OwenONeill

Hello All!
 
I am looking at making a new site that is basically similar to Drop box, for two reasons;
- It will be used for my girlfriend's workplace
- and that it may be a good thing to learn.
 
Now the whole Dropbox system is quite nice and complex, (or is it?). Basically when people are signed up they then become an administrator and can invite other email addresses. (limited to 50 or so). But I would like every email associated through the administrator, appear in 'like' a group. Say for example 'Group A'.
 
When any person through this group, uploads a file, every person associated in that group can see the file in something similar to a News Feed? - So it's basically a Mass Group File sharing website. But Private to groups and people you invite.
 
So you could search through usernames (within your group), and sub-groups, so say you had a design team working on a new project, you could split Group A into a Concept Folder, HTML Folder, PSD Folder. That way Files are kept well-organized.
 
You could ideally choose the location of what file uploads appear where, Groups - I know this is quite a complex site, but no harm in trying! Basically i want to be pointed in the right direction (My server's can definitely handle this at the moment for a testing stage, so that's not a problem etc)..
 
For those that might think of a sly comment, As that's usually the first thing that comes to mind . But I am not trying to be the next 'dropbox' alright aha ...
 
But how would you go about building something like this? The CMS I am most comfortable with is Wordpress, but I feel like I'd be limiting myself if i built it through Wordpress...

For some reasone your image containers have a typo: scr= instead of src=
 
e.g:
 

<img width="115" height="80" style="display: block; width: 115px; height: 80px; border: 1px solid;" scr="http://universitycompare.com/wp-content/themes/blue-and-grey/images/universities/10004180.png">

Graphic Design is definitely learned over time and unless you haven't had any lessons on typography and composition then it is generally harder to pick up.
 
Some tutorials can be found here:
 
http://tutvid.com/category/tutorials/photoshop/
 
^ This page will hopefully get you past any 'technical' difficulties, as most problems I had when starting out was 'how the hell do I do this, and this and this..' and not knowing the correct terms made it difficult for me to find out how to fix and/or how to do things the correct way.
 
I would start out slowly by looking at fonts on: http://www.fontsquirrel.com/ (which are fonts handpicked for designers!) and then start making fake prototypes for merchandise you like or bands you like. You can always start out small, by finding a gig poster you like and changing it, an album cover or even redesign a website - all these along with this forum and others will slowly help you develop the awareness and skills needed to better yourself.
 
It's all down to experience and putting the time aside.. But as long as your interested you'll slowly better yourself

You can maybe try this.

^ what he said

I'm sure impressions would be easy. I've got some code to measure post impressions so it'd just be the same.
 
I think you can find it on WP Snippets, you can add the value to your columns to show it in the dashboard.

Actually Wilf, it would be easier than I first thought - but obviously not really simple
 
1. create the custom post type = easy. Also add meta boxes for name, image, description, link
2. create a post (ad) with it = easy
3. ask which pages you want this post to appear on = quite easy (look at how ACF works, where you can pick pages/post types etc...)
4. The only real tricky point would be on impressions and/or clicks - and when to cancel the ad
 
Also - are you thinking that only administrators could load ads onto the site? or could normal users do it for a fee? That would increase the difficulty LOADS.
 
Let's talk about it Tuesday if you like - I reckon it could be a useful plugin. I didn't really 'get' it on Thursday when you mentioned it, but written out like this, it is totally do-able.
 
Speak later babe x

There are plenty of site/tools out there that will do it if you just want it as a one-off. Just search for "Excel to HTML table".
 
If you're looking to do it on more of a long term basis, it would be easier to convert the spreadsheet to a CSV file. Then either import that into a database, or use something like fopen/fgetcsv and a bit of PHP to open the file and convert into HTML.

Yup, that's the kind of thing I was talking about.
 
However, a lot of webhosts disable fopen() on their servers as it's consider to be a security risk if you don't use it properly so you may have to go down the database route.

Here.

Yeah /%postname%/
 
 
..unless somebody can give me a better way and explanation for it

Hey,
After reading the lengthy discussion down under... let me put forward my views on smelling rats. Few weeks ago I had bought a specific smelling rat and my experience was simply sublime. I have no complaints what so ever. The squeaking is just fine and so is their long tail. I am now planning to buy this 19 smelling rat web package.
 
Piece of advice- Take a decision with a subtle mindset.

Oak, your script was something I was looking for, for people to send me files they can't over E-mail. So firstly thank you.
 
