How to make a simple online diary community

A million apologies if this has been asked before, i know how annoying that is, but i did try searching and couldn’t find anything that fit.

So i am a newb web developer… I know xhtml and css (heh)… and javascript (ish)… and I’m learning php. This isn’t to make money or anything, just a side project for personal use because my favorite anonymous online diary was just ripped off the internet for no reason, and it sucked… so to ensure that never happens again I just want to make my own that is as similar as i can get it - because i hate change. I know social media sites with all the bells and whistles are like so hot right now… haha… but I liked that it was simple and easy and most of all anonymous. I hate that other blog sites are all connected to social media sites all over. That’s cool for branding yourself and your business and whatknot but it doesn’t really appeal to the online diary writing community. That’s why i am saying diary instead of blog. Which are often used interchangeably.

So basically i want to know what is the best and/or easiest way to create a site that is capable of maintaining a blog with a wysiwyg editor, upload pictures, comment on posts, add friends, make entries or whole diary private, and the ability for the “users” to make small changes to their diary like background image/color and stuff. nothing too fancy… less is more in this particular case. i don’t even think there was an avatar for your profile. omg.

Again, I’m pretty newby, and i think the answer is a no but could this be done completely with javascript? Would you want to? Or php and mysql? What would you use? I’m not into things like buddypress. I think it is great and I am using it for another site but for this it just seems like a lot of stuff I wouldn’t even be using.

Ok well any advice and suggestions are appreciated. Thanks so much! :slight_smile:

Hello zombiesarecute-- welcome to the forums.

Even without providing WYSIWYG for your site visitors, you’ve defined a fairly large and complex application that requires saving data from your visitors’ sessions (e.g. the diary verbiage). As such, javascipt – or any client-side – language is not the best choice.

With your background in XHTML and CSS, you’d probably find PHP a suitable server-side language. Further, the XAMPP web site provides all you need to set up a local APACHE server on your own machine (Be aware that you put your code in a folder named htdocs – I wasted hours – and tears [a grown man, tsk tsk] before figuring out that little detail) and MySQL. XAMPP is distributed free under the GNU General Public License and really saves alot of time.

Once you’ve mastered PHP, you may want to add your javascript literacy and take a leap at AJAX.

Again welcome – and understand that despite 35+ years as a mainframe programmer, this desktop and web stuff is still largely a mystery to me.

Regards,

grNadpa

Thank you grNadpa! Very helpful answer. And without making me feel like an idiot :slight_smile: haha I think PHP is a good choice. And I’ve been wanting to really master it. Although XAMP intimidates me… i can’t really wrap my head around APACHE and setting up a server. but then again I haven’t looked into it that much either. I’ll give it another shot. :slight_smile:

You could do everything you mention with BuddyPress, which uses the Wordpress backend. Although it does have learning curve to setup

Thanks but that’s not really what I’m looking for. At least I’m 90% sure it’s not.

Unless they’ve changed their site, the Apache and MySQL install from the XAMPP website was a straight download-and-click (the installer).

If you’d like, I’ll be happy to assist. But I think you’ll find you really don’t need it.

Yes please if you don’t mind. I really appreciate all the help i can get, especially from people who know what they are talking about. I guess i had already installed XAMP a loooong time ago and forgot. so i put my files in the htdocs folder and it wasn’t opening them. i figured i should get the newest version anyways so i uninstalled and reinstalled and there were all sorts of problems. so i uninstalled again and reinstalled and it seeeems to be working. when i went to the control thing i could turn on apache, mysql and ftp. and when i go to http://localhost it shows the welcome to xamp page. and the status page says everything is working and activated. but its doing the same as before… when i try to open a php file it wants me to download it. i opened the index.php file in the htdocs folder and it said:

[INDENT]<?php
if (!empty($_SERVER[‘HTTPS’]) && (‘on’ == $_SERVER[‘HTTPS’])) {
$uri = ‘https://’;
} else {
$uri = ‘http://’;
}
$uri .= $_SERVER[‘HTTP_HOST’];
header(‘Location: ‘.$uri.’/xampp/’);
exit;
?>
Something is wrong with your XAMPP installation :frowning:
[/INDENT]

But i made a test html file and that opens fine but all php files want to be downloaded. What did I do? Is that message about something being wrong true or does it not matter? what am i missing? Does anything else need to be done after installing XAMPP to run php files locally?.. Anyways, thanks again for the info and your time!!.. meanwhile I’ll continue reading the xampp /php documentation

Does your Apache httpd.conf file have something like this in it?

