pie1ect:
Lay off Yawa,

Hmm, toasting with style

@ruudie
Ds softwares av different versns for d various OS around - b it windows, linux, wateva. Just look around d download page of d respective site. D windows versn which webdezzi posted its links (bet he is assuming we all run on windows) wil work for ur OS - XP whateva or Vista whateva.
And back to ur nö 1 questn, do u mean running apache and IIS? Iv not tried dat out before but to be on d safe side, I think u may have to turn off one to use d other esp if the two listens to d same port.

This is getting interesting
Yawa's no 3 point 3) We need a solid architecture (navigation, features, etc) seem the most important to me. Believe it, that is where the most work will come from. There is the need to identify what will be included in the site - features, content, etc. This will further help split the work.

9ijaprince:

@ yawa
your type of lady is very rare in naija, am already falling in love with you.

@abes
I was patiently waiting for webdezzi to conclude talks on installing Apache, mysql and php before I chip in the boundled softwares - softwares that have mysql, php and apache together so that u just install everything at a go. Being honest, Iv never installed the 3 seperately (I actually use AppServ). But then, this is an opportunity to learn how to do it one by one.
You see, those softwares - appserv, wamp, easyphp and co have their disadvantages. For one, they come with settings that the author thinks is best which is not in all cases correct. For example, there are some extensions (think of this as additional functionalities) that I'd love the current php I run locally to come with. Examples are sqLite, ffmpeg-movie, wbxml and memcached. But since I didnt compile PHP myself, these are out.
What am I driving at? When u do things urself, you have better edge.

if i am correct, the port remains opened and it is kept alive while mail is being sent

Yup, u are correct.
By the way, you can as well tweak the SendmailSend method (function) as well so that the opened sendmail socket is not closed till you do so explicitly. This is done by removing the pclose part and putting that in ur own custom method.

@kolex
Guess u wont b needg an ebook nw as someone is taking his time to explain better. As regards d db, u can only set dat up directly frm ur cpanel and not d cpanel PMA. Go to database in ur CPanel nd select add new. Any db u add will show up when u now open PMA. Note dat ur db name will b prefixed wt ur cpanel username. So make d changes to ur scripts. Dont forget ur username nd pwd too

mysql_connect('localhost', 'username', 'pwd');
mysql_select_db('username_dbname');

@webguru
Do u mean an intranet thing? Dat has to do with networkg. A system wil be set as d server (with d php, mysql, web server nd project installed on it) nd assigned a static IP. All other connected systems (PCs) can den access d app via d IP. eg http://10.10.2.9/NL instead of http://localhost/NL (on hosting machine) or http://NL.com (internet). Dats just a simple flow though. There are other things. In any case, the major work is d networkg part. All systems dat wil access d project must be networked to d server.

Hmmm, should mail() come after ur redirect? Snc u said d mail works then d redirect doesnt. Put d mail fnc before d header. Also try this after d header:

exit;

Hope that works.

@webdezzi
Tnx for taking ur time to check out d class nd not just take my word for it. I purposely didnt want to mentn phpmailer but now that u av, fine.
Phpmailer offers 3 methods for mailing- php mail, smtp and sendmail (popening mail path). For loops i'd recommend smtp. But not just that. D SMTPKeepAlive variable should be set to true. Here:

$mail->new phpmailer();
$mail->IsSMTP();//sets method to smtp

$mail->SMTPKeepAlive = true;//dont close socket til socket closing funtn is explicitly called
//, other tns
while(, ){
$mail->send();
$mail->ClearAddresses();//important! prevnts sendg to already mailed addys
}
$mail->SmtpClose();//nw close smtp connectn

let me knw if u com up wit other tns and proof me wrong where neccessary.

The background shortcut also applies to the list property.
Instead of this:

list-style-image: url(images/abc.gif);
list-style-position: inside;
list-style-type: square;

U can do this

list-style:square inside url(images/abc.gif);

For the (very) few that may not know, this

font-family: Tahoma, Verdana;
font-size: 12px;
font-variant: normal;

Can go this way:

font:normal 12px Tahoma, verdana /*font variant, (font weight if needed), size and family

And by the way, the margin shortcut as well applies to other css properties that have seperate values for their TRBLs e.g padding (padding-top, padding-right, padding-bottom, padding-left) and border-width (border-right-width, border-top-width, )
As uv learnt from the post, that such properties are in the order TBRL, they also go in the order T R/L B and T/B R/L and T/B/R/L. Here is wat Im trying to say:

margin:10px 5px 3px 1px /*10px top, 5px right, 3px bottom, 1px left: Bet already know this now*/
margin:10px 5px 1px /*10px top, 5px right and left, 1px bottom*/
margin:10px 5px /*10px top and bottom, 5px right and left*/
margin:10px; /*Set everything to 10px*/

Create ur own custom From header this way:

$headers = "From: mail@ursite.com\r\n";//or Ur site <mail@ursite.com>
mail($to, $subject, $message, $headers);

But then as I always advise, using mail() inside loops is not always advisable because it opens and closes the mail socket in each call. Use a mail class instead.

