The Webmaster Forums

BBCode disabled

JeevesBond — Fri, 09 May 2008 15:07:23 +0100

With the exception of [quote] BBCode has been disabled on the Webmaster Forums. The downtime earlier was me running a script over all the posts in the forum, and user signatures, to get rid of the stuff.

The BBCode and HTML filters were really interfering with each other, and no amount of fiddling would fix it. Since we're a Webmaster forum, everyone should be ok with basic HTML, particularly since we have a new toolbar to help.

If you've got any questions, or find any problems, post them here! Thanks, and sorry for the downtime.

RSS Feed Submission Established as a Good Link building Campaign

jetinter — Fri, 09 May 2008 09:57:37 +0100

If you are a blogger interested in publishing RSS and getting your feed out into the RSS databases of the world, I would highly suggest that you check out some of the amazing new RSS software tools available to you today on the market. Choose a tool that is easy to use and one which will allow you to reach the maximum amount of directories possible for the least amount of hands-on work. Additionally, if you are taking the time to use more robust XML feed technologies, you want to use a semi-automatic feed submitter for those as well.

Tableless CSS web design?

jetinter — Thu, 08 May 2008 09:48:43 +0100

What is your opinion on the trend towards tableless CSS designs, and the idea that all formatting should be removed from the content.

I use some css for site design, but sometimes find the pressure to use all CSS can drag out completion time in order to hack my way around browser limitations.

If you would share your well-qualified opinions, I would be most appreciative.

Golf, Food, web hosting related links wanted

Hafsoh — Thu, 08 May 2008 09:44:40 +0100

Hello

I am interested in Golf, Food and web hosting related links. Home page or site wide only.

Please PM me if interested.

Thanks

Google page position dropped Help please!!!!!!!!!

Ascrap2003 — Thu, 08 May 2008 08:45:21 +0100

Hello guys,

My page http://www.americanscrapmetal.com was top 5 on google for the past 4 years for the search term "Scrap metal recycling". Then since last Dec-Jan my page completely dropped off.
I checked to see if my site was blacklisted for whatever reason and found out it aint. I have many links hi-mid & lower quality that point to my site. I have a page rank 5 & I have redesigned my site because I tought it would help and still nothing. My site is based at Angelfire.com and thats realy all the information I have for you guys.

Is anyone kind enough to help me or point me in the right direction?
Please look at my site & view source if needed. Any help would be appreciated!

Also is there a certain kind of css, xhtml or so on that is better for google? Any tricks?

Thank you!

Special Web Hosting Packages - $0.50 on the First Month!

MrCat — Thu, 08 May 2008 05:55:58 +0100

For as low as $0.50 on the first month!

MixCat.com has been in the industry since 1996 and continuously growing. We invite you to try out our special web hosting packages for your website - be it personal or an e-commerce site, we have the right hosting solutions for you! You may check out our hosting plans at http://hosting.mixcat.com

For availing of the $0.50 promo, use the COUPON CODES here http://hosting.mixcat.com/private-label-reseller-web-hosting-cpanel-whm....

Hurry! Promo Period is good for May only. Should you have any questions, feel free to contact our Site Support, PM me or reply here.

Thanks in advance.
MixCat Interactive

Portal-Type Featured Image or Article with Effects

lbwd — Tue, 06 May 2008 21:32:37 +0100

I'm sure you've seen the featured images and articles that slide or "peel" to the next on famous news and portal websites. Ideally, I want to do this and have it be search engine friendly.

Man, I know I have seen these site but I cannot find an example!

Take a look at bananarepublic.com: I like the effect of the flash "ticker" at the top and I like the rotator in the main section. I have done rotators but I want to do mine better and SEO friendly if possible. I want a smooth transition and I want it to be easy to update.

Any ideas?
I feel so helpless and this seems to take a lot of time.

Installing PHP5

benf — Tue, 06 May 2008 20:03:40 +0100

THe server that i am using at present (a VPS) is running an old version of PHP4. I want to upgrade to PHP5 but not sure how. I have become aware that you need to unistall php4 before installing php5?

Any direction appreciated

How to submit Website?

furnitureheaven — Tue, 06 May 2008 15:09:08 +0100

Hi,
I have a website, and want to submit it on thousand and thousand other websites and trying this from last many months, but fail. I have seen other website has many thousand links. I am still confused how they are getting these links?

Does any one have an idea? Please let me know, how I can build a link for my only website. Is there any software they are using, please help me in this

Thanks,

New Server (downtime)

JeevesBond — Tue, 06 May 2008 07:51:38 +0100

We've just moved to a shiny new server, it's a little quicker and will allow us to add more modules to the forums.

The plan is to make the place much more interesting and to give people more stuff to do. This server move was a very important part of that.

So sorry for the downtime, hope it didn't inconvenience anyone (although I timed it to be the middle of the night in many places!)

