My music site - Testing needed

DavidN · March 13, 2006, 17:51:54

(I'm not sure if this should go in the General Music folder along with my other post.)

After a long period of inactivity I finally got round to updating my own site, as I took the time to learn a bit of PHP and now have it running with a database in the background rather than with plain HTML.

http://wired.st-and.ac.uk/~wong/modsite/

It now includes download counters and a facility to provide feedback on each song, along with the information that it had before. I'd quite like a few people to test the "interactive" aspects out, just to make sure it isn't just me that can change the database or anything like that.

So basically, spam all you like into the comment boxes - you can see where I've been trying it already, and everything's easily deletable. Other comments on usability and appearance are also welcome, along with hints on how to repair the obvious gaping security holes that come with allowing a comments box in the first place.

Squirrel Havoc · March 13, 2006, 20:02:06

I just did a super quick look, when I clicked on "Scapheap", the nav bar on the left was just all white with blue links and black text. It really doesn't fit in with the rest of the page, was that done on purpose, or are you still working on it?

DavidN · March 13, 2006, 20:13:20

You happened across the one section of the site that I haven't updated yet!

Squirrel Havoc · March 13, 2006, 21:19:13

Quote from: "Wong"You happened across the one section of the site that I haven't updated yet!

And that was the first button I clicked! Hehe the rest of the site looks pretty cool, what did you use the PHP for? And how are you testing it, I mean do you run your own server? And if so, what server? I want to do some PHP for my website, but I can't get Xitami nor Apache to interface with the PHP interpreter.

DavidN · March 13, 2006, 21:28:17

The site is running on a server that's run by WiredSoc, a computer society at the University of St Andrews, so I didn't actually set up PHP/MySQL myself. Basically it's about 400MB of webspace and unlimited bandwidth for ?5 a year after you graduate =D

PHP is used for pretty much everything, though the Covers and FAQ pages are still static HTML. Most of the pages just read information on songs, albums, comments and so on from the database and display them accordingly.

rewbs · March 13, 2006, 22:17:36

Quote from: "Squirrel Havoc"I want to do some PHP for my website, but I can't get Xitami nor Apache to interface with the PHP interpreter.

Have you tried a package like easyPHP? They're usually quite straight forward to set up:
http://www.easyphp.org/

Squirrel Havoc · March 13, 2006, 23:00:24

Quote from: "rewbs"
Quote from: "Squirrel Havoc"I want to do some PHP for my website, but I can't get Xitami nor Apache to interface with the PHP interpreter.
Have you tried a package like easyPHP? They're usually quite straight forward to set up:
http://www.easyphp.org/

I'll check it out, thanks.

You know, for all the time I spend on the internet in one day, you'd think I already have answers for all my questions that aren't MPT related. Maybe I'm looking at the wrong sites.

Squirrel Havoc · March 14, 2006, 04:49:16

I went to look at your site again, since I have more time now. I downloaded a song, "Thrill Of The Chase" I think, and it was pretty cool. I left a comment on it.

One thing I would like to see (if you can even remember this info), is release dates. If they are pre-2003, then just the year will work. It's hard to tell which came before what. Not a big deal, just a nifty feature that would be cool

DavidN · March 14, 2006, 10:54:15

That's not a bad idea - most of the later songs have the completion date (if not the release date) in the Comments section of the file, so I've got somewhere to work from. The only consideration is where to lay it out on the page.