Secondly, I styled it to suit myself, hope you like, happy to share considering I didn't write the original.
 
http://michaelgunner.co.uk/laboratory/dropbox/

Here's the PHP, the html and js you can get from the link if you wanted it - view source
 
config.php
 

<?php //************************************************************ // Enter your Dropbox Credentials Below $drop_account = "youremail@test.com"; // dropbox account login; $drop_pwd = '******'; // dropbox account password; // Destination Directory $drop_dir = "share"; // the directory where you want uploaded files to reside; //************************************************************ // login password $thepass = "test"; //*********************************************************** ?>
 
 
 
 
 
login.php
 

<?php require "config.php"; //loads config file $checkpass = htmlspecialchars(trim($_POST['pword'])); if($checkpass === $thepass) { echo "0"; } else { echo "1"; } ?>
 
 
 
 
 
 
DropboxUploader.php
 

<?php /** * Dropbox Uploader * * Copyright (c) 2009 Jaka Jancar * * Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy * of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal * in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights * to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell * copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is * furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions: * * The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in * all copies or substantial portions of the Software. * * THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR * IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, * FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE * AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER * LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, * OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN * THE SOFTWARE. * * @author Jaka Jancar [jaka@kubje.org] [http://jaka.kubje.org/] * @version 1.1.5 */ class DropboxUploader { protected $email; protected $password; protected $caCertSourceType = self::CACERT_SOURCE_SYSTEM; const CACERT_SOURCE_SYSTEM = 0; const CACERT_SOURCE_FILE = 1; const CACERT_SOURCE_DIR = 2; protected $caCertSource; protected $loggedIn = false; protected $cookies = array(); /** * Constructor * * @param string $email * @param string|null $password */ public function __construct($email, $password) { // Check requirements //echo("loaded"); if (!extension_loaded('curl')) throw new Exception('DropboxUploader requires the cURL extension.'); $this->email = $email; $this->password = $password; } public function setCaCertificateFile($file) { $this->caCertSourceType = self::CACERT_SOURCE_FILE; $this->caCertSource = $file; } public function setCaCertificateDir($dir) { $this->caCertSourceType = self::CACERT_SOURCE_DIR; $this->caCertSource = $dir; } public function upload($filename, $remoteDir='/') { if (!file_exists($filename) or !is_file($filename) or !is_readable($filename)) throw new Exception("File '$filename' does not exist or is not readable."); if (!is_string($remoteDir)) throw new Exception("Remote directory must be a string, is ".gettype($remoteDir)." instead."); if (!$this->loggedIn) $this->login(); $data = $this->request('https://www.dropbox.com/home#:::'); $token = $this->extractToken($data, 'https://dl-web.dropbox.com/upload'); $data = $this->request('https://dl-web.dropbox.com/upload', true, array('plain'=>'yes', 'file'=>'@'.$filename, 'dest'=>$remoteDir, 't'=>$token)); if (strpos($data, 'HTTP/1.1 302 FOUND') === false) throw new Exception('Upload failed!'); } protected function login() { $data = $this->request('https://www.dropbox.com/login'); //$token = $this->extractToken($data, '/login'); //echo("token:" + $token); //$data = $this->request('https://www.dropbox.com/login', true, array('login_email'=>$this->email, 'login_password'=>$this->password, 't'=>$token)); $data = $this->request('https://www.dropbox.com/login', true, array('login_email'=>$this->email, 'login_password'=>$this->password)); if (stripos($data, 'location: /home') === false) throw new Exception('Login unsuccessful.'); $this->loggedIn = true; } protected function request($url, $post=false, $postData=array()) { $ch = curl_init(); curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_URL, $url); curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_SSL_VERIFYHOST, 2); curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_SSL_VERIFYPEER, true); switch ($this->caCertSourceType) { case self::CACERT_SOURCE_FILE: curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_CAINFO, $this->caCertSource); break; case self::CACERT_SOURCE_DIR: curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_CAPATH, $this->caCertSource); break; } curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_HEADER, 1); curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, 1); if ($post) { curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_POST, $post); curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS, $postData); } // Send cookies $rawCookies = array(); foreach ($this->cookies as $k=>$v) $rawCookies[] = "$k=$v"; $rawCookies = implode(';', $rawCookies); curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_COOKIE, $rawCookies); $data = curl_exec($ch); if ($data === false) throw new Exception('Cannot execute request: '.curl_error($ch)); // Store received cookies preg_match_all('/Set-Cookie: ([^=]+)=(.*?);/i', $data, $matches, PREG_SET_ORDER); foreach ($matches as $match) $this->cookies[$match[1]] = $match[2]; curl_close($ch); return $data; } protected function extractToken($html, $formAction) { if (!preg_match('/<form [^>]*'.preg_quote($formAction, '/').'[^>]*>.*?(<input [^>]*name="t" [^>]*value="(.*?)"[^>]*>).*?<\/form>/is', $html, $matches) || !isset($matches[2])) throw new Exception("Cannot extract token! (form action=$formAction)"); return $matches[2]; } }
 
