Use PHP to build a Twitter-like system on your site

http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/opensource/library/os-php-twitter-interface/index.html?S_TACT=105AGX54&S_CMP=C0226&ca=dnw-1008&ca=dth-st&open&cm_mmc=4865-_-n-_-vrm_newsletter-_-10731_105741&cmibm_em=dm:0:6992641

by jaspertheghost • 17 years ago

25 26 17 years ago

ibm.com

BjornW2• 17 years ago

I haven't read the article in full, but I wonder why the author hasn't used laconi.ca (the free open source software which is used by identi.ca). Why should you be creating a new microblogging solution when a perfectly good open platform exists?

ryanwaggoner• 17 years ago

Learning.

BjornW2• 17 years ago

Interesting. I would have given the same answer some time ago, yet lately I have the feeling that I learn more from installing, configure and dive into somebody else' code and extend / change it than writing something from scratch. I guess both are valid 'methods' to learn, although the latter benefits open source projects like laconi.ca as well.

mikeyur4• 17 years ago

Wordpress is the complete blogging solution, or so I'm told. So why did I bother to code a CMS for myself from scratch? Because I wanted to learn and it better suited my needs.

tjogin• 17 years ago

This is really insufficiently complex and/or interesting to belong here, is it not?

helium• 17 years ago

Well it's on the front page

gearslips• 17 years ago

Agreed.

nir• 17 years ago

Personally I'd still take this kind of article any time over the "why [Twitter | Facebook | etc] is the [next Google | biggest failure ever]", "5 timeless principles for [ building startups | coding | marketing] I just thought of, having done it for almost a year now" or anything from TechCrunch & co.

mikeyur4• 17 years ago

Agreed. I love articles that tell you how to build something from scratch, they always give me new ideas.

Jem4• 17 years ago

Is it just me or is there a total lack of input validation? mysql_real_escape_string isn't going to protect you from code injection...

jncraton2• 17 years ago

It's not just you. They don't use htmlentities at all.

jonursenbach3• 17 years ago

htmlentities() might help to protect you from SQL injection, but it won't do a damn thing against XSS attacks.

mikeyur4• 17 years ago

I don't think the point of this article was to be a copy and paste twitter alternative, it's more to show that it's possible to do it (at least that's what I got out of it).

There's also no hashing/salting of user passwords or anything. Even with some minor coding experience you should be able to pick this out.

Jem4• 17 years ago

I get that, but when I'm not browsing Hacker News I keep company with hundreds of teens who take code like this and implement it into their own sites, or edit it a bit and redistribute it. I think releasing code of this standard without specifically stating that it is not ideal for actual public use, you put these teen's sites at risk - perhaps without even realising it.

jonursenbach3• 17 years ago

mysql_real_escape_string() _will_ protect you from code injection.

- http://php.net/mysql_real_escape_string "Note: If this function is not used to escape data, the query is vulnerable to SQL Injection Attacks."

- http://www.php.net/manual/en/security.database.sql-injection...

- http://www.metatitan.com/php/16/protecting-your-phpmysql-que...

- http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Programming:PHP:SQL_Injection

Jem4• 17 years ago

CODE injection, and SQL injection are two different things. I am talking about injecting malicious JavaScript etc - XSS attacks primarily.

rbanffy• 17 years ago

I only hope part #2 addresses the scalability problems #1 has before the site becomes a hit... ;-)

tghw• 17 years ago

How about just installing laconica?

callmeed• 17 years ago

First, it's interesting that they call this an intermediate level tutorial/article. I'd definitely put a microblog in the begginer category (The "build a blog in 15 mins" screen cast is one of the first things people watch when getting into Rails).

Second, in the time it took to write this article, one could have built the actual app to provide for download or as an open-source project.

Use PHP to build a Twitter-like system on your site

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