head fried

what i want to do.

build a wapsite whch i will host on my pc windows xp will include;

chat rooms

forums

member gallery

download pages

instant messages (alerts)

have memberaccounts and passwords (will be sent via email)

user access (limited access with no p/w)

other functions such as seek user or search room etc...

i need some serious help. im searching for some USEFUL tutorials. i have found one or two that are outlining the basics
and have visual basics 2005 beta. which as yet does not include all the information i need to complete my project.
i have no experience at all (apart from what ive read so far)
in any kind of programming. your help and advice would be greatly appreciated.

The advice I would give is:

If you are so "green" at the moment, I would seriously NOT host these kind of services from your home PC.

For what you are looking for, try w3schools for some basic wml tutorials. However, since you are looking at other things that require some server interaction, you should check out a scripting language too - php or asp would be good for you. VB I suppose can be used too.

You will need a server, IIS or PWS if you must - Apache would be better. Hope that starts you off...

thanks for the information. green would be a very good summary. i am looking at the moment for a low budget setup so i think a server is beyond my reach although i will look into it in more detail.

i had a look at w3 a few days ago and i am not sure exactly how it is going to help. i suppose i could use it later for refreshing what ive learned but i didnt think it would help me right now. thanks anyway i just clicked to add to your rep.

it's all very well setting up a site, alot of coding to be done I can see, but does the site have a purpose? might it be cheaper and time saving to use a free wap forum provider?

which free wap forum providers would you be thinking of?

if i was starting out with this one i'd just find a cheap host and only worry about getting a server for it once it had millions of page views a month, a forum and a few downloads doesn't justify a dedicated box or the agro of setting up a server at home.

saying that though theplanet.com are cheap enough for what you get, erm, okay i think they rock but a couple of hundered dollars a month gets you some serious kit there. beats hosting at home.

cheers

well taking that onboard i could get a host site i suppose my question now then seeing that i have your attention is this.

can i input wml/xml/php into a html page? and will the site be viewable on a mobile phone. please say yes (but only if its true)

sorry almost forgot. yeah it does have a purpose goose. i use a wap site for chat purposes on a regular basis and i wanted to learn some form of coding. this seemed like a good wayy to start. its only a project thats why i was thinking of only hosting it via my home computer (which would have been stupid) but never the less it is serving as a good start to my (hopefully fulfilling) dreams of entering the it world as a career.

It appears that you are trying to run before you can walk. By all means, set a server up at home, but make sure that only you have access to it - over protect it at first until you know what you are doing.

To be accessible from moblie phone, you need to write wml or xhtml pages - some can also acces plain html, but I would go for the first 2 option.

Learn how to write plain wml / xhtml pages first - then incorporate PHP to generate the wml / xhtml. Your dreams of chat / members section etc. will be a wee way off

Do a search for WAP BUDDY - get yourself APACHE, PHP, perhaps MYSQL database - doa search for WAMP -> there are easy installation packages available (personally I install things individually, but that requires a bit more understanding) - that should at least get you started.

To view, you can get extensions for Firefox or Opera can render xhtml / wml pages already - there are also emulators available.