PHP and MySQL for Dynamic Web Sites: Visual QuickPro Guide, Fourth Edition

17. Example—Message Board

In This Chapter

Making the Database 520

Creating the Index Page 537

Creating the Forum Page 538

Creating the Thread Page 543

Posting Messages 548

Review and Pursue 558

The functionality of a message board (aka a forum) is really rather simple: a post can either start a new topic or be in response to an existing one; posts are added to a database and then displayed on a page. That’s really about it. Of course, sometimes implementing simple concepts can be quite hard!

To make this example even more exciting and useful, it’s not going to be just a message board but rather a multilingual message board. Each language will have its own forum, and the key elements—navigation, prompts, introductory text, etc.—will be language-specific. ...