For anyone who's interested: it's a VPS from http://www.vpsville.ca built--from scratch by yours truly--on Debian. Believe it or not, this VPS is faster than our old dedicated server, which was getting badly out of date (PHP4, MySQL4, etc.)

We dumped NamesCo because they were going to charge us ~£120 (can't remember exact figure) for re-building the server with the latest packages. Considering we already pay them ~£100 per month for managing the server for us, this sounded like a scam.

Anyway, that's the whole story, any questions: raise them here.

Organic SEO????????

marina_maggy — Mon, 05 May 2008 18:56:44 +0100

Hi everyone,
Could anyone tell me what is the SEO and and other things related to it iam sorry but iam little new to such things..If I have a website so how I can promote it to Top Rank??

Thanks in Advance.!!

Multiple updation of tables?

chetan1 — Mon, 05 May 2008 11:39:24 +0100

hi
I want to update 2 tables with the help of store procedure.How Possible, if both table have same id.

Thanks in advance.

PHP problem

chetan1 — Mon, 05 May 2008 11:35:56 +0100

i have solved this problem i need to put a special icon for each type of file how i must do it?i did it for directory

<?php
echo "<form method=post>";
echo "<input type=text name=dirname>";
echo "<input type=submit value='Show file' name=knopka>";
echo "</form>";
$d=opendir($_REQUEST[dirname]);
while ( ($str=readdir($d))!=NULL ) {
if ( is_dir("$_REQUEST[dirname]".$str) ) { echo "<img src=folder.bmp> $str";}
echo "<br>";
}

closedir($d); ?>

html form get unticked check box - Solved

greg — Sat, 03 May 2008 17:52:39 +0100

I was searching for a way to identify html form check boxes where users DIDN'T tick them. (unticked) I couldn't find any solutions. Maybe I wasn't using great keywords in Google (what are great keywords?)

So I had to set about writing my own solution.
I thought I would post it here as it may help others!
And of course if any one has a better way I would be glad to hear it.

In the HTML check box inputs, you have to use an array as the "name", and importantly you need to have unique keys for each check box input, as the key names are used in the loop to identify if the user ticked the box:
EG

<?php
<input type="checkbox" name="eat[fruit]" value="yes" />
<input type="checkbox" name="eat[bread]" value="yes" />
?>

Both inputs have same array name (eat) but different keys assigned to the array (fruit and bread).

When the form is posted, make a new array using ALL the key names you KNOW are used in the checkbox names in your form.
Then use that new array to loop all keys.

With each loop, check if the current key from your new array matches a key in the posted array.
If no match then that key value is NO, if it is matched then that key value is YES (or whatever you want).

It’s IMPORTANT when you make the new array to make the keys in that array in the same order as they appear in the html form so the new array keys are in the same order as the POSTed array.
Otherwise the loop wont match them in order and wont work correctly

Here's the full script I made:

The HTML form
(I wrapped it in php code here so it allowed it to be posted)

<?php
<form method="post" action="post_page.php">
eat fruit <input type="checkbox" name="eat[fruit]" value="yes" />
eat bread <input type="checkbox" name="eat[bread]" value="yes" />
eat apples <input type="checkbox" name="eat[apples]" value="yes" />

<input type="submit" Value="Go"> </form> ?>

The post_page.php

<?php
 //make the array from what the user DID tick
$post_array = $_POST['eat'];
//make a new array
//key names are all the names IN ORDER from each of your check box inputs
$array_keys = array("fruit" => "", "bread" => "", "apples" => "");
//loop using your new array
//the new array key name is checked for a match in the POSTed array
//if a match is found then user must have ticked so value is "yes"
//if no match is found then user didn't tick the box for that input

foreach ($array_keys as $key => $value){ if (array_key_exists($key, $post_array)){ $new_array[$key]="yes"; }else{ $new_array[$key]="no"; } } ?>

Your $new_array is now all the values submited fom tickboxes from the form, with the same key names, and for each one the user didnt tick the key is added and a value of “no” inserted.
This makes it simple to insert into a db where user settings is a yes or no.

Or of course you can change what it outputs for the “yes” and “no” as desired.

CD Rom building

karmaman — Sat, 03 May 2008 15:08:28 +0100

Hi I have had a dabble with building cd roms lately and have used Autoplay menu studio 6 however this dose not seem to create an autostart file for use on macs.
Can anyone recommend and online resources to find out more about how to build cd roms that are cross platform compatible.

Free sneaky tricks to get tons of StumbleUpon traffic

vishyjames — Sat, 03 May 2008 13:06:04 +0100

I recently read a very poor report on a prominent blog, that basically didnt say much about the details on how one can use StumbleUpon to really drive traffic to their website. The writer did claim that he has gotten as many as 300,000 visits per month from his trick of stumbling funny humor photos on the StumbleUpon network - even though humor photos were off topic posts. The article had no real meat in it. As a result, I thought I could share some really good tips and tricks for using StumbleUpon to drive website traffic, and I also invite readers to add in their 2 cents if I have missed anything.

