Lost in a Forum

[tickyhead]

Ok, so it turns out I have people who acutally go to my site (GASP!) and it also turns out that they want a forum. My last site had one so I think, "sure, sounds like a reasonable request".

HAH. You see the difference here is that on my old server the forum was pre-installed, here it's not. No complaints or anything, At least here you can choose the type of forum you go out and install. So, I figure since I like the new Xepher.net forum, I'll just install that as their new spamming grounds and everyone will be happy.

Thing is, I'm php illiterate. I don't know a thing about installing forums, what kind of database I'm supposed to have, nothing. It's like going to China and thinking you're in Germany. Or something.

So, I followed the (lack of) instructions on the site, I have the installation page all nice and pretty in the next tab, and now I'm stuck. Wheeeeeee~

So after ALL that mindless rambling, I have juuuuust a few tiny little problems; what "database server hostname" should I use, and what database is it anyway? Do I use my Xepher username & password? Am I a total idiot? (answer: most likely)

if you need a better explanation of what I need, here's a picture.

I'm sure I'm just suffering from brain damage due to school being back and there's actually some VERY simple thing that I missed, but go easy on me please >>; Oh, and remember that if you talk in php-ese I won't understand a word you say.

Thanks in advance to anyone who helps (or tries to)

Yours braindead,
Mary

[Databits]

Considering I no longer have the PhpBB forum installed I'm not entirely sure about this... Being phase 2 I'm betting that you have some sort of easier database interface or reset. However, I'd bet your hostname is going to be something like .xepher.net. I'm not sure if Phase 2 people have hte same password for both their space and database.

[tickyhead]

Yay thank you Data! You reminded me of the database thing that's on the main page. I knew it had a simple solution that I wasn't seeing.

Anyway thanks again, everythings all good now.

[Xepher]

For the record, you should use SQLite, not MySQL whenever possible, such as with punBB. From your POV it'll simply be faster, from my view, it's way less of a headache to manage, and is more secure. I actually plan to do away with the MySQL server within the next year or so, as many of the hacks that come in through various forums are exploits in MySQL. Setting it up to use SQLite now will mean much less headache trying to convert later.

[tickyhead]

ok, thanks for the info Xepher.

:EDIT: ummmm just for the record how do I go about getting it into SQLite now? >>;

[tickyhead]

never mind I think it's all better now. reinstalled it on the SQLite version, since I didn't have all that much on it anyway.

[Databits]

Damn, I suppose that means I should revamp the redesign of my site to SQLite instead of MySQL now.

[Xepher]

When you get around to it, yeah. I'm talking about a year or so here though, as most of the Xepher.net backend itself runs on MySQL, so I have a lot of code to rewrite before I can ditch it completely. For now, I'm just trying to encourage everyone to move to SQLite when possible.

[Databits]

Yeah, but there's no point in me writing all the systems, module based or not, in MySQL if they will need to switch to SQLite in a year. May as well hit it in just one shot. I'm assuming that SQLite is pretty much the same thing?

[Xepher]

*nods* The SQL bit is the same syntax, the only difference is in the function calls in PHP, where you'll use the something like sqlite_query() rather than mysql_query() The only other change (I think) is in what characters have to be escaped in text strings. Still though, should be a trivial difference if you're actually coding (and not fixing someone elses code.)

[MPSinclair]

Does SQLite seem to be a pretty durable alternative to MySQL? One of the things I was most worried about when I first encountered SQLite was its ability to handle large amounts of traffic on a forum based community. From what I've seen though in its use on this board and other PunBB based boards, it stands its ground. Would you say it's pretty reliable, Xepher?

[Xepher]

So far it seems more reliable than MySQL, as that system involves a client/server architecture that has dozens of points of failure. SQLite, via the code library, reads/writes directly to a single file (per database) meaning much less chance of failure. On a lot of MySQL backed sites, (penny arcade springs to mind) you'll often see MySQL errors pop up on their site when the database goes down, but not the webserver itself. No such thing for SQLite, as if the scripting engine is up, then so is the database. And since it's directly writing to a file, it's a lot quicker, and a lot easier to manage. You can just directly copy the file and have a full database backup, and from the point of an admin, you no longer have to manage an entirely seperate permission and quota set for the database server.

The drawback to SQLite is that since it does direct file access, you have no sort of transaction queueing or user permission levels. In place of transactions, it compensates with simple file locking, basically making processes queue for file write access, which works just fine in 99% of situations. I wouldn't try to use it for say, bank accounting when you have a hundred thousand transactions a second though. As for user permissions... it's not that it's insecure, it's simply a matter of permissions to the file itself. That is, anyone who can write to the file can write to the database. This really only becomes a problem if/when you need to set varying permissions to certain columns and tables. Of course, the best way to handle this is to have those permissions set and checked in the program's code, rather than the database engine. I personally think that's a better solution anyway, but it does mean that in such situations where a program relied on that functionality, it can't be just a drop-in replacement for MySQL.

[MPSinclair]

Yeah, especially when the number of concurrent MySQL connections are reached on a site. I generally try to @suppress error messages for functions such as mysql_connect. As for permissions, I usually handle those in the program code as you noted. I've never found a real need to set up multiple permission groups on a database itself in any of my applications.

I played with it a bit while PHP5 was still in early development, and was looking forward to using it in the future, but I wasn't sure how quickly it (PHP5) would be widely adopted. So perhaps I'll go back and start putting it to use again, maybe rework Sary's site (starstricken.xepher.net) to use SQLite.

[Mizuumi13]

So where do I put an application?

[Xepher]

You don't yet... They will go under the "applications" forum when it's open again though.