I go for this

margin-left: 0px;
margin-top: 0px;
margin-right: 0px;
margin-bottom: 0px;

this way

margin: 0;

Im tempted to recommend clickatell (http://clickatell.com) for a couple of reasons:
1. They have the best api connection Iv ever come across.
2. Their service is good and realiable
But then here are the issues with them
1. You may find it hard to make online payments with them. As a Nigerian, u can only use direct bank transfer
2. Except u can find a work around (talking to them or watever), at last check, u cant send using any 'sender id' u want. Sender id is the name or number the sms sender is set at. U have to register any sender id u want to use. This is actually due to scam purposes.
3. Their fees is somewat costly except u will b buying quite a quantity.
So, to make things simple, I will say u check out http://smslive247.com - easy payment and api integration.

D topic (sounded or looked) more like 'lets share ideas to build a better Nigeria official site' than 'lets review Nigeria's official site' - to me though.

I tried so hard to ignore ds post wen i saw d topic nd noticed it was started by Yawa. Why?
1. Except dat our reviews here wil be effected, its not worth it
2. Just as I well guessed, people wil ignore d post nd start hittg @ Yawa.
@Yawa
Are u designg a new site for d country? Do u knw of someone dat is? Does anytn we say here change tns in anyway? If so i can give some words.

http://mobile.ngbot.com, http://mobile.ngbot.com/m (phone) - downloads, hacks/codes, tips, articles, sms and co,

And u are still not saying wat the problem is. What is the "some wap probs" u want help on?

xclusiv:

I really don't support flash or javascript menus, because both could have accessibility issues,

Yeah but sometimes, using javascript menus may be a better option - like when you are having quite a number of links (say > 20 for example) with some falling as a sub under others. If the script is well written so that it degrades gracefully in case Javascript is no where to be found, things will go well.

yawa-ti-de:

If I am correct (I stand corrected), I think at last count, more people had flash enabled than javascript,

That's awful. I would rather enable js than flash. by the way, one way to flash degradation is using javascript to check if the flash plugin is enabled in the browser. See the link for more details http://www.jgtemplates.com/learn/fp/a003.asp

We need an organisation/organisations with the core objectives (among many others):
- Bring together professional webmasters to share ideas and rub minds on new standards and web technologies
- Bring together bodies and respective organisations and individuals together and put to them the right way to those their scrappy and unstandardized designs
- Show the way of doing things to upcoming developers and designers and create a forum (not a website now - I mean a kinda workshop) where they can ask questions and bare their mind
- Support and fund innovative startup ideas

There should be conferences, seminars, workshops and talkshows. And hey not one people jell together for the selfish interest of making money. Rather one where ideas can be shared, upcoming desgners/dev can be nutured and all this so called corporate bodies be shown d way to do tns right.
Web development in naija today isnt yet well established. Imagine an official of CAC not knwg d meang of website. Imagine me, a non computer science student aving to help computer science students of my sku do their final yr projects (develop a site). Just how many people wil u work up to and tel u av a web startup idea wil listen to u? How many VCCs sef de naija?
Web des/dev should b professnalized. Why should I for example be stucked in Electrical Electronics wen my heart is somewhere else and d closest option - computer sci is worse off?

Been hearing d gist around bt neva bothered to dig into it. Why should I when it may take long mnths for browsers to implement d specs and longer mnths (even yrs) for it to win d market over version 4. What happens if u design in 5 and majority of ur users still run on 4 (many naija cafes for ex still complacently run on IE 6). Is there anythg like backward compatibility? I doubt!
Take CSS 2 as an example. Believe me, many browsers (even ones that claim its implementation) are stil leavg out parts of d specs.
Well, lets c wat d future holds sha.

Im of a different opinion it is not the sharp corner. I really think the corners are ok

@Mustay
Did I hear u say Punch comes next? Geeez, that site really sucks! Scattered layout, scattered ads, man I can pull out a million things done wrong on that site!

@Yawa
Talking RSS, I was once in ur shoes too. Good u found at least some that do have feeds. Didn't in my own time. How can you say you are a news site with no feeds? And for that alone all these newspapers sites are shit to me

And wat exactly do u want help on?

@quad,
i may b a small boy bt nt a newbie in web dev. I'd rather keep my mouth shut dan say wat i dont kwn. Bro, u r confusing sessns nd db together. Db is for persistent storage - storing info as long as, while sessns is for storing info for a set time/till d browser session(runtime) is valid.
D flow here is ds
- user registr nd his username, passwrd nd other necesary info is stored in a db
- on login, validate his login info (username nd password) against wat is in d db
- if a result is not found - invalid login info
- else create a session nd store any necessary info - his userid for example
- Across succesv pgs, check if d needed sessn variable(s) exist.
- Doesnt? He shouldnt b there, throw hm out or restrict wat he can do.
- Does? Retrieve any needed info for d page nd customize.

<?php
//Authenticate
if(!$_SESSION['user.id']){
header('location:getout.php');
exit;
}
//Customìze
echo 'Welcome, '.$_SESSION['user.name'].'
';
//Retrieve oda tns u need here
//e.g select frm, subject, date from mails where toid=$_SESSION['user.id']
?>

Drop me a mail via ray (at) ngbot (dot) com

I understand. Once u change d font, dat will b solved

was actually thinking it was weqrs

Wat should be expected from a VHS to CD convertion company

And then wat is that text that comes after d Josh & kelly? I mean to say the font u used there is not visible (wat is the word now?) enough.