The key to marketing on StumbleUpon is not to get “backlinks” (they have a no-follow tag anyway, so you dont get the Google love) … the point is to get picked up and recognized by some highly influential and power users on StumbleUpon. Once that happens you can be assured that your link or site will get picked up by a large number of users on StumbleUpon and the effect of referral traffic coming in from there will last for a long period of time.

advice needed please

rolls — Sat, 03 May 2008 12:26:02 +0100

Hi all I posted a job for link building on gaf this is one reply i got .May i ask if this would really help with my ranking etc

Dear Sir
May We help you in promoting your Net Business links in a different way?
We can do A campaign for your sites or links (each total of 40000visits) in 15 days

If this direct advertising campaign does not put you in the top on the net bus.. nothing will
no bulk .. (OPT Safe) only survey requested results ..
100% Spam Free - Permission Based Advertising!
you can also specify what amount of visitors you can handle in how many days (no matter how big or small that campaign is) and we will PM you our price quotation
Yours

Many thanks for reading and advising... Rolls

Do you like coffee

feilerl — Fri, 02 May 2008 02:24:11 +0100

I'm looking to see how many of you are coffee drinkers and how you like your coffee?
So if you are a coffee drinker how many cups you drink in a day and how you like your coffee?

Emails sent from my site get sent to junk folder

drew22299 — Thu, 01 May 2008 16:59:54 +0100

Hi,

I'm currentlty using an ASP script to send emails to users, for example when they have forgotten their password and to confirm their email address when they signup, but the emails sent to their email addresses get sent to the junk folder and sometimes don't get through.

I have tried including more information in the headers like noreply@website.com etc and that gets it through to junk folder (I think)

I've seen scripts that use information like referer, server, clientip, serverip

1) What are the above and how do I find them out?
2) What do I need to include in the script to ensure emails are delivered?

Any help will be apreciated!

Great list of beginning CSS resources + troubleshooting tips

Megan — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 20:29:26 +0100

I thought some of you might appreciate this:

http://veerle.duoh.com/blog/comments/starting_with_css_and_bug_fixing_ti...

A great starting point!

aPaddedCell Article: Making Web Pages Search Engine Friendly

JeevesBond — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 19:18:42 +0100

Article summary:

They say that if you have the world’s best mousetrap the world will beat a path to your door. When it comes to the Internet this couldn't be further from the truth. For any product to succeed you have to let the world know you have it. One of the easist ways to do that is to have the search engines pull up your site on page one of the search results for your product or service.

Here is the link: Making Web Pages Search Engine Friendly.

Post any questions/comments here.

aPaddedCell Article: An Introduction to the User Stats Module for Drupal

JeevesBond — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 19:05:58 +0100

This is documentation for a Drupal module, so mostly only of interest to Drupal forum admins and what not. I wrote this module to count posts on TWF, so you can see it in action all around you.

Article summary:

The User Stats module inserts information on a user into their posts on a site. It is aimed at forum administrators who need to see the post counts, date registered and IP addresses of their users. This article provides an introduction to the User Stats module and shows how it may be used in themes.

Here is the link: Introduction to the User stats module.
Post any questions/comments here. If you're seeing a specific problem with the module, you should probably raise a bug/support request, from the project home page.

Steve Ballmer's (Microsoft CEO) Computer

JeevesBond — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 16:49:29 +0100

Look closely at this picture of Steve Ballmer's computer.

http://blog.internetnews.com/apatrizio/2008/04/steve-ballmers-presentati...

Don't get it? Look closer. I suppose it would be okay if he put Windows Vista on it.

Hello from Houston, Texas

infoman — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 15:35:56 +0100

We use this opportunity to say hi to all users in this great forum, possibly we guys should be sharing helpful information and assisting each other in our information needs.

A few questions about starting a Comparative Shopping Website

TransPersonal — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 03:11:55 +0100

Hi folks!

I'm new here and hope someone can help answer my questions. I want to start a comparative shopping website. I understand that when one becomes an affiliate of a certain retailer that the retailer helps one to develop his/her site. But in a comparative shopping website there will be products listed from multiple retailers at once. So in that case which retailer provides the product images and descriptions?

And if someone does provide them, then how will I receive them? I mean I want to design my own website but I can’t possibly make different pages for each of the products by hand seeing as how there can be hundreds of thousands of these. So how do people do it, is there some way to automatically fill in the provided pages received onto your own template and predetermined format???

Thanks.

Javascript Alert Box - Not Working.

Reece S — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 00:25:54 +0100

Hi there.

