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B&T's Tips & Scripts is a collection of Tips & Scripts to help you build a better website. The Tips & Scripts are targeted towards the native Apache PHP MySQL environment. Check back frequently as there will be additions and modifications. Please check our terms of use.
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Using .htaccess 
- .htaccess Basics Mar 9, 2006
- Domain & subdomain pointing May 12, 2005
- Automatic subdomains Jun 17, 2007
- Undefined subdomains Jul 20, 2008
- Prevent direct access to a pointer or subdomain directory Aug 15, 2006
- Forcing or eliminating the WWW. Feb 9, 2005
- Fixing the trailing slash problem May 11, 2005
- Friendly URLs Mar 21, 2007
- Rewrites and https Dec 18, 2007
- Blocking traffic to your website Jan 2, 2005
- Anti-leech May 25, 2005
- Fancy default index page Jan 25, 2005
Using .htaccess/.htpasswd Password Protection 
- Setting up password protection Feb 9, 2005
- Encrypt your password for .htpasswd Dec 21, 2007
- Auto Password Change and Email Notification Dec 21, 2007
php5 - Auto generate .htpasswd file Dec 18, 2007 php5
- Passing user authentication information to PHP Jun 13, 2004
Coding Tips 
- HTML "One Liners" Nov 13, 2005
- PHP "One Liners" Apr 5, 2007
- JavaScript "One Liners" Aug 25, 2007
- CSS examples Sep 9, 2006
- SQL coding examples Aug 29, 2006
- AJAX example Sep 24, 2006
Uploads and Downloads 
- File Upload Script Dec 20, 2007 php5
- Custom Download Page Dec 14, 2007 php5
- Tracking and Securing Downloads Dec 20, 2007 php5
Mail 
- Form Mail Aug 19, 2007
- Obfuscate your email address Nov 12, 2006
- Read and auto-process mail Nov 12, 2004
- Auto-responder Dec 18, 2007 php5
- Display your email message count Jul 30, 2004
- Setting up SPF Records Jan 4, 2007
- Specify a return-path for generated mail Jul 18, 2006
Working with Images 
- Watermark images Jul 14, 2007
- Resize images (create thumbnails) Jul 14, 2007
Frequently Requested Website Functionality 
- Visitor Counter Dec 14, 2007 php5
- 404 Error Page (with reporting and logging) Dec 20, 2007 php5
- CAPTCHA Aug 19, 2006
- Poll (voting) Dec 17, 2007 php5 see it on this page
- Weather Jul 27, 2008 php5
- FAQ Page May 23, 2005
- Random/weighted banners, quotes & more Feb 9, 2005
- Load a random image (simple) Jan 20, 2004
- Image (banner) rotation Oct 15, 2007
- Simple "members only" pages May 13, 2005
- Replace banned words Apr 5, 2007
- Get the most recent file date Jan 30, 2006
- Moving (bouncing) Image Nov 10, 2005
- Sticky default values for an input Oct 22, 2006
Using PHP 
- Creating a custom php.ini file Dec 18, 2007 php5
- Copying the php.ini file Dec 18, 2007 php5
- Deleteing php.ini files Dec 18, 2007 php5
- Clean up your PHP scripts Nov 11, 2005
- Regular Expression Rules Mar 22, 2006
Website Managment 
- Tips for keeping your website secure Jan 24, 2006
- Using Cron Sep 13, 2005
- Website Monitoring Dec 19, 2007
- Automated Site Backups Dec 19, 2007
- Automated MySQL Backups Dec 19, 2007
- Server-to-server file transfer December 16, 2006
- MySQL Error Notification Dec 20, 2007
- Find File and Directory Sizes Dec 14, 2007 php5
- Deleting session files Aug 9, 2006
- FTP made easy Mar 1, 2006
- Search and Replace Dec 14, 2007 php5
Other Tips 
- URL Validation Feb 8, 2008
- Stop direct links to web pages Jan 22, 2004
- Ensure your page is not opened in a frame May 5, 2005
- Masking your URL in the Address Bar Jul 20, 2004
- Ban or allow IP Addresses (without using .htaccess) Jan 19, 20008
- Using Cookies Sep 24, 2006
- View your website in different resolutions Jan 2, 2005
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AJAX example
Asynchronous JavaScript And XMLAJAX is a method of making a web page more application like. It allows server interaction without having to reload the web page. It uses a combination of server-side scripting (in this example PHP), and client-side JavaScript and the XMLHttpRequest object. This is not an AJAX tutorial, but if you have done some homework in advance, the best way to learn a new technique is with a working example. Name the html page ajax.htm and name the PHP script ajax.php. The only change you need to make is the domain name in the html page (currently example.com). Load the html page in your browser, enter the input and click anywhere else on the page.
You can download this html page as a .txt file. Remember to rename the file as a .htm file.
- - Start HTML Page Here - -
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.1//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml11/DTD/xhtml11.dtd">
<html>
<head>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Language" content="en-us" />
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=windows-1252" />
<title>AJAX Example</title>
<style type="text/css">
span.hidden {
display: none;
}
span.display {
display: inline;
color: red;
}
</style>
<script type="text/javascript">
// ajax processing - this is a generic function to process the server response
function processReqChange() {
if (req.readyState == 4) // only if req shows "complete"
if (req.status == 200) { // then only if req shows "OK"
response = req.responseXML.documentElement;
method = response.getElementsByTagName('method')[0].firstChild.data;
result = response.getElementsByTagName('result')[0].firstChild.data;
eval(method + '(result)');
} else
alert("There was a problem retrieving the XML data:\n" + req.statusText);
}
// ajax processing - this is a generic function to access the server script
function loadXML(url) {
// branch for native XMLHttpRequest object
if (window.XMLHttpRequest) {
req = new XMLHttpRequest();
req.onreadystatechange = processReqChange;
req.open("GET", url, true);
req.send(null);
// branch for IE ActiveX version
} else if (window.ActiveXObject) {
req = new ActiveXObject("Microsoft.XMLHTTP");
if (req) {
req.onreadystatechange = processReqChange;
req.open("GET", url, true);
req.send();
}
}
}
// ajax processing - accepts input for the name variable
function nameInput(input) {
document.getElementById('nameCheckValid').className = 'hidden';
document.getElementById('nameCheckFailed').className = 'hidden';
if (input == '') document.getElementById('name').value = document.getElementById('name').defaultValue; // reset value if empty
else loadXML('http://example.com/ajax.php?name=' + input); // ensure proper domain/script name
}
// ajax processing - processes the server response for the name variable
function nameResponse(response) {
if (response == '1')
document.getElementById('nameCheckValid').className = 'display';
else
document.getElementById('nameCheckFailed').className = 'display';
}
function focusInput(el) {
if (document.getElementById(el).defaultValue==document.getElementById(el).value) document.getElementById(el).value = "";
}
</script>
</head>
<body>
<div>
<input type="text" id="name" onfocus="focusInput(this.id)" onblur="nameInput(this.value)" value="Enter Name" />
<span class="hidden" id="nameCheckFailed">Invalid name</span>
<span class="hidden" id="nameCheckValid">Valid name</span>
</div>
</body>
</html>
- - End HTML Page Here - -
You can download this script as a .txt file. Remember to rename the file as a .php file.
- - Start PHP Script Here - -
<?php
header('Content-Type: text/xml');
echo '<?xml version="1.0" ?>';
// this script can do database validation, database updates, or what ever is needed
if (strtolower($_GET['name']) == "fred") $result = 1; else $result = 0;
?>
<response>
<method>nameResponse</method>
<result><?php echo $result; ?></result>
</response>
- - End PHP Script Here - -
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