Website help

[NeilPearson]

im needing some massive help here

I want to build a website, based on GT5 and Lap times around the Top Gear test Track, now i started but i suck at anything HTML or website based. [ http://neil.gpm2world.com/alltimes.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; ]

I was thinking of changing it into wordpress blog sort of thing, and doing it properly with a database (astro mentioned this but i have no idea). I would like to have a full list of every cars, with each colum sortable, then a seperate page wich gives top 10's for different things. race cars, Tyre type, overall, drivetrain. that sort of thing. Which all id do is enter the cars into the database and it auto sorts itself out (if possible)

Then for more annoyance, i want a link on each car in the list to go to a page with a picture of the car, with some details on the car, ie engine size, weight. wheelbase etc etc (basic info that comes in the gt5 screens when you select cars)

I do want to get my own site, as that one i linked to is a mates in the UK, so if i get my own ill have more control. i have no idea what that webhost controls. http://www.godaddy.com" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; seem to be decent? http://www.godaddy.com/hosting/web-host ... cytype=AUD" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; for pricing and what not. but if anyone can suggest someting better im open to it.

I just need some idea's on how i can get started doing this, i would like to learn it all myself. everything i look at on google has sort of confused me a bit.

any help and idea's are much appreciated!

thanks

neil

[Exar Kun]

http://www.godaddy.com seem to be decent?

Danica's sponsorship rubbing off on you?

Good luck with the site dude - sounds like a bit of work, particularly data entry once you get the db setup, but it would indeed be a cool resource.

[NeilPearson]

haha maybe

it shouldnt be to bad, once i get it setup, then ill start seriously doing laps. atm i only have whats on that preview

[ysu]

If it can be done 'simply' AND dynamically - i.e. hacking together something with some online service - I'd be surprised. Not impossible, though.
Sounds like you need a database of cars and results. (maybe tracks later on)

So yeah, your options are, IMHO
- do a static one
- learn programming, because it's a bit more than a few minutes work.

Edit: actually a third option is to find a budding php dev, who's willing to spend time to learn things on a test project.

I'd suggest the second one, and I can even help you out if you chose to go with php.

This system will be very simple, and based on an even simpler database, so it's a good learning one.

Maybe leave the custom sorting for later, especially if you want to provide paging. That can brake the balls of a beginner.
Edit; that linked sorting js is very neat, if you don't have too many results that alone is enough, I guess.

If you chose to do this...
For a start, install an apache/mysql/php environment for yourself, maybe use wamp for simplicity's sake.
Then look around what php does (php.net for a manual, phpbuilder.com and million others for other resources)
Then start putting simple things together.

In the process you'll have to learn HTML better, too, as that's the base for everything web.

Good luck and have fun!

[Takumi]

Ysu is always handy for good web advice
As for a host, I imagine you're after someone half decent but still cheap. I have used MD Web Hosting for the past 3 years and they offer cheap deals on US based hosting - which would probably be fast enough for the kind of site you are suggesting. I recently switched to jumba.com.au as they also have great rates on US based plans.

Check them all out anyway. If you're trying to appeal to the world's GT5 players you may as well have it hosted in the US anyway...

[ysu]

oh, hosting.

It'll depend on what you decide on. I can even offer some linux/php hosting for you during development, free of charge, maybe later on as well, depending on traffic & load I may need you to chip in.
In exchange I want to check your script against attacks, though, as this is a business server.

It's hosted with servint, by the way, west coast, so the lags are around 120ms only. Very good host, altho not the cheapest, they still have damn good deals.
(Edit: it's on the west coast, close to us.)

[NeilPearson]

Jumba seems pretty decent price wise, i think ill go with them

Thanks for the info there YSU, i just installed WAMP, so at least I have something to work with now! (i think)

Regarding the sorting, I would like to eventually get every car in GT5 into it, so thats 1000 odd cars, that might be a bit to big for the js sorter?

[NeilPearson]

yes! i have broken PHP/MYSQL/APACHE already somehow! :\

haha

[bengatta]

I own a bucketload of space at bluehost.com that I barely use...

seemed quite good value... except that I hardly use it...

[ysu]

Jumba seems pretty decent price wise, i think ill go with them

Thanks for the info there YSU, i just installed WAMP, so at least I have something to work with now! (i think)

Regarding the sorting, I would like to eventually get every car in GT5 into it, so thats 1000 odd cars, that might be a bit to big for the js sorter?

You don't have to buy right now - you've two free offers already
I'd do the development first, it'll take a few weeks (especially for a beginner) - unless there's some magical solution.
One thing to keep in mind; dirt cheap hosting will likely have problems (like those the ARSE forums is having regularly). The only way they can provide it, is to oversell a server & bandwidth very badly. The Australian bandwidth costs an arm and a leg, normally, as we know.

