Want to build a website without needing to write any code? You have come to the wrong place.

If I could make websites do what I want without writing code, that would be great. Unfortunately, the way I want my websites to work cannot be done without writing at least s0me code.

Making that code as easy as possible is what I need. I found something I think does that, called Universal Web Hookups. I am going to post a set of UWH on this thread. I am making training on how to use them. I will post that training here too.

 

Interested in seeing this. I didn't find anything on the net with a quick search. Extremely neat CSS code is what we were always taught (again I am way far behind). Learning how to write the CSS in a way so that you write one line of code making it do four things instead of writing four lines of CSS code was the big deal then. Then enter PHP and I'm not sure at all how to streamline that. I am liable to be way off base here in general, too!

 

Matter of fact, I just so happen to be working on a little project for Holly that explores this very concept!. (Coincidence that Holly and Dan think alike? I think not! Great minds tend to do that. )
But I've not found anything yet that doesn't require some level of technical knowledge to make any but the most basic modifications to the look of a website.
One program I'm working on right now (Kirby) is teaching me some basic php with some well written docs, so I'm finally learning to modify a site. But that only proves the point that there still isn't a way to make a unique website without writing some code.
Nothing wrong with coding though. As long as it's logical and not hard to learn.

 

The way I went about it was just like learning another language, because that is basically what you are doing. Each line or character does something in our English language that makes sense to us. Also, each line or character can also do something that makes sense to the computer. Once I know what that is, I am good. Some places want to teach in concepts - my only real class in general programming was that way and I didn't learn a thing, really. Tell me what ? does, and I'll be good to go. Or tell me that you HAVE to have a semicolon at the end of each line of code before it works, or tell me the / HAS to be in the closing tag. or even that a tag is a tag.

To me that was the logical part of it and made it not hard to learn. It can be easily made not logical though. (Dan's WP rant cracks me up--especially about comments. Who thought that requiring putting stuff in comments in order for a thing to work would ever be a good idea? No wonder he was riffling his hair. That's exactly how I learned it to--comments were for anything for you, from reminding you what the code meant to curse words because the last time you were there it wasn't behaving.

 

Fortunately, I have found ways to include curse words in the actual code.

Carla, you just happened to hit on something and make me feel great. Every response I have seen to the statement I made about using the comments for code has been to point out that WordPress is not the only software to put code in the comments. I guess people think that is important to know. My response is it is a bad practice and it sucks wherever it is done. The reason I was so surprised to find it in WordPress is I had expected WordPress to be "modern" and thus not to do something as archaic as that. Not to mention, it's done only in page templates, but not all templates just the page templates, and page.php is a template but not a page template. Geez Louise.

Just to make sure, before responding further, what is it you are interested in seeing? If it's Universal Web Hookups (uwh), you have them. Holly's blog is made with them and the system is full of them.

By themselves, uwh do not produce anything visible. I should make a blank set to illustrate this better, but actually, it is not unusual for software to be invisible except as it is implemented as at least and example or demo. In the case of Holly;'s blog, the blog is the demo.

They used to called page parts. This is an exhibit on pageparts from the beginning of 2015. At the time, Holly ws going to call her new site Holly Lisle's Writing School (HLOWS). We refer to her system as a hot rod, space ship or ride. You can see what my assessment of the software was at the time. I felt that using page parts to a significant part of a complicated site would reach a point where the scheme would become more of a problem than a solution. That has turned out not to be the case.


There has been a sequence of discovering why pageparts/uwh are valuable. I am sure they help me, but so far there is no proof that they can help any other programmer. The first main test of that is the reaction you and the other two volunteer programmers will have as you learn to work on Holly's site. For that purpose, it might be best if you never hear of uwh or pageparts, but just use the programs we have setup so far to do things on Holly's site. If you can do things then that is proof they work, but the real test is whether the way this software works for programmers makes sense and seems as easy as possible. The ridiculous belief I have come to have is there is a lot about uwh that is the simplest way possible. For example, there is no simpler way of retrieving a set of records and displaying them on a web page than the way you do it with uwh, that is not without giving up control and flexibility. This how you do it with uwh:

Code:

$sql="SELECT *  FROM `xf_post` WHERE userid=50"
$rows=getRows(sql);
showArray($rows);

You can see that running at this link. There you will see member# 50's forums posts in forums here at 21C. As member #50 adds posts, they will be reflected at that link. Heads up, you are member #50.

The important thing is you now have the data and you can do anything you want with it. I will show you how but now I am a little short of time. What I am saying is there is no simpler way to get data into form where you can do whatever you want with it than this. There are simpler ways to get the data, like using this forum software, but you cannot do with it anything you want. With the forum software you can do only what the forum software allows. There also is no programming system that does it more simply, because it cannot be simpler. This is my hypothesis, and I think it is true but it is not proven.

