message board

Not for 'how-to' coding questions but PHP theory instead, this forum is here for those of us who wish to learn about design aspects of programming with PHP.

Moderator: General Moderators

Post Reply
User avatar
speedy33417
Forum Contributor
Posts: 128
Joined: Sun Jul 23, 2006 1:14 pm

message board

Post by speedy33417 »

I'd like to create a very basic message board, granting basic ability to the user writing the message to change character setup, such as: bold, italic, font color, line breaks, maybe emoticons.

I'm no expert programmer, but I get around using html and php. However, my guess is that I'm going to have to use another language, such as javascript to get to my goal.

I'd hate to advise them to use html tags, so probably [] tags would work fine for me.
Any thoughts or previous attempts anyone?
User avatar
Kieran Huggins
DevNet Master
Posts: 3635
Joined: Wed Dec 06, 2006 4:14 pm
Location: Toronto, Canada
Contact:

Post by Kieran Huggins »

simple markup schemes already exists that make it easy for users to make *bold* and _italic_ text. Emoticons are a no-brainer to replace.

Font color is perhaps the only exotic element you're mentioning - but if it's important maybe you should consider using a heavier syntax. There was another thread on this earlier today.
User avatar
speedy33417
Forum Contributor
Posts: 128
Joined: Sun Jul 23, 2006 1:14 pm

Post by speedy33417 »

Thanks Kieran,

I read the other forum that helped a bit. I do have a few questions however.

1) Do line breaks appear in any way in normal html input textarea/php echo set up?

2) What language/tutorial should I look at for placing tags (from a list like on this site) in my input textarea without refreshing the page?
User avatar
Kieran Huggins
DevNet Master
Posts: 3635
Joined: Wed Dec 06, 2006 4:14 pm
Location: Toronto, Canada
Contact:

Post by Kieran Huggins »

1: no, unless you use nl2br() to change your "newline" characters into "<br/>" tags ;-)

2: javascript is the best option there - maybe you could use a rich textarea replacement like FCKeditor and modify the code to use bbcode instead of HTML
User avatar
RobertGonzalez
Site Administrator
Posts: 14293
Joined: Tue Sep 09, 2003 6:04 pm
Location: Fremont, CA, USA

Post by RobertGonzalez »

TinyMCE is better than FCKEditor, in that it works in Opera.
User avatar
Kieran Huggins
DevNet Master
Posts: 3635
Joined: Wed Dec 06, 2006 4:14 pm
Location: Toronto, Canada
Contact:

Post by Kieran Huggins »

Awesome I'll check it out. Thanks Everah!

Turns out it supports bbcode to a degree:
http://wiki.moxiecode.com/index.php/Tin ... ins/bbcode
User avatar
speedy33417
Forum Contributor
Posts: 128
Joined: Sun Jul 23, 2006 1:14 pm

Post by speedy33417 »

Thanks everyone!

Everah, I tried tinyMCE and I love it!!! It was so easy to add to the site, and it does exactly what I wanted to do. I'm glad I didn't have to spend weeks making one that probably wouldn't come close to this one.

Anyway, thanks again.
User avatar
RobertGonzalez
Site Administrator
Posts: 14293
Joined: Tue Sep 09, 2003 6:04 pm
Location: Fremont, CA, USA

Post by RobertGonzalez »

You got it.
Post Reply