Just getting started with PHP - need some help

[geckospyker]

HI Gordon,

Thanks for this forum. Hopefully, it will help populate my forum with good users. I'm just starting with this and need some help learning how to manipulate the PHP to be able to include my own graphics, ads and other items into the forum. First of all, how can I get my forum to show my logo at the top? What file do I change?

Also, I've noticed many forums with a Global Announcement at the top and I haven't been able to figure out how to do that yet either. Like I said, I'm a real newbie at this.

Thanks,

Sharon Spyker
http://www.earthformed.com

[Gordon]

Hi Sharon and welcome.

I don’t know what version of forum software you have. They all differ a little. If you look around in the admin control panel (acp) you should see something for changing imagesets and/or the logo. On mine, the logo settings are under the “Styles” section. All I have to do is browse for my logo image and then click upload. The new image file will replace the stock phpBB one. (I did more extensive editing on this forum but on my others, I just uploaded logos.)

If you wanted to manually make changes to your site pages, you can actually edit some of the template files in the Styles>(Style Name)>Template> folder. (Not to be confused with installing or creating Styles.) Most of your site pages are made up of header, body, and footer from a few different template files. Those three parts (files) are pieced together in your web browser so they appear as one page. This is called a “dynamic” page. Those template files basically just tell the browser where to put things on the page. If you learn some html coding or php coding, you can easily modify your site’s appearance by adding images, text, or even ads. Just be aware that if you have more than one site "style" installed then you need to modify each style separately.

An announcement can be set when you start a new topic/post from within your forum, as long as you have admin or moderator permissions. When you type up a new post, (just before you click the submit button,) look around for “setting the topic type.” You may see a few check boxes to do this. A Stickie keeps the post from sinking below other new posts, an Announcement keeps the post at the top of that forum above stickies, and a Global keeps the post at the top of all site forums. Normal will be checked by default.

Good luck with your new adventure. This is the place to be.

[Gallovidian]

Sharon

I can't get to your forums, the link goes to page not found.

Woudl be nice to see what you are running and then we can maybe help more. If your forum is locked to guests, please set up a user account for here and post the details (user name and password)

Cheers

[shephil100]

Use robot.txt to block parts of the site you don't wish the engines to index

Offer an HTML site map which is auto updated based on the XML site map

For sites running on PHP use an .htaccess file to avoid content duplication

Use breadcrumbs navigation across the site for better user experience and SEO

From time to time, view your site using a text browser such as SEO Browser to "see" how spiders are likely to find your on page content

If your site architecture has more than three levels, restructure it so to make the information more accessible to both users and spiders
Keep URLs short for better SEO and to create a better viral effect as short URLs are more memorable
Include your key term such as a product title in the URL

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