 
 
 
 
upload.php
 

<?php require "DropboxUploader.php"; //loads the dropboxuploader class require "config.php"; //loads config file //Start the upload code. if(sizeof($_FILES)===0){ echo "<li>No files were uploaded.</li>"; return; } foreach ($_FILES['ufiles']['name'] as $key => $value) { if ($_FILES['ufiles']['error'][$key] !== UPLOAD_ERR_OK) { echo $_FILES['ufiles']['name'][$key].' DID NOT upload.'; return; } $tmpDir = uniqid('/tmp/DropboxUploader-'); if (!mkdir($tmpDir)) { echo 'Cannot create temporary directory!'; return; } $tmpFile = $tmpDir.'/'.str_replace("/\0", '_', $_FILES['ufiles']['name'][$key]); if (!move_uploaded_file($_FILES['ufiles']['tmp_name'][$key], $tmpFile)) { echo $_FILES['ufiles']['name'][$key].' - Cannot rename uploaded file!'; return; } try { $uploader = new DropboxUploader($drop_account, $drop_pwd ); $uploader->upload($tmpFile, $drop_dir); echo "<li>".$_FILES['ufiles']['name'][$key]."</li>" ; // Clean up if (isset($tmpFile) && file_exists($tmpFile)) unlink($tmpFile); if (isset($tmpDir) && file_exists($tmpDir)) rmdir($tmpDir); } catch(Exception $e) { $error_msg = htmlspecialchars($e->getMessage()); if($error_msg === 'Login unsuccessful.' ) { echo '<li style="font-weight:bold;color:#ff0000;">Unable to log into Dropbox</li>'; return; } if($error_msg === 'DropboxUploader requires the cURL extension.' ) { echo '<li style="font-weight:bold;color:#ff0000;">Application error - contact admin.</li>'; return; } echo '<li>'.htmlspecialchars($e->getMessage()).'</li>'; } } ?>

Hi Owen,
 
If you really wanted to do this you might be able to customise something from this experiment in my 'lab'
 
http://www.simondaley.co.uk/lab/index.html
 
Password = test
 
[The file upload won't work as I have changed the password in the config.php so I won't get flooded with images of boobies]
 
You're welcome to experiment with the files. It's currently set up to send files to dropbox but you could customise as required - it's VERY rough but you might be able to make something out of it. Works ok in chrome, not tested much in others

You will be able to learn more from doing free online tutorials - Google is your friend.
 
A good starting point...
 
http://htmldog.com/
http://net.tutsplus.com/
http://www.alistapart.com/
http://css-tricks.com/
50+ Useful resources
http://designbump.com/
http://creattica.com/
http://cssremix.com/
http://www.webdeveloperjuice.com/
Notepad++

see here
 
and here

something like this http://masonry.desandro.com/

Overall design looks pretty good!
 
I seem to be saying this a lot, but you've got a lot of fonts going on, looks a bit messy.
 
I don't think that blog-style format would work for the guide page, I think it would be hard to navigate and order. I'm assuming the guide will be able to be sorted by different fields?

http://api.jquery.com/css/

exactly but you're talking to a reseller who in reality owns nothing.

Yup.

Pretty unique usecase scenario you have here, and while I don't know how to go about it at the moment, I'll do some fiddling and see if I can come up with a way.

Don't edit core files. They will get over-written every time you update and maintaining changes would be a headache, as well as it being a security risk.
 
You can change the appearance of the dashboard using the following hook in your function.php. However, I'd advise you create it as a plugin instead, as it's functionality you probably don't want to mix up with your theme.
 

function my_admin_head() { echo '<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="' .template_url('wp-admin.css', __FILE__). '">'; } add_action('admin_head', 'my_admin_head');