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Show HN: My first webapp. Yikes! Read and Post Stories anonymously

sam-the-man.com

5 pointssamjc11 comments

This Project is here to help me learn PHP & MySQL

If this is a project to learn PHP and MySQL (and maybe Javascript) you should not build it using bootstrap (you've lose all the fun ;). But this is only my opinion.

How is bootstrap holding back when it comes to PHP an MySQL? JS, sure, I can understand, since most of it is just using their API, but how is it holding me back when it comes to PHP and MySQL?

Because it is not necessary to learn PHP/MySQL. And if you add JS, even worst, don't use bootstrap at all. Don't use any PHP framework too at this stage.

It's a framework that makes things look decent enough by default though.

If your goal is to learn something other than web design (eg. PHP / MySQL), then surely you want something that can do things well in that department by default so you don't have to mess around with it too much?

That was my intention: Learning the practical side of PHP and MySQL, without having to deal with too much design and markup. At the same time I didn't want my project to like a POS, which is the main reason I used Bootstrap.

The color of the large top banner is killing my eyes but otherwise it seems to work as intended. Did you seed the stories yourself or did you get some actual users to write them?

It's killing your eyes because it's too damn ugly or because it's too bright? The stories are all from actual users. Family, friends, friends of friends, etc.

I made this to get into php and mysql. Constructive Criticism, and suggestions are welcome and appreciated :).

Probably needs a Recaptcha or similar (http://www.google.com/recaptcha) on the form to slow down those pesky webspammers a bit. Maybe think about nofollowing (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nofollow) any links in the story too, so you don't get used as SEO juice. My link didn't work out too well either (changed to http://www.sam-the-man.com/yikes/www.google.com)

Also, make sure to filter your user input to avoid XSS attacks. I just posted a story and your page will print HTML and JS verbatim, meaning I could do malicious things. See here: https://www.owasp.org/index.php/Cross-site_Scripting_(XSS)

Apart from that, looks pretty good, well done :)

Thank you very much. I was hoping that the mysql_real_escape_string() function would be enough, but it did seem too easy.

I will definitely look further into it! Thanks again

I'm not a PHP / MySQL guy, but this might help: http://stackoverflow.com/a/110576

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