LoadModule php5_module "C:/PHP/php5apache2_2.dll"
AddType application/x-httpd-php .php
PHPIniDir "C:/PHP"

I didn’t find anything in httpd.conf that contains C:/ or php. But i did see AddType which had some weird extension… .tgz?

I just pasted the code here…
I didn’t change anything


#
# This is the main Apache HTTP server configuration file.  It contains the
# configuration directives that give the server its instructions.
# See &lt;URL:http://httpd.apache.org/docs/2.2&gt; for detailed information.
# In particular, see 
# &lt;URL:http://httpd.apache.org/docs/2.2/mod/directives.html&gt;
# for a discussion of each configuration directive.
#
# Do NOT simply read the instructions in here without understanding
# what they do.  They're here only as hints or reminders.  If you are unsure
# consult the online docs. You have been warned.  
#
# Configuration and logfile names: If the filenames you specify for many
# of the server's control files begin with "/" (or "drive:/" for Win32), the
# server will use that explicit path.  If the filenames do *not* begin
# with "/", the value of ServerRoot is prepended -- so "logs/foo_log"
# with ServerRoot set to "/Applications/XAMPP/xamppfiles" will be interpreted by the
# server as "/Applications/XAMPP/xamppfiles/logs/foo_log".

#
# ServerRoot: The top of the directory tree under which the server's
# configuration, error, and log files are kept.
#
# Do not add a slash at the end of the directory path.  If you point
# ServerRoot at a non-local disk, be sure to point the LockFile directive
# at a local disk.  If you wish to share the same ServerRoot for multiple
# httpd daemons, you will need to change at least LockFile and PidFile.
#
ServerRoot "/Applications/XAMPP/xamppfiles"
#Listen 12.34.56.78:80
Listen 80

#
# Dynamic Shared Object (DSO) Support
#
# To be able to use the functionality of a module which was built as a DSO you
# have to place corresponding `LoadModule' lines at this location so the
# directives contained in it are actually available _before_ they are used.
# Statically compiled modules (those listed by `httpd -l') do not need
# to be loaded here.
#
# Example:
# LoadModule foo_module modules/mod_foo.so
#
LoadModule authn_file_module modules/mod_authn_file.so
LoadModule authn_dbm_module modules/mod_authn_dbm.so
LoadModule authn_anon_module modules/mod_authn_anon.so
LoadModule authn_dbd_module modules/mod_authn_dbd.so
LoadModule authn_default_module modules/mod_authn_default.so
LoadModule authz_host_module modules/mod_authz_host.so
LoadModule authz_groupfile_module modules/mod_authz_groupfile.so
LoadModule authz_user_module modules/mod_authz_user.so
LoadModule authz_dbm_module modules/mod_authz_dbm.so
LoadModule authz_owner_module modules/mod_authz_owner.so
LoadModule authnz_ldap_module modules/mod_authnz_ldap.so
LoadModule authz_default_module modules/mod_authz_default.so
LoadModule auth_basic_module modules/mod_auth_basic.so
LoadModule auth_digest_module modules/mod_auth_digest.so
LoadModule file_cache_module modules/mod_file_cache.so
LoadModule cache_module modules/mod_cache.so
LoadModule disk_cache_module modules/mod_disk_cache.so
LoadModule mem_cache_module modules/mod_mem_cache.so
LoadModule dbd_module modules/mod_dbd.so
LoadModule bucketeer_module modules/mod_bucketeer.so
LoadModule dumpio_module modules/mod_dumpio.so
LoadModule echo_module modules/mod_echo.so
LoadModule case_filter_module modules/mod_case_filter.so
LoadModule case_filter_in_module modules/mod_case_filter_in.so
LoadModule ext_filter_module modules/mod_ext_filter.so
LoadModule include_module modules/mod_include.so
LoadModule filter_module modules/mod_filter.so
LoadModule substitute_module modules/mod_substitute.so
LoadModule charset_lite_module modules/mod_charset_lite.so
LoadModule deflate_module modules/mod_deflate.so
LoadModule ldap_module modules/mod_ldap.so
LoadModule log_config_module modules/mod_log_config.so
LoadModule logio_module modules/mod_logio.so
LoadModule env_module modules/mod_env.so
LoadModule mime_magic_module modules/mod_mime_magic.so
LoadModule cern_meta_module modules/mod_cern_meta.so
LoadModule expires_module modules/mod_expires.so
LoadModule headers_module modules/mod_headers.so
LoadModule ident_module modules/mod_ident.so
LoadModule usertrack_module modules/mod_usertrack.so
LoadModule unique_id_module modules/mod_unique_id.so
LoadModule setenvif_module modules/mod_setenvif.so
LoadModule version_module modules/mod_version.so
LoadModule proxy_module modules/mod_proxy.so
LoadModule proxy_connect_module modules/mod_proxy_connect.so
LoadModule proxy_ftp_module modules/mod_proxy_ftp.so
LoadModule proxy_http_module modules/mod_proxy_http.so
LoadModule proxy_scgi_module modules/mod_proxy_scgi.so
LoadModule proxy_ajp_module modules/mod_proxy_ajp.so
LoadModule proxy_balancer_module modules/mod_proxy_balancer.so
LoadModule ssl_module modules/mod_ssl.so
LoadModule mime_module modules/mod_mime.so
LoadModule dav_module modules/mod_dav.so
LoadModule status_module modules/mod_status.so
LoadModule autoindex_module modules/mod_autoindex.so
LoadModule asis_module modules/mod_asis.so
LoadModule info_module modules/mod_info.so
LoadModule suexec_module modules/mod_suexec.so
LoadModule cgi_module modules/mod_cgi.so
LoadModule cgid_module modules/mod_cgid.so
LoadModule dav_fs_module modules/mod_dav_fs.so
LoadModule vhost_alias_module modules/mod_vhost_alias.so
LoadModule negotiation_module modules/mod_negotiation.so
LoadModule dir_module modules/mod_dir.so
LoadModule imagemap_module modules/mod_imagemap.so
LoadModule actions_module modules/mod_actions.so
LoadModule speling_module modules/mod_speling.so
LoadModule userdir_module modules/mod_userdir.so
LoadModule alias_module modules/mod_alias.so
LoadModule rewrite_module modules/mod_rewrite.so

