Tell me now...

[Delphi]

Is this the Ministry of person who runs the website?

[osmose1000]

Yep. I believe Foghorn is the current one... They call it a signature, but no one ever signs their posts...

[Delphi]

*bangs hand on desk*I want a job here!

[Nick Foghorn Leghorn]

Done!Now redesign the website! ________________It is a damn poor mind indeed which can't think of at least two ways to spell any word.-Andrew Jackson

[Delphi]

The design itself is pretty nice, with the exception that it's all static... And since I'm not the MiniInfo, I'll need more specific direction, rather than deciding myself what to do.

[Nick Foghorn Leghorn]

You are now... the Assistant Minister of Information! (AssMInfo)Script it in PHP, starting with the citizen's page. I need a way for citizens to update their own entries, and an admin account for the MINT to oversee everything. ________________It is a damn poor mind indeed which can't think of at least two ways to spell any word.-Andrew Jackson

[Delphi]

Alright then... I also hope at some point to clean up the coding... It's quite... hackneyed...And just out of curiosity, where is it currently running from, a database, or a text file, or what? Or is it static as well?

[Nick Foghorn Leghorn]

even wierder... it's all XML. And static, at that. ________________It is a damn poor mind indeed which can't think of at least two ways to spell any word.-Andrew Jackson

[Delphi]

XML? Christ... Not my speciality. Actually, I don't quite know how to use it... I'll probably just end up doing it like I always do... With PHP reading from a serialized array stored in a text file...

[Nick Foghorn Leghorn]

as long as the citizens can edit it, go for it. I'm good with XML. ________________It is a damn poor mind indeed which can't think of at least two ways to spell any word.-Andrew Jackson

[osmose1000]

I still don't like the idea of citizens editing it - you'd be effectively nulling the census. And you need to be willing to handle the citizen's page account of every new member, unless you want to risk citizen page spam.And the XML isn't too hard. In fact, the current parser is fine and doesn't need to be touched for what you want to do. Take a quick look at the citizens.xml file and you can easily glean what goes where - magic of XML being that it is clean and readable.If you want to add more, however, just AIM me any questions you have about the parser. They call it a signature, but no one ever signs their posts...

[Delphi]

Ok, here's the deal. I don't know XML and I'd love to learn but am not sure exactly what I'd need to or how I'd go about it at this point. If you want me to keep it XML, it'll be some more time. If I can change it to PHP outputting standard HTML, that I've done numerous times.

[Nick Foghorn Leghorn]

The point of the census will be, because of this, less of a roster and more of a way to see which accounts are still active. And yes, creating a new account for every person sounds like a fine system.Go for PHP, Delphi. ________________It is a damn poor mind indeed which can't think of at least two ways to spell any word.-Andrew Jackson

[osmose1000]

If you'd just take a look at the XML you'd understand what I'm talking about, but since none of you are willing, here's an excerpt from the citizens.xml:img.photobucket.com/album...avatar.pngMooseMinister of InformationCorpNegYardistanLook at that. It's all self-explanatory HTML-esque tags. You can read it easily. If you ever needed to change it you could do it just like you would a normal text file. The only other rule that you need to know is that all XML files need a containing tag around the entire thing, and in the citizens.xml file it's the tag. They call it a signature, but no one ever signs their posts...

[Delphi]

I understand what you mean, but if you want a form which automatically adds and edits entries and shows the output, you'll need a PHP backend.

[Nick Foghorn Leghorn]

which is what we've been trying to figure out for a while. so yes, we're switching to PHP. Sorry moose, but I'd rather have a fully updated census with an easy to use interface than an out of date census with an easy on the eyes yet still slightly complicated backend. ________________It is a damn poor mind indeed which can't think of at least two ways to spell any word.-Andrew Jackson

[Delphi]

In that case... I'll need specs. I.E., details of what you want me to have done.

[Nick Foghorn Leghorn]

look at the citizens page. That, but four to a row, and pics about 100 pixels square max. Upload functionality would be appreciated. Other than that, the same as you see. ________________It is a damn poor mind indeed which can't think of at least two ways to spell any word.-Andrew Jackson

[osmose1000]

*grumblecouldbedoneifyouwerentsofuckingdeadsetonusingdatabasesineverythingyoupeopledocough* They call it a signature, but no one ever signs their posts...

[Nick Foghorn Leghorn]

grumble duly noted. ________________It is a damn poor mind indeed which can't think of at least two ways to spell any word.-Andrew Jackson

[Delphi]

Osmose! It's not like we're using a database-database, just a text file. Christ, it's basically the same as what you do, but simpler and better.

[Delphi]

I kinda get what you're saying, but for the time being at least, I'm going to stick with what I know how to do. Perhaps sometime I can have it explained to me as explicitly and clearly as I'd need it to be able to understand (even though I'm sure it isn't that complicated.

[osmose1000]

Wait - You do realise that the XML is parsed BY a PHP file, right? My point was that the automated XML thing in PHP can be used to perform something for each tag. Take, for example, this code exerpt: function characterData($parser, $data) { global $insidecit, $tag, $pic, $citname, $title, $desc; if ($insidecit) { switch ($tag) { case "PIC": $pic .= $data; break; case "NAME": $citname .= $data; break; case "TITLE": $title .= $data; break; case "DESC": $desc .= $data; break; }This function sets global variables for each tag inside a tag. After this is called, a function named endElement is called. In it, you could simply check $citname, and if it matches the name of the account you're looking for, output the rest of the data into textboxes. Then simply run through the XML file again, only this time, instead of running the above function, you'd run something that would look through the XML file (treating it as a normal text file) until it finds the old values (still saved) and replace them with the new ones.Why am I bitching so much? Because XML is the exact same thing as what you want to do, just in an easier form. EDIT: Also, if you're willing to look it up, there's another method built into PHP of parsing XML files where it gives you access to the entire file at once instead of going through it element by element. That'd make things easier, I believe. They call it a signature, but no one ever signs their posts...Edited by: osmose1000  at: 12/15/05 21:04

[Nick Foghorn Leghorn]

Indeed. Moose:{if (dead_horse)beat();} ________________It is a damn poor mind indeed which can't think of at least two ways to spell any word.-Andrew Jackson

[osmose1000]

Odd that your too lazy to consider the lazy route. Arses. They call it a signature, but no one ever signs their posts...

[david northworthy beckfor]

I think it shall become traditional to swap between xml and php each time the MiniInfo changes

[Delphi]

Can you write to a file (whatever it is you're writing) with XML? (I believe the answer is no). You need something like PHP to do that.

[TonerMan]

no.. noo... NOOOOOOOOOO!... not XML parsing!!!! *had to write an XML parser for Computer Science 315.... Holy Warrior of NeeCommanding General of the Y.A.C.

[Delphi]

That's what I said. It's a pain in the arse.

[osmose1000]

*wrote the current one in maybe an hour* Granted, it uses inbuilt PHP functions.Regardless, me and Deplhi argued more about this, and he beat me. And me admitting defeat is unheard of. I still like being a pain in the arse, though. They call it a signature, but no one ever signs their posts...