Josh's stuff for reference..leave this alone :[

[Josh]

[b]PHP Shoutbox Tutorial[/b]
[i]By Dren T. Martin[/i]

Shoutboxes had a really big need by many webmasters not so long ago. Over the past few months or year I\'ve noticed that they\'re not that wanted on websites, but I do know that there are many websites that use them. They\'re a great tool to add some type of interactivity to your website. Now, I\'m sure that you are someone that frowns upon shoutboxes and see them as a waste of space or you are someone who really wants one because they\'re cool or you would like somewhere for your visitors to leave messages to you. No matter which one of these people you are this tutorial can benefit you. What I\'m going to go over in this tutorial:[list]
[*] Making a database in MySQL
[*] Adding information to a MySQL database
[*] Retrieving data from a MySQL database
[*] Using while statements
[*] Making and using arrays
[/list]All of this is knowledge you will need to learn to start out with php. Most of this is simple, but all of it is needed to really start with PHP and MySQL driven websites. If you have any problems with this tutorial please register if you haven\'t already and post here with your problems. I will be more than happy to assist you in a prompt manner <img src=\'http://www.killanet.net/forum3/public/s ... /smile.gif\' class=\'bbc_emoticon\' alt=\':)\' /> With that said, let\'s get started!

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What you will need:[list]
[*]Server with the following: Apache, PHP, and MySQL
[*]PHPMyAdmin Installed on the server
[*]Notepad or another text/programming editor
[*]Your eyes to read
[/list]If you do not have Apache, PHP, MySQL, or PHPMyAdmin installed on your server you can do a quick google search to get them all or you can do what I do and just download [url=\"http://www.apachefriends.org/en/xampp-windows.html\"]XAMPP[/url] and you\'ll be all set as it is a package of everything you need to develop a website (This includes everything you need installed on your server for this tutorial)

Now that I\'m sure you have a webserver up and running with PHPMyAdmin, PHP, MySQL, and Apache I can [i]surely[/i] start now, right? Let\'s take a look at how to start your new shoutbox database. The database is where all of our data will be stored in a table for the shout, shouters name, and the date or time. Think of the database as a big box and then think of the table (where our data is stored) as smaller boxes inside the bigger box. It\'s complicated to some and easily understood by some. It just depends on what kind of a person you are, but don\'t worry -- you will understand it sooner or later. Let\'s take a look at how to make these databases and tables in PHPMyAdmin.

If you\'re running XAMMP, you will need to go to this url to access PHPMyAdmin:
[u]localhost/phpmyadmin/[/u]

This should bring up an interface for you to create/edit/delete databases and get access to virtually anything that you have stored in the databases. When you\'re working with databases and other things you need to store on your website through MySQL, you\'ll find yourself here a lot.

[code]



[b]THIS IS AN UNFINISHED TUTORIAL I AM WRITING. PLEASE DO NOT EDIT/DELETE/TAMPER THIS AS IT IS A WIP AND WILL BE POSTED TO THE PUBLIC AT A LATER DATE[/b]