&lt;IfModule !mpm_netware_module&gt;
&lt;IfModule !mpm_winnt_module&gt;
#
# If you wish httpd to run as a different user or group, you must run
# httpd as root initially and it will switch.  
#
# User/Group: The name (or #number) of the user/group to run httpd as.
# It is usually good practice to create a dedicated user and group for
# running httpd, as with most system services.
#
User daemon
Group daemon

&lt;/IfModule&gt;
&lt;/IfModule&gt;

# 'Main' server configuration
#
# The directives in this section set up the values used by the 'main'
# server, which responds to any requests that aren't handled by a
# &lt;VirtualHost&gt; definition.  These values also provide defaults for
# any &lt;VirtualHost&gt; containers you may define later in the file.
#
# All of these directives may appear inside &lt;VirtualHost&gt; containers,
# in which case these default settings will be overridden for the
# virtual host being defined.
#

#
# ServerAdmin: Your address, where problems with the server should be
# e-mailed.  This address appears on some server-generated pages, such
# as error documents.  e.g. [email]admin@your-domain.com[/email]
#
ServerAdmin [email]you@example.com[/email]

#
# ServerName gives the name and port that the server uses to identify itself.
# This can often be determined automatically, but we recommend you specify
# it explicitly to prevent problems during startup.
#
# If your host doesn't have a registered DNS name, enter its IP address here.
#
#ServerName www.example.com:80

#
# DocumentRoot: The directory out of which you will serve your
# documents. By default, all requests are taken from this directory, but
# symbolic links and aliases may be used to point to other locations.
#
DocumentRoot "/Applications/XAMPP/xamppfiles/htdocs"

#
# Each directory to which Apache has access can be configured with respect
# to which services and features are allowed and/or disabled in that
# directory (and its subdirectories). 
#
# First, we configure the "default" to be a very restrictive set of 
# features.  
#
&lt;Directory /&gt;
    Options FollowSymLinks
    AllowOverride None
    Order deny,allow
    Deny from all
&lt;/Directory&gt;

#
# Note that from this point forward you must specifically allow
# particular features to be enabled - so if something's not working as
# you might expect, make sure that you have specifically enabled it
# below.
#

#
# This should be changed to whatever you set DocumentRoot to.
#
&lt;Directory "/Applications/XAMPP/xamppfiles/htdocs"&gt;
    #
    # Possible values for the Options directive are "None", "All",
    # or any combination of:
    #   Indexes Includes FollowSymLinks SymLinksifOwnerMatch ExecCGI MultiViews
    #
    # Note that "MultiViews" must be named *explicitly* --- "Options All"
    # doesn't give it to you.
    #
    # The Options directive is both complicated and important.  Please see
    # http://httpd.apache.org/docs/2.2/mod/core.html#options
    # for more information.
    #
    Options Indexes FollowSymLinks

