Building site, need guidance

Baredor

I'm planning to throw together a little web site of my own, and wanted to see if anyone could direct me a good source on basic things like how to integrate a phpbb forum and the like.

I have pretty basic html knowledge, and worked on a site doing very simple maintenance several years ago, but never did the forum thing. I'd probably use Frontpage to build the site, as I have a full Office suite. Also, how are most pages actually loaded onto the hosting space now? I had a utility to do it back in the day, but don't even remember what it was now.

qsub

PHPBB is quite easy to implement. All you need really is a server that supports PHP. You upload all the files to your website. Then goto something like http://DomainName.com/phpbb/setup.php

You're then asked a username/password which is given in the documentation, and from there you select options/configurations and click next next next. Until it's finally setup. A lot of php stuff is written that way, writing your own phpbb program is not something easy really, because it's equivelent to writing your own program.

Just download the latest version of phpbb from the website and read the setup file. Really, you'll end up doing one page to two pages worth of reading and the rest of the setup is just clicking next, and check marking boxes.

My first experience with php is when I was setting up phpbb. After that, I setup GalleryPhP or something like that, and I went through it quite easily, I just skipped the setup/readme files.

Just try it out, you don't got much to lose. After you upload php files and get it running. You then are left with a default interface. And from an administrator account, you then upload themes/configure pictures, icons, administrative rights etc...

EDIT: FTP is usually used to load files to webspace. It's quick and easy. It's just click and drag once your connect to the server via FTP client. Also, if you open up php files in FrontPage, you'll encounter possibly broken image links, but the main look of the actual file. I've opened php files from phpbb up in DreamWeaver before, only thing I did there was edit pictures though.

I hope this helps.

Baredor

Thanks spfdz, I was just looking at Godaddy for the hosting of the site and they do a 3.95/mo plan that appeals to me. This will be mostly a plain text site (to start with at least), so 500megs of space is more than enough. But it asks me to choose my server OS - Windows w/ ASP support or Linux with PHP support. Can you enlighten me on which I should use?

qsub

Window's doesn't support PHP? Hmm, I heard windows supports MYSQL or something like that.

Umm.. Personally I'd go with linux if you want the most uptime. Windows Servers are like regular windows computer, after you apply an update, it most likely has to be restarted.

If you haven't bought an account yet, try this place.

www.dreamhost.com

2500MB of webspace,
120GB of transfer monthly.
Free Domain Registration
Promotional Code: 777

Cost: 10 American Dollars / For the Year
I know it does support php since I have an account their.

TeKniques

If your looking for a text editor to open PHP or any other scripting/programming languages may I recommend the following:

VI editor (Harder to learn)
Textpad (Very cool)
Emacs (good as well)

On a daily basis I use Textpad to edit all the web design stuff I do, however, the VI editor has some nice tricks to it that can save you a lot of time.

If you want to learn PHP, start at http://www.php.net it wil be your friend. Then get some books to assist you. I found the O'Reilly series fairly easy to follow and learn.

Good luck.

Baredor

I went ahead and bought my domain and space from godaddy last week. I'm currently trying to get something up and running- the phpbb forums being a bit of a problem. I uploaded the forum software to my space, but for some odd reason it doesn't seem to be recognizing .php files. I don't know why since I selected the Windows with ASP/PHP support when I bought the space. guess I could have missed something, but I thought I had php on the account. I know I have the option on my account management page to enable frontpage extension, I've been looking to see if I had to enable PHP somewhere.

And assuming I get that going, I'm pretty confused on what I need to be doing to get a database to run with the board for install. My account has both MySQL and MS SQL dbs available, and I created one of each. This is stupid, but will phpbb automatically take the file and populate it or do I have to edit the db file myself?

And when setting up the installer for the forum, if someone could show me the light here, I'd be appreciative.

These are the required fields for the installer:

Database Server Hostname / DSN:
Your Database Name:
Database Username:
Database Password:
Prefix for tables in database:

My db info as is, looks like this: (One is the MySQL, the other is the MS SQL)

DSN: mysql_name.dsn
Host name: mysql05.servername.net
Database name: X
User name: me


DSN: mssql_DB_number.dsn
Host name: filename.servername.net
Database name: Y
User name: me


Given this, should my setup look like this? I'm also not sure whether this is a localhost or not. I've tried it unsuccessfully with that. Sorry, I know I'm a noob.

Database Server Hostname / DSN: mysql05.servername.net/mysql_name.dsn <--- this has got to be wrong
Your Database Name: X
Database Username: me
Database Password: xxxxxxxxxxxx
Prefix for tables in database: phpbb_


Thanks in advance.