Comment Box System: How To

[WoofDg79]

Hey everyone,

I'll start off by putting out there that I am a complete n00b, so expect that I know nothing about MySQL hahaha. Now that that's out of the way, I have a website and I'm trying to incorporate a comment system into it. However I know nothing of MySQL as I just said, and therefore have no idea how to go about this. All I've done so far is create the actual MySQL database. I tried finding code for comment boxes but I don't know how to use them.

Can someone help point me in the right direction on how to put a comment system into website? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

[Fumigator]

First you need to decide on how you are going to access your data. A popular choice is PHP, which is a server-side language that most hosting companies have installed, and it's free, hence, popular.

Assuming you will also be using PHP to access your data, run some google searches on "php mysql tutorial", "php mysql select", etc. Code your way through a couple of tutorials and figure out how it all works, then apply your new knowledge to your own application.

[WoofDg79]

Thanks, that helps. I'll start lookin' up some tuts for those

[WoofDg79]

Sorry for the double post, but I have a question. I setup a MySQL database and have phpMyAdmin installed, then I set out to find a script to put in. My path lead to me to a free comment system that has everything I need and all the files I need to upload it and make it work.

I have everything setup, but I can't figure out how to put the actual comment section into a webpage. This is the only clue I have...

----------------
Use the include.php file to include Comment Script into an SSI HTML file.
<!--#include virtual="./include.php?c5t_ssi=1"-->
Please make sure you set the correct path.
----------------

I don't know how to use that middle line of code, or where to put it. Any help or suggestions?

[Fumigator]

That line of code is a "server-side include" command (SSI), which is a simple way to bring a file into another. Just stick it in your HMTL file where you want this script to be run (I suppose).

Here's an introduction to SSI:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Server_Side_Includes

[WoofDg79]

Thanks again, I had actually wound up stumbling across the answer before you replied. The comment boxes seem to be working completely, except for one thing.

Now whenever I go to my website or any page on my website, if I do 'not' type the ".htm" or ".html" on the end of the address it says the page does not exist. I'm assuming that is because they are being parsed as php files at the moment. However, if I do type in the file extension it works perfectly. Going off that, if I type my website.com it doesn't display the comments on the index page. but if i type my website.com/index.html it shows them.

Is there any way to make my website recognize when it needs to tack on ".html" to itself or have it automatically load index.html when "index.html" is not typed?