How to Make a Shoutbox With PHP and SQL

A shoutout box is a type of interface installed on the sidebar of a blog or website where users send messages that display real-time on the page. You can use a SQL database to store the messages so that each page displays the messages each time a user opens the page. Shoutout boxes let readers express thoughts without creating an account or commenting in blog comment sections.

Instructions

1. Open your PHP editor and the file you want to use to create the shoutout program interface.

2. Create the shoutout box using a simple HTML form. The following code creates the HTML form in the PHP page:

   <form action='storeinfo.php' method='post'>
   <input type="text" id="shoutout">
   </form>

   In this example, the "storeinfo.php" file stores the message in the SQL database. Replace this file with your own file name.

3. Open the PHP processing file to store the message in the database. Start the code with a connection to the database, like so:

   $connect = mysql_connect($host,$username,$password) ;
   mysql_select_db($database,$connect)

   Replace the host, username and password values with the values needed to connect to the server. Replace the database value with the name of your database.

4. Create the query to insert the message into the shoutout table:

   $query = "insert into shoutout (message) values ('" .$_POST['shoutout']. "')";
   mysql_query($query)

5. Redirect the reader back to the page from which the shoutout message was written, so the reader can continue to read your website content:

   http_redirect("article.php");

   Replace the PHP page with your site's content page.

References

• Tuts Plus: Create a Basic Shoutbox with PHP and SQL