advice about designing ringtones site

**bobmurphy** · 10-20-2004, 08:50 AM

hi
someone wants me to design a site for mobile phone content - ringtones, gifs etc. I was thinking of doing the site in xhtml and php, storing the content in directories on the server and storing the locations of these files in a mysql database which the site would be able to access - would this be a reasonable approach - i presume that it's not possible to store the files (midi and gif) themselves in the actuall database.
Also i would consider getting a preprogrammed script if one existed - has anyone heard of one. Would anyone hazzard a guess as to how long it would take to build a site like this - they say they only want something simple, with about 100 each of midi files and gifs.

thanks for any help
bob

**Jona** · 10-20-2004, 08:54 AM

Originally posted by bobmurphy
hi
someone wants me to design a site for mobile phone content - ringtones, gifs etc. I was thinking of doing the site in xhtml and php, storing the content in directories on the server and storing the locations of these files in a mysql database which the site would be able to access - would this be a reasonable approach - i presume that it's not possible to store the files (midi and gif) themselves in the actuall database.
Also i would consider getting a preprogrammed script if one existed - has anyone heard of one. Would anyone hazzard a guess as to how long it would take to build a site like this - they say they only want something simple, with about 100 each of midi files and gifs.

Why use XHTML? It has no advantages on the Web over HTML 4.01 Strict. If you're using MySQL (I don't know about other databases, but I'd imagine it's relatively the same), you can save binary files (MIDIs and images) to the database directly, so you won't have to upload all of the files in seperate directories, you can just upload them directly to the database. The type of field is called "BLOB." You might try phpNuke as a content management system, which I believe is also free.

Edit: I just searched for phpNuke and it costs $10. Most hosts come free with phpNuke, though, or some other CMS (content management system) pre-installed.

**bobmurphy** · 10-20-2004, 09:43 AM

Why use XHTML? It has no advantages on the Web over HTML 4.01 Strict.

i was under the impression that xhtml was meant to phase html out and that there would never be a html 5 - at least i think i got this from reliable sources. I've done a few sites in it and i didnt find it much different from html 4 - are you saying that there's some kind of disadvantage to it ?? Or am i correct about html being phased out in favour of xhtml

ps thanks for your reply .

**Jona** · 10-20-2004, 09:52 AM

HTML is, and always will be, fully supported. XHTML is a new technology to break-in XML technologies for the Web, but XHTML has no advantages of HTML. The disadvantages of XHTML is backwards compatibility, among others. Search these forums for some more information on their differences.

**PeOfEo** · 10-20-2004, 02:18 PM

Xhtml should be used for a ringtones tiste. Particularly if you want to make it accessible to the cell phone. I have noticed a sort of screw xhtml sentiment come over the forums the last few days....

**Jona** · 10-20-2004, 05:38 PM

You're right, Peo, pardon my ignorance. I'm not an expert on this, really. I don't deal with mobile phone technologies much.

**sharkey** · 10-20-2004, 06:04 PM

I have noticed a sort of screw xhtml sentiment come over the forums the last few days....

Yeah i noticed that too but i still intend to use it.

**davidbrent** · 10-20-2004, 06:21 PM

i think i prefer XHTML as its strict docytypes can keep me on track with the approach to coding i should be taking.

**pawky** · 10-20-2004, 06:22 PM

Originally posted by PeOfEo
Xhtml should be used for a ringtones tiste. Particularly if you want to make it accessible to the cell phone.

could u please explain why xhtml should be used for a site like this? Thx

**bobmurphy** · 10-20-2004, 09:18 PM

You might try phpNuke as a content management system

jona - what's the learning curve with php nuke like - i dont really have a lot of time to learn something very complicated from scratch - do you know of any "for dummies" type tutorials on the net - i always find they get me going ?

**Jona** · 10-20-2004, 10:27 PM

I set up phpNuke once as a test; it used a MySQL database and didn't take very long to learn how to use. I never read any tutorials on it, but I'm sure there are plenty available if you search Google for them.

**PeOfEo** · 10-20-2004, 11:09 PM

Originally posted by pawky
could u please explain why xhtml should be used for a site like this? Thx

Because most newer cell phone browsers read xhtml, but will fail on html 4.01. WML is also a safe bet for a cell phone site, but wml is a bit out dated.

**Ribeyed** · 10-21-2004, 04:34 PM

Hi,
I'm interested in this post bobmurphy could you share with me how you would link the ringtone with the users mobile phone? What happens when the user purchases the ringtone, how is the ringtone sent to the mobilephone?

Any help on this would be great.

David