And yes, 1000 records in the table might be a bit too much (one the screen as well as) for the js algorithm on some weaker computers.
Not to mention if you decide to run other tracks as well, hehe.

...and how did you break your wamp, what part of it? I'm not using it, mind you, I've the components installed & configured separately...

[NeilPearson]

regarding the hosting, im really reluctant to take up your hosting because its a buisness and I am a beginner and there are bound to be bad security holes everywhere. and I know id feel downright awful if anything happened! Thank you anyway, plus i have always wanted my own host to play with, that i can control. not have to ask someone else for information like i have to do now with the gpm2world stuff, but as you said i can still wait a while

Well when i logged into phpMyadmin and saw the message about setting passwords for root, but i had the idea to remove those user's and create my own user. well that messed it up. I couldnt find the user files in the registry either to get back in either. then the power went out and my computer obviously shut down, and then when i could get back in it had fixed itself and i could just add passwords to the root user instead of removing them. so its all good now.

[ysu]

you should not remove root users, that's for sure
well, have fun.

by the way I did not mean to give you a directory, but a full account - cpanel & everything. It's still on the vps tho, hence I insisted on the security check

[NeilPearson]

you should not remove root users, that's for sure
well, have fun.

i know that now! hehe.

Im reading a tutorial on HTML at the moment. my plans are to build a basic page using HTML then get into the database PHP scripting stuff.

[ysu]

good approach.

one advice; plan out what you want, what functions the site should have. (what should happen when the user does what)
write it down

if you get stuck, just ask. the db is bound to be a simple thing, 2 tables should be enough for a start (car and result) altho if you want to be nifty you can put the manufacturers in a separate table maybe the tyres...altho these aren't likely to change, so it's not very necessary here, I think.

oh; make sure you always use a numeric id for the tables. typical n00b mistake to leave it out and it can bite you in the arse, easily.

[pab]

Just a thought, does anyone else here have an interest in learning php/MySQL too? Perhaps this could become a collaborative project done through the forum that would be done in enough detail that anyone could follow along? My thought would be that each task is broken down and what is done is explained by those who know what they are doing. Like the first step would be defining that we would need a cars table, and someone in the know might suggest this table structure:

caId - int - not null - primary key - auto increment
caBrand - int - not null - default: 0 (id from a brands table)
caModel - varchar - length 50 - null
caYear - int - null
caHp - int - null
etc.

and then explain what each of those meant. Neil could then implement this on his server, and then the next time he needed to build a table he would design the structure, post here and get feedback before implementing it. I've always felt that this would be a good way of learning this sort of stuff as a group. any interest, or is it only Neil that wants to get into it at this stage?

[ysu]

I think giving ca prefixes to all fields is unnecessary. However, I like to write out the full word(s) for each field - these both help readability and clearness later on.

Make sure you guys map what a car has in terms of what properties they got, and we can decide later on which table structure is best, once we know all of the data-requirements.
(do we need other tracks? do we need the person's name who run the lap? etc...)

I recommend mysql workbench (made by the mysql people), it's a great tool to visualise things and even to hack the db together.

The laptimes are probably best stored as an integer, just multiply the actual laptime (in seconds) by 1000, and store the intval() of it. This way you can pretty well order by it, it's unambiguous, and you've stored it on 4 bytes only.
To retrieve it, you need to do some divisions, but it's no big deal.

I think something like this for a start;

gt5_db.jpg

Here's the mysql workbench file for it:

GT5.zip

[ysu]

Just a thought, does anyone else here have an interest in learning php/MySQL too? Perhaps this could become a collaborative project done through the forum that would be done in enough detail that anyone could follow along?

Neat idea

I'm here guys and I can try my best to help as far as my time allows. I think we have a couple more people here who have an idea what to do with a database and a php script
So yeah, go ahead!

[AstrO]

Drupal for the win!

That is all...

[ysu]

Drupal is for loosers
When you build something from the ground up - now that's an achievement!

But in all seriousness; if you want to learn via drupal, I think you've a doubly hard task in front of you.
I don't think this task can be hacked together in drupal without coding either. I maybe wrong, in that case correct me, please. I haven't had a good look at these open source systems for a long while.

I know it could be built in our system in about an hour without touching code, but it's not open source. And while the admin side would be fully functional - as the data management is our main focus - the user output would still need some templating work, so at least 2-3 hours of work would be needed. But it's also a system with some 25 thousand lines of code...bit too heavy weight for something so simple.

[AstrO]

No need to touch code in drupal to get this working, but then you'll need to understand how drupal works.

[ysu]

No need to touch code in drupal to get this working, but then you'll need to understand how drupal works.

then drupal has gone through a lot of changes since I've seen it, last
or I remember something else...which happens sometimes

[NeilPearson]

Thanks for the info guys, im putting this on the backburner for now, not much interest in GT5 and im finding i dont have much time nowdays, and its going to get less and less in the near future.