Here's a script I wrote to create a simple message board for my website. It can be viewed here: http://www.hell0.com/shout.php .<html>
<head><title>hell0 it</title></head>
<body>
<pre>
<a href="index.html">h o m e</a>
</pre>
<form action="<?php echo $_SERVER['PHP_SELF']?>" method="POST">
<textarea name="message" rows="20" cols="60" wrap="virtual"></textarea>
ascii art? <input type="checkbox" name="ascii" />
<br><input type="submit" value="hell0 it" />
</form>
<br>
<?php
/************************************************** ************************************************** *****
Sh0ut/hell0 it! is a simple message posting script written in PHP that does not requires only a text file
Copyright (C) 2004 Alex Beal
This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or
modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License
as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2
of the License, or (at your option) any later version.
This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
GNU General Public License for more details.
You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
along with this program; if not, write to the Free Software
Foundation, Inc., 59 Temple Place - Suite 330, Boston, MA 02111-1307, USA.
************************************************** ************************************************** *****/
if(@$raw_message=rtrim(strip_tags($_POST['message']))) //check for string in shout
{
/*FORMATTING STRING*/
if(strlen($raw_message)>2000) //if over 2000 characters truncate and format
{
$fmessage = "\n<hr> " . substr($raw_message,0,2000) . '<p>Message truncated to 2000 characters' . '<!--' . $_SERVER['REMOTE_ADDR'] . '-->';
} else { //if under 2000 characters just format
$fmessage = "\n<hr> " . $raw_message . "<!--" . $_SERVER['REMOTE_ADDR'] . "-->";
}
if(@$_POST['ascii']) //if ascii art then insert <pre> tags into $fmessage
{
$fmessage = substr_replace($fmessage,'<pre>',0,0) .'</pre>';
}
/*WRITING STRING TO DATABASE FILE*/
umask(077); //make the file 077 permission
$messagedb=fopen("shout", "r+");
flock($messagedb,2); //stop file from being messed up
$old_data = fread($messagedb, filesize("shout")); //get all stuff from the file (old data)
rewind($messagedb); //to to beginning
fwrite($messagedb,"$fmessage". "$old_data"); //write new stuff then add old data
flock($messagedb,3); //perissions back
fclose($messagedb); //close file
}
/*DISPLAY MESSAGE DATABASE*/
echo '<tt>'; //needed to format ascii art corretly
include "shout";
echo '</tt>';
?>
<p><b><font size="-3">Sh0ut/hell0 it! V2.3.1</b> Alex Beal (C) 2004. Released under the <a
href="http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/gpl.html">GNU GPL</a>.</font>
</body>
</html>
The way it works is it stores the messages to a text file in the same directory that the script is located. When a person wants to see the messages it spits out the text file. It's written in PHP and will need a PHP enabled host.
There are several problems with it. First, if someone spammed it a lot the text file that stores the messages could become very very large. Also, if many people post messages at the same time the file containing the messages could become mangled. I tried to prevent that with the "flock()" call.
Files:
Linux (http://www.hell0.com/files/shout-2.3.1.tar.gz) Windows (http://www.hell0.com/files/shout-2.3.1.zip)
Go ahead and edit it, add a login system, whatever. It's released under the GNU GPL.