[JonnyBoy]

Hey hey everyone

This is my first post ever on the forums so hi to everyone. The reason i joined the forums is because im a guy who has some what of an intrest in web design and development, but since i don't have much experience i though that people in the likes of here would be able to help me when i get stuck. So my question is how do i create one of those comment box things where when i post something onto my site other site users can enter comments etc etc. Im creating all my webpage using dreamweaver and pagebreeze running below is a screenshot of what i mean:

[Karl Buckland]

Hi and welcome to WebRadiance!

You've said that you're new to web design and development, so we'll have to take this slowly and get a bit more information. I'll try to give you an overview here but bear in mind that you may not be able to quickly achieve the above in quite the way you want. My apologies if you already know some (or even all!) of this stuff, and I certainly don't want to seem patronising. Perhaps I should write it up into a tutorial/FAQ to point new members to? Let me know if it's useful!

You've mentioned two graphical editors (WYSIWYG editors - What you see is what you get). These are generally frowned upon as learning tools because they allow you to create a website without ever learning HTML or CSS, which these tools generate for you. Have you learned any HTML or CSS so far? If you haven't, it shouldn't take you long - maybe a few weeks to cover fairly good detail.

Now, on to what you're trying to. Allowing users to add content is obviously adding some interactivity to your website. You're no longer just serving up your pre-prepared content to a visitor. You're allowing the visitor to add/edit something and that requires a dynamic server-side language to be used in order for that to work. Popular languages are .net (created by Microsoft) and PHP, which is open source. There are of course many other languages, but these two are widely used by beginners and professionals alike. If you're not familiar with HTML and CSS then I'd advise that you avoid learning something like .net or PHP just yet.

But there is good news. What you're trying to do is commonly done in existing software written in PHP/.net/etc. It does depend on what your website actually does and what the content is. If you have a blog then I'd suggest you give some software such as Wordpress a go. It's generally considered to be the standard for blogging. It's also breathtakingly simple to set up and you don't need any programming experience in order to do it. You're also going to have to make sure that your web host supports PHP/.net in order to use them! If your website isn't a blog, then tell us and we'll see if there's some existing software out there that can do what you want. Please bear in mind though, that modifying existing software to look how you want can be quite a challenge, especially if you don't know HTML/CSS.

[JonnyBoy]

Hi sirkent thnx for your reply 'n' no i don't know any html or css but i am familiar with .net as i have created a few programs in visual studio 2005. Unless im wrong the .net laungage is quite the same as to the vb.net laungage used in visual studio. Also i do have a blog noy on wordpress but on blogger. Can you give me any position to start at, or is there a sample template or something that i can download. At the moment i have a very plain 'n' simple website located here. I currently have another website under construction whcih is where i came across my current problem, it's URL has still to be decided (probable a .co.uk ).

[Karl Buckland]

I've moved this topic to the asp/.net forum where hopefully someone can get back to you. I'm a PHP guy myself, so I won't be much use from here on in...

[JonnyBoy]

Sirkent, on Apr 14 2008, 11:42 AM, said:

I've moved this topic to the asp/.net forum where hopefully someone can get back to you. I'm a PHP guy myself, so I won't be much use from here on in...

Thnx anyway for all you have done so far...

[haku]

That was a good write-up SK.

Jonny - I would really recommend spending some time on (X)HTML and CSS before working on to server-side programming, even if its not your goal. With server side languages, you are basically creating a script that outputs a product. That product is (X)HTML and CSS. They are what a site is made of, the programming is just what makes it in the background. So if you don't have at least a decent grasp of how (X)HTML and CSS work, then you can't know what that final product should look like. And if you don't know what it should look like, the odds of putting out something that it probably shouldn't look like are not in your favor.

You don't have to become a pro at (X)HTML and CSS, but a good solid understanding at least of what they are, how they work, and what valid code looks like (http://validator.w3.org/) will enable you to make nice server-side scripts that end up being functional and easy to work with for you and the designer. It's definitely worth it to spend some time on this stuff.

I can't help with .asp though, I don't know it!

This post has been edited by haku: 14 April 2008 - 06:23 AM

[Catalyst]

Yeah, asp.net is very similary to the .net you're using for apps. If you go over to www.asp.net you'll find loads of tutorials, videos, etc that will help you out.

Also check out http://www.dotnetblogengine.net/ for a free readymade asp.net blogging platform.

[JonnyBoy]

Catalyst, on Apr 14 2008, 07:26 PM, said:

Yeah, asp.net is very similary to the .net you're using for apps. If you go over to www.asp.net you'll find loads of tutorials, videos, etc that will help you out.

Also check out http://www.dotnetblogengine.net/ for a free readymade asp.net blogging platform.

Thnx asp.net is so much help, i also took a look at that dotnetblogengine but it looks so complicated all the files there is i don't know where to start with them, or how can i preview them the programs i have tried just show me the code...

This post has been edited by JonnyBoy: 15 April 2008 - 05:24 AM

[Karl Buckland]

Have a look at the documentation. It's more than likely that there's a readme file, or docs directory.

This download page allows you to download documentation and also features a link to a screencast covering how to set up the software. Bear in mind that you will need .net hosting if you're planning on running this on your hosting, or if you want to run it locally you'll need (I assume?) IIS and .net installed and running.

[joshua brown]

Hi JonnyBoy,

What you have asked can be done in ASP.NET,
where you can add the Comment box in your webpage and the value added in the comment box can be stored in your database, for which you also need to know the ADO.NET or simply the connectivity from your webpage to your backend (ie database)


Web Development Services

JonnyBoy, on 14 April 2008 - 03:44 AM, said:

Hey hey everyone

This is my first post ever on the forums so hi to everyone. The reason i joined the forums is because im a guy who has some what of an intrest in web design and development, but since i don't have much experience i though that people in the likes of here would be able to help me when i get stuck. So my question is how do i create one of those comment box things where when i post something onto my site other site users can enter comments etc etc. Im creating all my webpage using dreamweaver and pagebreeze running below is a screenshot of what i mean: