Aurorapod - Tutorial on Simple FlatFile Based Blog Script


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PHP/MySQL Tutorial

Simple FlatFile Based Blog Script

Written by : Sean

Date : 2003-07-07

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There are 2 commonly used data management system.
a) Using a Database System ( Oracle 9i, mysql, MsAssess postsql etc )
b) Using a flat file (text file)

In this tutorial I will start with data management using flat file

a) First you must plan what are the data you need to store in into a text file
eg : If i want to create a information for my blog script with the following information
a) Poster
b) date
c) title
d) content
e) image

( I will use this structure in my explanation for the rest of the tutorial )

b) You need to identify a seperator for the info (fields) mentioned in item a
in this case will use `|` ;

My text file will have the following content. save this file under name : blogfile.txt

blogfile.txt - Make sure CHMOD is 766 or 777

Code:

Now that you have th data ready... it' time to write a php script to read & print Smile

In your script

You need to tell your script to
a) open the file

Code:

$opFile = "blogfile.txt";
$fp = fopen($opFile,"r") or die("Error Reading File");

where $opFile is your blogfile.txt mentioned above

Then you ask your script to dump content of the file to variable $data & close it after reading

Code:

$data = fread($fp, filesize($opFile));
fclose($fp);

Now $data will have the following content

Code:

b) you need to split up the $data into lines

Code:

$line = explode("\n", $data);

\n is actually a representation of "enter" or break line
explode will split up the $data which that are \n and put it into an array ($line)

content of line as follows

Code:

c) Now you need to split it up again into
i) Poster
ii) date
iii) title
iv) content
v) image

Let study the script below
1) Check the number of lines

Code:

$i=count($line); <--- In our examples there are only 2 line so $i = 2

2) Loop to split (explode) line to individual data or fields where there is '|'

Code:

for ($n=0 ; $n < $i-1 ; $n++ ) {
$blog = explode("|", $line[$n]); <----this split (explode) $line into fields using | as seperator

if (isset($blog[0])) <--- Check whether blog[0] is set !
{

//Display results //
echo "Posted by : " .$blog[0]." ";
echo "Date : " .$blog[1]." ";
echo "Title : " .$blog[2]." ";
echo "Message : " .$blog[3]." ";
echo "Avatar : <img src='$blog[4]'> ";

}

}

That's it !!!! Your own PHP blog script ! You can use a form to put data into you blogfile.txt or do it offline & upload the txt file !... you can expand this script into wonderful things !!

Full script here. You are free to use & modify this script... adding CSS, Table.. whatever. I dont mind if no credit is given but if there is , it would be nice Smile

Code:

<html>
<head>
<title>Sean's simple Blog Script tutorial using flatfile</title>
</head>
<body>
<?
echo "";
echo "Tutorial - Sean's simple Blog Script Tutorial using flatfile ";
// Determines File you want to use
$mode = 0;
if ($mode == 0) { $opFile = "blogfile.txt"; }
if ($mode == 1) { $opFile = "blogfile1.txt"; }

// Opens Blog File to read or dies
$fp = fopen($opFile,"r") or die("Error Reading File");
$data = fread($fp, filesize($opFile));
fclose($fp);

// Explodes data at line breaks
$line = explode("\n", $data);
$i=count($line);

for ($n=0 ; $n < $i-1 ; $n++ ) {
$blog = explode("|", $line[$n]);

if (isset($blog[0]))
{
echo "Posted by : " .$blog[0]." ";
echo "Date : " .$blog[1]." ";
echo "Title : " .$blog[2]." ";
echo "Message : " .$blog[3]." ";
echo "Avatar : <img src='$blog[4]'> ";

}
}
echo "<center>© Copyright 2003 Sean's script</center>"
?>
</body>
</html>

That's all folks .... happy scripting
Sean