We need a way to show people how this works.

Important Request
Please tell me if this was too much theory, like the CSS stuff you talked about. The real test is whether you find what we are doing understandable and workable.

 

[blink]

So messages can be extracted to a single file for each user? [Mine must be huge.]

Given that,a feature I want, which should be reasonable to do given the format: the ability to export all my posts, just like I can for my inbox/sent folders.

 

Can I have one that exports peanut butter fudge?

It's 3 a.m. I had to.

 

Have you not seen this?

for access you will need
rez
hewerofwater

 

That might be what I was looking at, I forget. It's like... minutes later, at least.

<clicks link>
<discovers that Dan has changed the password>
<wonders if updating that nuked my forum password>

Well, that's an export, but not a clean export since it includes all the crap that's peripheral to the text of the posts.

 

I about fell out my chair reading this post. I will do some testing report further.

I can tell you now, every time thst URL is called, any post in the database with your id, which is 5, is sent to the browser requesting the URL. If you have a post that you have submitted and do not see on that page, that would be a stunning discovery. Minutes delay is even more stunning.

I don't have this setup for my account but will soon

 

So quickly I forget.

<checking>

It appears to include from my first post, to this one:

[post_id] => 2025 [thread_id] => 218 [user_id] => 5 [username] => Reziac [post_date] => 1467982603

But nothing I've posted after that is displayed, including today's posts. I'm wondering if it has not updated since the function was created. Did it generate a static page??

I assume [post_date] is in Unix-timer-speak?

 

What kind of delay are you getting for your most recent post appearing here.?

 

You mean how long does it take that page to come up?

About 3 to 5 seconds.

If you mean this here post I'm editing right now? Didn't show up.

 

I really want to find out what is going on with this.

 

I really want to find out what is going on with this.

 

andthis

 

This 27 second video shows what should be happening.

 

Man, is that downloading slow...

This is the post it now shows me.

 

That is an error. That is showing you my most recent post instead of yours. This is unrelated to the problem where you are not seeing all your posts yet at this link. I think I have explanations and solutions for both problems.

I think sanity will come to this most quickly by resolving this new problem first. The new problem is happening on a facility that will provide all members of this site all their posts in a variety of forms. Right now, all we are showing is the most recent post, to make the shakedown of this go faster. Once we get it delivering the correct posts to any member using it, I'll remove the filter and all our posts will stream through the new facility. Then I will have some fun showing how awesome it is to have a stream like that running through the middle of our php app, where we can bring to bear the full power and flexibility of anything that is possible with computer software today, unhindered by constraints forced by software that does not answer only to us.

I have not discussed with Holly setting this up on her site.

Kirsten will have the option of using this facility to provide content to her new blog.


The Programming Error Displaying My Most Recent Post Instead of Rez's

When assembling the member feed facility, I pulled code from a number of sources. One of the sources
is a program that was written to display only my posts. That code make it into the member feed system,
and caused my posts to be the only posts that it would display, no matter who was calling for the feed.

So, the reason you are seeng my most recent post instead of yours is pretty simple.

That is showing you my post. It is supposed to show you your post, using your member_id which the member feed program can discover via a cookie with your id number put on your browser when logging in to this site.

Correction to Member Feed
Replacing the Hard-Coded value of My Member_id with a Variable Containing the Member_id of the Member
Login Used to Access the Page

This is not secure, because you could access any member's post by changing the value on your cookie to someone else's member_id. I have some working examples of how cookies can be setup to do this in a secure way. The easiest way for us would be to put the member feed function inside XenForo, as I started doing at this link. With this arrangement, the page with the feed can be accessed only with a browser logged into XF. Instead of the member_id read from the insecure cookie, we can get the member_id from XF session data. XF session data is secure.

Secure Edition of the Member Feed


Source of The ID Used by Secure Member Feed

This code a typical arrangement for running XenForo software. It is almost exactly the same code that
runs every page in XenForo, /index.php. This code ties the member feed into the XF security system
and its page building mechanics, giving us an easy way to run a custom app, such as member feed,
from inside XenForo.

So, I just now did a little work on that link so that link has the same content we are going for here.

The downside of the "inside XenForo" version of member feed is the presentation of the the member feed is wrapped inside sometbing that is not easy to control. The member feed in the test area can be styled absolutely any way we want, but it is not secure.

Question: Are you now seeing your most recent post in both editions of the member feed?
Insecure member feed
Secure member feed

Once we are both sure you are seeing the right posts, I'll take a shot at explaining why you were not seeing all your posts.

 

I am fixing the link to the member feed inside XF. i hate it when I break something while writing about and then not notice the break until after I have posted.