nickk

Hello,

I have been writing PHP scripts for quite some time now, but nothing big, just basic site navigation stuff, guestbooks, etc. I have a problem with making anything "bigger" which requires different parts to work together well.

I was recently asked to code the "brain" behind my school's yearbook website. I have been making a plan of how the whole application is going to work, and I wanted to post my ideas so maybe some more experiences PHP users can give me some advice.

Now the idea behind the website is that between 250 and 350 students are able to upload a piece of text (no bigger than maybe 2 or 3 medium sized paragraphs), and a photo. The text/photos should be displayed neatly online, and should be made available in .txt format (for the text pieces) for the publisher to use for the physical yearbook. There should also be a section where parents, etc. can upload a small message which will go into the yearbook.

My plan is the following: have 5 tables =>
[ul][li]1 table for each class (there are 4)[/li]
[li]1 table for the parent's comments section[/li][/ul]

Each "class" table will have the following:
[ul][li]ID[/li]
[li]Name[/li]
[li]Text[/li]
[li]Photo[/li][/ul]

When a student submits their text + photo, the script gives them the ID of the last student + 1, saves their text in the MySQL table, and in a .txt file with the name of their ID. Same thing happens with the photo. it is saved under ID.jpg (where ID is the student's ID), and in the photo field in the table, it simply saves the location of the photo.

With the tables + seperate files it should be easy to display the information for each student comfortably, and for the publisher to extract the information for the physical book.

Any idea/comments/suggestions welcome, and I would be very greatful for any help I get.

Thanks, Nick.

BlazingWolf

The only really big problem is see is you will need some sort of login system or else each person will be able to upload more than one picture. Unless that is what you want.

When you say "student's id" is that an id the school gives each person or just a random number for this system. If it is assigned then the system can't just automate the numbering on pictures ect.

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BlazingWolf

nickk

Thank you for the reply BlazingWolf.

When a user tries to upload text/a picture the script will check if there is allready content there, thus 2 pictures won't be uploaded.
The ID is a random number, not the one assigned by the school.

Thanks again.

dnathe4th

be careful for people signing on as other people and uploading not very pretty pictures........

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tempest

Use a MySQL back-end for everything. You can store the text and picture in a mysql database, keep it simple and if they want a txt file have it generated from the mysql backened.

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Ade

I think people signing in as someone else would be a problem. *Ade sits back and ponders the pranks of his school days*

Why not add an authorization system. It could work by allowing the student to fill in your form and submit it, then it could be sent to a table awaiting authorization. When you (or anyone at your school teachers etc.) could get on to see the contents of this table and click a link to finalizze the entry. These authorized entries would get into the final table for public viewing. I know then you have the problem of 300+ entries to look at, but if you could share the job with someone else it's not that bigger problem.

Just a thought

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Don't wound what you can't kill

tempest

What if someone else just authorized about 10 peoples names? Theres still no real security there except for word-of-mouth. See if the school has student PIN numbers or something you can use for authorization, something of that nature.

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Ade

Well i mean like you just let a few trusted people have access to the screen that allows the authorization bit

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Don't wound what you can't kill

tempest

Well yea, but im referring to the validity of the information thats put into that table.

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