I have written a small code that will call an alert box if it detects Internet Explorer. Trouble is, it don't work

Here is my code... Can someone please point me in the right direction?

&lt;script type="text/javascript"&gt;
var browserName=navigator.appName;
if (browserName=="Microsoft Internet Explorer")
{
var answer = confirm("Browser Incompatible - Firefox Needed")
if (answer){
alert("You won't be disappointed!'")
window.location = "http://www.mozilla-europe.org/en/products/firefox/";
}
else{
alert("Some elements of this Website will not be displayed correctly.");

} </script>

Does anyone have dial-up? Can you check something for me?

Megan — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 16:50:29 +0100

Could you just let me know how long this page takes to load on dial-up?

http://uwaterloo.ca

I've tried a couple of online checkers but they don't seem to be pulling in the flash photos which are the biggest part of the page size-wise.

Gateway Timeout Error

NewTechGuy — Sun, 27 Apr 2008 23:20:07 +0100

I hope I am posting to the right forum as I was unable to locate any other area to post this issue.

I have a website that is experiencing Gateway Timeouts by different people using different ISP's and in different cities. Although I can access my website there was a few days when I also could not. My server company flushed out the firewall and now I can get online but other people are now getting the Gateway Timeout Error.

My sever company also says this is not their issue (though they've tried to help) and I'm not sure what to do now.

One interesting thing to note. I have had this site online for 6 motnhs and everything was fine up until my server company migrated everyones website to new servers with better security (to resolve Denial of Service attacks).

I did notice that right after my website was moved it was much slower to load. At this point it has good days and bad days. Some days it seems as if I am using dial-up (I have high-speed) when I access my own website, and other days it seems just a little slow to load It loads but the graphics load slow).

Today I went to a friends place to use his computer (he has never been able to get onto my website since it was migrated) and I was FINALLY able to get it to load. It seemed towork well when I tried out all the links and I was quite happy to see this.

Then I shut down the browser to try it again and NOTHING! I was not able to get it to load again. Grrrrrrrr.........

By the way, I use IE and Firefox browsers and experience the same issue with both of them.

Now to my question... Why is this happening? My server company says it's not them... but I have been disputing that.

My website address is Be Seen And Be Heard.com

Any suggestions? Thanks for any responses.

NTG

mysql query - use count or select?

greg — Sun, 27 Apr 2008 12:03:01 +0100

I need to query a DB table to get a total number of instances of data stored.
The data is age, and I want to search for 5 ages
20, 25, 30, 35, 40

Obviously having 5 separate queries is poor coding.
With a SELECT where you DO want to retrieve data, having a loop is an option.
BUT
I don't actually need to retrieve any data other than the total number of instances found for EACH age.
I.E. there are 12 twenty year olds, 10 twenty five year olds etc
So I started looking at COUNT, but again I would have to use a loop.

I also started looking at multiple COUNT in the query, to avoid a loop, but how within the query (if even possible) would I identify the individual total number for each age?

Is it possible to use a multiple COUNT to get multiple counts for different coulmns within the same table?

And another thing, just out of interest
Does select without a fetch cache data?

take this as an example (syntax is missing I know)

<?php
$age = 20;
$query = mysql_query(SELECT * from users where age = $age);
?>

This hasnt actually done anything at all other than make a variable = some text (albeit a valid query function)

So then I do the following

<?php
 $numrows = mysql_num_rows($query) 
?>

It has now performed a query to the DB and it will return the number of rows found for members who are 20 years old.
That is fine and works. So I could put that in a loop and add 5 to $age each time and store $numrows value in an array

But as I don't actually need to retrieve data, is this the best way? As with that query I need to tell it to select something, like username or whatever, in this case it was *

So has it actually selected (i.e. cached somewhere) the full row data (*) where it matches the criteria (age = 20), or does it just count the number of rows it finds and stores (caches) the running total of that number to return it to the variable ($numrows) simply because I only performed a num_rows function?
Does it only cache the actual row data if specifically told to in for example mysql_fetch_array?

The reason I ask, is because using SELECT I have to tell it to actually select some data, currently everything (*) but I dont need to.
So is COUNT better/faster/more efficient when I don't actually want to retrieve data and only need to count the number of instances it finds, or is num_rows ok to use?

general opinion on free dot tk domains?

zelazn — Sat, 26 Apr 2008 22:39:51 +0100

what do you guys think about the free .tk domains (eg http://renditiongame.tk is pointing to http://renditiongame.googlepages.com ) at the moment.

are there any catches or niggles i should know about? the only thing that worries me is that it says the domain will only remain active while it's still getting hits, but it doesnt define how it measures hits. are there any other (free!) alternatives i should consider?

also this only works for the main page of the site. a subpage of the site is eg http://renditiongame.googlepages.com/discuss but the link http://renditiongame.tk/discuss wont work. what can be done about this?

sorry for the beginner questions! thanks.