    #
    # AllowOverride controls what directives may be placed in .htaccess files.
    # It can be "All", "None", or any combination of the keywords:
    #   Options FileInfo AuthConfig Limit
    #
    AllowOverride None

    #
    # Controls who can get stuff from this server.
    #
    Order allow,deny
    Allow from all

&lt;/Directory&gt;

#
# DirectoryIndex: sets the file that Apache will serve if a directory
# is requested.
#
&lt;IfModule dir_module&gt;
    DirectoryIndex index.html
&lt;/IfModule&gt;

#
# The following lines prevent .htaccess and .htpasswd files from being 
# viewed by Web clients. 
#
&lt;FilesMatch "^\\.ht"&gt;
    Order allow,deny
    Deny from all
    Satisfy All
&lt;/FilesMatch&gt;

#
# ErrorLog: The location of the error log file.
# If you do not specify an ErrorLog directive within a &lt;VirtualHost&gt;
# container, error messages relating to that virtual host will be
# logged here.  If you *do* define an error logfile for a &lt;VirtualHost&gt;
# container, that host's errors will be logged there and not here.
#
ErrorLog "logs/error_log"

#
# LogLevel: Control the number of messages logged to the error_log.
# Possible values include: debug, info, notice, warn, error, crit,
# alert, emerg.
#
LogLevel warn

&lt;IfModule log_config_module&gt;
    #
    # The following directives define some format nicknames for use with
    # a CustomLog directive (see below).
    #
    LogFormat "%h %l %u %t \\"%r\\" %&gt;s %b \\"%{Referer}i\\" \\"%{User-Agent}i\\"" combined
    LogFormat "%h %l %u %t \\"%r\\" %&gt;s %b" common

    &lt;IfModule logio_module&gt;
      # You need to enable mod_logio.c to use %I and %O
      LogFormat "%h %l %u %t \\"%r\\" %&gt;s %b \\"%{Referer}i\\" \\"%{User-Agent}i\\" %I %O" combinedio
    &lt;/IfModule&gt;

    #
    # The location and format of the access logfile (Common Logfile Format).
    # If you do not define any access logfiles within a &lt;VirtualHost&gt;
    # container, they will be logged here.  Contrariwise, if you *do*
    # define per-&lt;VirtualHost&gt; access logfiles, transactions will be
    # logged therein and *not* in this file.
    #
    CustomLog "logs/access_log" common

    #
    # If you prefer a logfile with access, agent, and referer information
    # (Combined Logfile Format) you can use the following directive.
    #
    #CustomLog "logs/access_log" combined
&lt;/IfModule&gt;

&lt;IfModule alias_module&gt;
    #
    # Redirect: Allows you to tell clients about documents that used to 
    # exist in your server's namespace, but do not anymore. The client 
    # will make a new request for the document at its new location.
    # Example:
    # Redirect permanent /foo http://www.example.com/bar

    #
    # Alias: Maps web paths into filesystem paths and is used to
    # access content that does not live under the DocumentRoot.
    # Example:
    # Alias /webpath /full/filesystem/path
    #
    # If you include a trailing / on /webpath then the server will
    # require it to be present in the URL.  You will also likely
    # need to provide a &lt;Directory&gt; section to allow access to
    # the filesystem path.

    #
    # ScriptAlias: This controls which directories contain server scripts. 
    # ScriptAliases are essentially the same as Aliases, except that
    # documents in the target directory are treated as applications and
    # run by the server when requested rather than as documents sent to the
    # client.  The same rules about trailing "/" apply to ScriptAlias
    # directives as to Alias.
    #
    ScriptAlias /cgi-bin/ "/Applications/XAMPP/xamppfiles/cgi-bin/"

&lt;/IfModule&gt;

&lt;IfModule cgid_module&gt;
    #
    # ScriptSock: On threaded servers, designate the path to the UNIX
    # socket used to communicate with the CGI daemon of mod_cgid.
    #
    #Scriptsock logs/cgisock
&lt;/IfModule&gt;

#
# "/Applications/XAMPP/xamppfiles/cgi-bin" should be changed to whatever your ScriptAliased
# CGI directory exists, if you have that configured.
#
&lt;Directory "/Applications/XAMPP/xamppfiles/cgi-bin"&gt;
    AllowOverride None
    Options None
    Order allow,deny
    Allow from all
&lt;/Directory&gt;

