Creating a simple PHP forum tutorial (1/3)

Learn to create forum step by step, in this tutorials use only simple php code but powerful.

Overview

In this tutorial, create 5 files
1. create_topic.php
2. add_topic.php
3. main_forum.php
4. view_topic.php
5. add_answer.php

Steps
1. Create table name "forum_question" and "forum_answer" in database "test".
2. Create file create_topic.php.
3. Create file add_topic. php.
4. Create file main_forum.php
5. Create file view_topic.php
6. Create file add_answer.php

If you don't know how to create database and table read this tutorial 

STEP1: Set up database

Create database "test" and create 2 tables "forum_question" and table "forum_answer"

Table forum_question
CREATE TABLE `forum_question` (
`id` int(4) NOT NULL auto_increment,
`topic` varchar(255) NOT NULL default '',
`detail` longtext NOT NULL,
`name` varchar(65) NOT NULL default '',
`email` varchar(65) NOT NULL default '',
`datetime` varchar(25) NOT NULL default '',
`view` int(4) NOT NULL default '0',
`reply` int(4) NOT NULL default '0',
PRIMARY KEY (`id`)
) TYPE=MyISAM AUTO_INCREMENT=1 ;

Table forum_answer
CREATE TABLE `forum_answer` (
`question_id` int(4) NOT NULL default '0',
`a_id` int(4) NOT NULL default '0',
`a_name` varchar(65) NOT NULL default '',
`a_email` varchar(65) NOT NULL default '',
`a_answer` longtext NOT NULL,
`a_datetime` varchar(25) NOT NULL default '',
KEY `a_id` (`a_id`)
) TYPE=MyISAM;

STEP2: Create file create_topic.php

############### Code

<table width="400" border="0" align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="1" bgcolor="#CCCCCC">
<tr>
<form id="form1" name="form1" method="post" action="add_topic.php">
<td>
<table width="100%" border="0" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1" bgcolor="#FFFFFF">
<tr>
<td colspan="3" bgcolor="#E6E6E6"><strong>Create New Topic</strong> </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td width="14%"><strong>Topic</strong></td>
<td width="2%">:</td>
<td width="84%"><input name="topic" type="text" id="topic" size="50" /></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td valign="top"><strong>Detail</strong></td>
<td valign="top">:</td>
<td><textarea name="detail" cols="50" rows="3" id="detail"></textarea></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>Name</strong></td>
<td>:</td>
<td><input name="name" type="text" id="name" size="50" /></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>Email</strong></td>
<td>:</td>
<td><input name="email" type="text" id="email" size="50" /></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>&nbsp;</td>
<td>&nbsp;</td>
<td><input type="submit" name="Submit" value="Submit" /> <input type="reset" name="Submit2" value="Reset" /></td>
</tr>
</table>
</td>
</form>
</tr>
</table>

STEP3: Create file add_topic.php

############### Code

<?php

$host="localhost"; // Host name
$username=""; // Mysql username
$password=""; // Mysql password
$db_name="test"; // Database name
$tbl_name="forum_question"; // Table name

// Connect to server and select database.
mysql_connect("$host", "$username", "$password")or die("cannot connect");
mysql_select_db("$db_name")or die("cannot select DB");

// get data that sent from form 
$topic=$_POST['topic'];
$detail=$_POST['detail'];
$name=$_POST['name'];
$email=$_POST['email'];

$datetime=date("d/m/y h:i:s"); //create date time

$sql="INSERT INTO $tbl_name(topic, detail, name, email, datetime)VALUES('$topic', '$detail', '$name', '$email', '$datetime')";
$result=mysql_query($sql);

if($result){
echo "Successful<BR>";
echo "<a href=main_forum.php>View your topic</a>";
}
else {
echo "ERROR";
}
mysql_close();
?>

STEP4: Create file main_forum.php

############### Code

<?php

$host="localhost"; // Host name
$username=""; // Mysql username
$password=""; // Mysql password
$db_name="test"; // Database name
$tbl_name="forum_question"; // Table name

// Connect to server and select databse.
mysql_connect("$host", "$username", "$password")or die("cannot connect");
mysql_select_db("$db_name")or die("cannot select DB");

$sql="SELECT * FROM $tbl_name ORDER BY id DESC";// OREDER BY id DESC is order result by descending
$result=mysql_query($sql);
?>

<table width="90%" border="0" align="center" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1" bgcolor="#CCCCCC">
<tr>
<td width="6%" align="center" bgcolor="#E6E6E6"><strong>#</strong></td>
<td width="53%" align="center" bgcolor="#E6E6E6"><strong>Topic</strong></td>
<td width="15%" align="center" bgcolor="#E6E6E6"><strong>Views</strong></td>
<td width="13%" align="center" bgcolor="#E6E6E6"><strong>Replies</strong></td>
<td width="13%" align="center" bgcolor="#E6E6E6"><strong>Date/Time</strong></td>
</tr>

<?php

// Start looping table row
while($rows=mysql_fetch_array($result)){
?>
<tr>
<td bgcolor="#FFFFFF"><? echo $rows['id']; ?></td>
<td bgcolor="#FFFFFF"><a href="view_topic.php?id=<? echo $rows['id']; ?>"><? echo $rows['topic']; ?></a><BR></td>
<td align="center" bgcolor="#FFFFFF"><? echo $rows['view']; ?></td>
<td align="center" bgcolor="#FFFFFF"><? echo $rows['reply']; ?></td>
<td align="center" bgcolor="#FFFFFF"><? echo $rows['datetime']; ?></td>
</tr>

<?php// Exit looping and close connection
}
mysql_close();
?>

<tr>
<td colspan="5" align="right" bgcolor="#E6E6E6"><a href="create_topic.php"><strong>Create New Topic</strong> </a></td>
</tr>
</table>