Project Ideas

[Jick]

Hey everyone,
I'm in the mood to start a new web project. The only problem is I can't think of anything worth pursuing. So, my question is, do any of you have any good ideas for a web project? It can be anything... Preferably something that could be accomplished with PHP/MySQL/(X)HTML/CSS/XML since that is all I currently know.

I guess another question I could ask would be, what service/product would you like to see made/made better?

It might not even ever make it to a finished product but I would still like something so I can have something new to do.

Anything anyone could suggest would be great. Thanks guys. :)

[Stephen Philbin]

Funny you should say that. I had a rather good idea for a collaborative project last night. Something really worthwhile. Only problem is — I can't for the life of me remember what the Geoff it was.

I had the idea, but realized I didn't have time to participate. So I thought I'd just leave it for now and bring it up later, but like I said I forgot what it was. >.<

[Jick]

Ha! I know how that can be. I come up with ideas all the time (mostly at night right before I fall asleep) and then I forget them. I hate when that happens >.<

Well, if you remember it some time I'd love to hear about it. :)

[Ultimater]

Many hosts provide a php-driven graphical file manager of some sort however most are amaturish. I think it a necessity to be able to edit files via a TEXTAREA to save you from having to log into the FTP and upload the file every time you make a change. Listing all (ignores files such as .htaccess) the files in a directory can be done with

foreach (glob (http://www.php.net/manual/en/function.glob.php)("*.*") as $filename)


Will prob also need to make use of is_dir() (http://www.php.net/manual/en/function.is-dir.php).

Although your host may provide a suitable interface, never know when the PHP file will come in handy -- perhaps on a different server. Might want to also setup a cookie-driven login to keep others out in case they find the page and yourself logged in.
-------------------
I've been personally playing with XML + XSL lately. Creating a browse-able website with it. Ever see a page index.xml before? Lol. It's a good feeling to be able to code a like:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1"?>
<?xml-stylesheet type="text/xsl" href="default.xsl"?>
<page>
<title>Home</title>
<css>
body{background:white;}
</css>
<javascript>
//alert(document.documentElement.innerHTML)
</javascript>

<leftblock>
<navigation />
content
</leftblock>
<leftblock>
more content
</leftblock>
<middleblock>
<banner src="banner.png" />
</middleblock>
<rightblock>
content
</rightblock>
<rightblock>
content
</rightblock>
<middleblock>
<h1 style="text-align:center">Welcome to my webpage!</h1>
<p style="text-align:center"><em>Any</em> element or node contained within &lt;middleblock&gt; will be sent to (X)HTML directly through:</p>
<div><code style="color:blue;background-color:#cdcdcd;">&lt;xsl:template match="*|@*|node()|comment()|processing-instruction()"&gt;&lt;xsl:copy-of select="." /&gt;&lt;/xsl:template&gt;</code></div>
<p style="text-align:center">Gotta love XSL!</p>
</middleblock>

<navigationbox>
<item><link href="home.xml" text="HOME" /></item>
<item><link href="portfolio.xml" text="PORTFOLIO" /></item>
</navigationbox>
</page>

Also building a PHP backdoor to read the XML file and apply the XSL to it for browsers that don't support XSL,XPath,XML etc then they'd enter index.php instead and be delivered the same page without having to worry about cluttered code.

Oh yeah and dynamic content can be loaded on the XSL side.
Simply create a PHP page that returns text/xsl.

[Jick]

Err... Is what you just posted ideas, or just you telling me what you're up to at the moment? :p

[Ultimater]

Both.
The first was an idea I sort of gave up on -- the one with the file manager -- since I haven't been in the PHP mood lately. Thought you might be interested. The second was something I've been up to at the moment although thought I'd share since it would give you something to do if you've got the time and patience for XSL.

[Jick]

Oh, I see. Well, I was hoping for something a little more simple... I don't want to start something that'll take me 3 years to make. :p Just something that will take up my time and give me results in a short amount of time. I want to make something that I can start using soon. If it's a really complicated project then it'll take a long time before I can actually use it. :(

[Mr Initial Man]

What would you say if I rounded up my old HTML tutorial files and sent them to you?

[Znupi]

I recently started an "AjaxAdmin"... something like a PhpMyAdmin only Ajax-based, so you never have to change the page. It looks and feels pretty good so far but there is a lot of work... Oh, and so far, it only works on Firefox :(. It could be a good project for you :). I can send you what I've done so far with it :).

[Ultimater]

Znupi, I might be interested.

[Znupi]

I uploaded it here (http://dc-hub-hosting.com/znupi/aadmin.tar.bz2). It needs a pretty big load of work and it could use some improvement, I know. It's kind of cool, though :P.

[Jick]

What would you say if I rounded up my old HTML tutorial files and sent them to you?Just for me to read, or what? Sounds good. :)