Reputation Modification

Hello everyone, recently I've been checking the IF Support boards and I noticed that a handful of people request for a Rep mod of some sort. So I got to thinking and then starting writing this for ZetaBoards. This is something basic, and will not eat ANY of your ad credits(If you have any), the loading speeds are fast(Determined by your hosts server mainly). The only downside to this is that it only works 100% in FireFox. Google Chrome doesn't show the Rep but the Plus/Subtract functions work.


PREVIEW: http://s1.zetaboards.com/ZBReputation/index/


So here is the info on what needs to be done:


First you will need to get yourself a host! I use, for a free host, http://ulmb.com Seems to work fine.
Your host will need to PHP & MySQL. You will need at least 1 MySQL database.

Setting up your MySQL database & table
First you will need to create your database. After you have created that, you will need to set up your mysql table.

Open up your phpMyAdmin for your database you have created. Click on the "SQL" tab and run this query:

After that has been run, you will see your table on the left hand side. This is to store info for your Rep Mod.

Ok, create a new directory on your hosts file manager, name it "ZBRep", save and upload the following files:

Save this file as database.php

Save this file as REPUserReg.php

Save this file as REPTopicRes.php

Save this file as ZBUpdateRep.php
Change http://slayer766.ulmb.com near the end of the file to your host name.

Save this file as REPTopicView.js
(Change any occurrence of http://slayer766.ulmb.com to your host name.)

Save this file as REPProfileView.js
(Change any occurrence of http://slayer766.ulmb.com to your host name.)

Save this file as ZBProfileRes.php

Finally, add this code to your Board Template > Below the board:
(Change any occurrence of http://slayer766.ulmb.com to your host name.)

Everything should be set! If you have any problems just let me know. Feedback and suggestions are most welcome.

This post has been edited by slayer766 on Jul 2 2009, 01:27 AM

Looking good slayer, I had already tested it on the other board.

But I do suggest you putting these file in a rar, it's easier to upload then rather create all files.

EDIT: I'm not sure if this is the right way to use trigger_error, I believe it has something to do with E_ERROR? I would rather use die and dispaly the mysql_error.

This post has been edited by Michael on Jul 1 2009, 06:00 PM

The error type in trigger_error function is optional. It defaults to E_USER_WARNING or 512 IIRC.

Michael, die is horrible. It should never be used for any debugging purposes. trigger_error() is much better. It gives you better control on the error type. Ever had die just print out your connection information? Would you really want people seeing that?

slayer: awesome job with the script man. The only suggestions I'll be making are of coding specs. $idz or any numeric number for that matter should be secured via casting or using the intval() function to make it an int. mysql_real_escape_string() function should not be used on strings. As the function name says, it escape strings. So instead of mysql_real_escape_string($_GET['id']), I would suggest one of the following -

Or if you want to be more sophisticated -

Also, integer values don't need quotes around them when you INSERT them or UPDATE using them.

That works just fine. You don't need to do -

As long as the data type for that field is int, MySQL will do the right thing. Same case for SELECT, UPDATE, DELETE, etc SQLs that uses numbers.

A MySQL date field should not be varchar. I would advice either TIMESTAMP, DATE, or DATETIME. You can also have MySQL set the date_reg field to have a default value so you don't have to populate it. That's provided you have it in date format and not varchar. Like such -

For yesterday's date, you can use MySQL to do date math, and IMO, it's very efficient at doing it. Like such -

Lastly, I don't find myself using mysql_num_rows() all that often. It's much more efficient to use MySQL COUNT() aggregate function instead. Like such -

That's about it. Great job on it though.

Thanks a bunch for the feedback you guys, and yeah Michael - Eureka said exactly what I would for the use of trigger_error instead of die. I could have put all the files into a .rar but I never even thought about that, I'll do that sometime.


Ken, thanks for the tips man, appreciate that.

One more thing I should have said but didn't. Most of the time, when your site is up and running with many people viewing it, you don't actually want errors displayed. That's just bad. Members do not want to see this. It scares them to think the site is going down. With trigger_error(), you can create your own function that writes error messages to some log file. die() simply can't do that. It can't do anything but die so I wish die to die already! Does everyone understand my last 2 sentences?

Oh wait, trigger_error writes to the error_log? If so, it rocks

By default, no. You can use set_error_handler function to define your own PHP function that writes it to a log.

looking good man didnt realise that people were still making codes.. i havnt made one in ages...... im like dead out of ideas