#
# DefaultType: the default MIME type the server will use for a document
# if it cannot otherwise determine one, such as from filename extensions.
# If your server contains mostly text or HTML documents, "text/plain" is
# a good value.  If most of your content is binary, such as applications
# or images, you may want to use "application/octet-stream" instead to
# keep browsers from trying to display binary files as though they are
# text.
#
DefaultType text/plain

&lt;IfModule mime_module&gt;
    #
    # TypesConfig points to the file containing the list of mappings from
    # filename extension to MIME-type.
    #
    TypesConfig etc/mime.types

    #
    # AddType allows you to add to or override the MIME configuration
    # file specified in TypesConfig for specific file types.
    #
    #AddType application/x-gzip .tgz
    #
    # AddEncoding allows you to have certain browsers uncompress
    # information on the fly. Note: Not all browsers support this.
    #
    #AddEncoding x-compress .Z
    #AddEncoding x-gzip .gz .tgz
    #
    # If the AddEncoding directives above are commented-out, then you
    # probably should define those extensions to indicate media types:
    #
    AddType application/x-compress .Z
    AddType application/x-gzip .gz .tgz

    #
    # AddHandler allows you to map certain file extensions to "handlers":
    # actions unrelated to filetype. These can be either built into the server
    # or added with the Action directive (see below)
    #
    # To use CGI scripts outside of ScriptAliased directories:
    # (You will also need to add "ExecCGI" to the "Options" directive.)
    #
    #AddHandler cgi-script .cgi

    # For type maps (negotiated resources):
    #AddHandler type-map var

    #
    # Filters allow you to process content before it is sent to the client.
    #
    # To parse .shtml files for server-side includes (SSI):
    # (You will also need to add "Includes" to the "Options" directive.)
    #
    #AddType text/html .shtml
    #AddOutputFilter INCLUDES .shtml
&lt;/IfModule&gt;

#
# The mod_mime_magic module allows the server to use various hints from the
# contents of the file itself to determine its type.  The MIMEMagicFile
# directive tells the module where the hint definitions are located.
#
#MIMEMagicFile etc/magic

#
# Customizable error responses come in three flavors:
# 1) plain text 2) local redirects 3) external redirects
#
# Some examples:
#ErrorDocument 500 "The server made a boo boo."
#ErrorDocument 404 /missing.html
#ErrorDocument 404 "/cgi-bin/missing_handler.pl"
#ErrorDocument 402 http://www.example.com/subscription_info.html
#

#
# EnableMMAP and EnableSendfile: On systems that support it, 
# memory-mapping or the sendfile syscall is used to deliver
# files.  This usually improves server performance, but must
# be turned off when serving from networked-mounted 
# filesystems or if support for these functions is otherwise
# broken on your system.
#
#EnableMMAP off
#EnableSendfile off

# Supplemental configuration
#
# The configuration files in the etc/extra/ directory can be 
# included to add extra features or to modify the default configuration of 
# the server, or you may simply copy their contents here and change as 
# necessary.

# Server-pool management (MPM specific)
#Include etc/extra/httpd-mpm.conf

# Multi-language error messages
#Include etc/extra/httpd-multilang-errordoc.conf

# Fancy directory listings
#Include etc/extra/httpd-autoindex.conf

# Language settings
#Include etc/extra/httpd-languages.conf

# User home directories
#Include etc/extra/httpd-userdir.conf

# Real-time info on requests and configuration
#Include etc/extra/httpd-info.conf

# Virtual hosts
#Include etc/extra/httpd-vhosts.conf

# Local access to the Apache HTTP Server Manual
#Include etc/extra/httpd-manual.conf

# Distributed authoring and versioning (WebDAV)
#Include etc/extra/httpd-dav.conf

# Various default settings
#Include etc/extra/httpd-default.conf

# Secure (SSL/TLS) connections
#Include etc/extra/httpd-ssl.conf
#
# Note: The following must must be present to support
#       starting without SSL on platforms with no /dev/random equivalent
#       but a statically compiled-in mod_ssl.
#
&lt;IfModule ssl_module&gt;
SSLRandomSeed startup builtin
SSLRandomSeed connect builtin
&lt;/IfModule&gt;

oh geez nvm… I wasn’t doing it right… i tried to open it by right clicking and selecting a program and by opening the file itself in the browser… thinking of it like html for some reason. using the whole url works… but you knew that. haha

although the comment in the index.php file still annoys me…

“Something is wrong with your XAMPP installation :-(”
unless someone know what its talking about… it will remain a mystery