How would I go about creating a simple app like this ?

Jeebus

Hey there,

Sorry, I wasn't sure if that was the right forum, but it seems to be the most suited to my question !

I am a first year Computer Science student in UCC. For one of our first year projects we have been asked to create a simple website using XHTML and PHP. Our lecturer has said to be ambitious and creative and, with this in mind, I have decided on a topic for my website.

Now, in the interest of being ambitious, I would like to write a simple app for Windows XP/Vista/7 which would do this :

Time how long you spend on facebook everyday.
Give you the option of blocking facebook/everytime you try and go on it, it redirects you somewhere else.
Comes up with a tooltip reminding you you should be doing work every so often.

Now, obviously I am not asking you guys to write this app for me, but I am completely unfamiliar in how I would even begin a project such as this, and as I have to have this done (with a full decent website) within the next few weeks, I was hoping some of you would be able to point me in the right direction for doing something like this ? I don't even know what language would be suitable!

Thanks a lot for your help with this

NeverSayDie

Not exactly clear what's going on here? You're describing a Windows desktop app, but you're supposed to be building a website? Completely changing the specifications of the assignment may be a little too creative

In any case, re that app you describe, I'd leave that idea for the moment, it's not really a beginner project - there's a few tricky bits in there around determining what constitutes "time spent on Facebook", for instance. It might be easier implemented as a browser plugin/add-on for IE or Firefox rather than a desktop app, as well.

Re which language to use, you were told to use PHP, so use PHP Google will turn up dozens of tutorials and introductions, it's a popular language with beginners (used plenty by professionals too, though). In terms of ideas, you could look at a site that tracks stuff for your class for instance - a "post-it" application perhaps? Something with a very clean and simple UI, purely for posting "notes" on "board", which would distinguish it from regular forums, and still serve a useful purpose. That entails a database of some sort, probably user logins, maybe searches of various kinds, perhaps image upload and handling, and so on.

Ciaran187

This would need to be run as a site loading sites. Ie, you make a site that has, for example, an iframe. You would need a text input box on the page for the address bar, then through an if statement, check if it's facebook.com, if it is, redirect to a stored page, else load that site in the iframe.

For the tooltip you would need to have a text field / image etc that is displayed at particular times (use a counter for how many pages are visited so every 3rd site the image is displayed or a popup window shows etc).

I would use PHP, but that's just because I like PHP.

Jeebus

Thanks a lot for the help guys !

I'm still ironing out the details, but some of the suggestions you guys make are really great ones, thanks a lot !

Okay, what I was thinking was a main-page, similar to the site www.fmylife.com, where people could submit stories similar to what you were saying Nevermaydie. Would it be hard to integrate a moderation system in this, or would I be better off leaving it as an open-forum, do you think ?

I was thinking one of the other pages on my site could be a kind of facebook-blocker, similar to what you were describing Ciaran1876, where I could put in a text field that would redirect you to other-sites, but remain there at the top while you browse them. Then, if you type in facebook it would redirect you to somewhere else.

Would it be possible to add a timer, so that you could go on facebook for five minutes, and then if would redirect you ? I think something like that would score me some epic marks altogether, as well as being something fun to do ! I'm thinking I'd have to whip out a bit of Java to attempt something like that though, right ?

So my plan at the moment is a main page, with a simple clean submission system, possibly allowing me to moderate the comments before their approval and display on the main page, and with this another page which loads an iframe which only allows you to visit facebook for a short period of time.

Would this be extremely difficult / possible ? To be honest I don't even know where to begin!

Sheeps

Jeebus wrote: »

Thanks a lot for the help guys !

I'm still ironing out the details, but some of the suggestions you guys make are really great ones, thanks a lot !

Okay, what I was thinking was a main-page, similar to the site www.fmylife.com, where people could submit stories similar to what you were saying Nevermaydie. Would it be hard to integrate a moderation system in this, or would I be better off leaving it as an open-forum, do you think ?

I was thinking one of the other pages on my site could be a kind of facebook-blocker, similar to what you were describing Ciaran1876, where I could put in a text field that would redirect you to other-sites, but remain there at the top while you browse them. Then, if you type in facebook it would redirect you to somewhere else.

Would it be possible to add a timer, so that you could go on facebook for five minutes, and then if would redirect you ? I think something like that would score me some epic marks altogether, as well as being something fun to do ! I'm thinking I'd have to whip out a bit of Java to attempt something like that though, right ?

So my plan at the moment is a main page, with a simple clean submission system, possibly allowing me to moderate the comments before their approval and display on the main page, and with this another page which loads an iframe which only allows you to visit facebook for a short period of time.

Would this be extremely difficult / possible ? To be honest I don't even know where to begin!

You could do a blog style forum like fmylife.com or what ever fairly easily. You could include a moderation tool too with ease, how ever it all depends on how complex a tool you want to include. If you want a secure log in with a database back end, it becomes a lot more complex than if you allow everyone to delete an entry to the blog provided they enter the right password that has been hard coded in the php.

If you want some kind of page where a moderator can log in for a session and allow/ deny posts it's slightly more complex.

The idea of a facebook blocker is a good one, but not for the scope of your assignment. The reason why it wont work in an iFrame is because there is nothing stopping a user simply accessing Facebook directly through their web browser rather than through your iFrame.

Jeebus

Sheeps wrote: »

You could do a blog style forum like fmylife.com or what ever fairly easily. You could include a moderation tool too with ease, how ever it all depends on how complex a tool you want to include. If you want a secure log in with a database back end, it becomes a lot more complex than if you allow everyone to delete an entry to the blog provided they enter the right password that has been hard coded in the php.

If you want some kind of page where a moderator can log in for a session and allow/ deny posts it's slightly more complex.

The idea of a facebook blocker is a good one, but not for the scope of your assignment. The reason why it wont work in an iFrame is because there is nothing stopping a user simply accessing Facebook directly through their web browser rather than through your iFrame.

The parts in bold would be things I would be integrating into my front-page. Preferably a system where users could go to my website and submit information via a simple form, then I could log in as a moderator and decide whether or not to approve the users messages.

A simpler version of this would be okay, but I'd like to have my eyes on something a bit more impressive since I would definitely like top marks in this assignment.

The problem is I have no idea how I would go about doing this. Can you/anyone please offer me some tips/perhaps some links to where I could learn about how to do things of this nature ?

Sadly this is one of the very few situations where google (and UL library!) has failed me !

NeverSayDie

There you go;
http://www.w3schools.com/PHP/php_intro.asp
http://blazonry.com/scripting/linksdb/