser. This is usually the last step in the preocess of displaying a web page. These can do things like replace special tags in the content with the correct value. The same concept as is used for Bulletin Board code!I don't suggest that you clone the Joomla method but this method offers several benefits.Instead of using "hooks", which allow for additional code to be added, this method actively seeks the additional code. This makes installations as easy as uploading the required files and updating the database . In scripts like IPB, you have to modify several files for every addon! Then if you have several addons already installed, it can cause confilcts or make it hard to find the "hooks" since the code has changed so much. The other benefit is that usually, Joomla addons are still valide after you upgrade Joomla since they are mostly stand alone! I think this simplicity and seperation of code is what has made Mambo and Joomla so popular. The downside is that it can be a little tricky managing everything since a component may have several modules and mambots that need to be configured independently.I hope that this gives you a few ideas to work with. ;)vujsa