Hello. I'm a total beginner with PHP. I need just a tiny bit of help with a simple threaded PHP forum. I've asked for help elsewhere, but didn't get detailed instructions... Again, I am a -total beginner-. I'm not making money with my site, I use the forum for talk with a couple of my friends. While setting it all up, I'm learning a bit of PHP...

I'd appriciate it if someone could help me here...
What I'd like to do is add some code to the script which would automatically delete old posts. Let's say the board would only display 20 latest threads (normally the post just go on forever and you have to manually delete them ). The threads are stored in Unordered Lists, as you can se in the code (you can find the link to the complete code below).

The post are posted with the date, while the number of posts is being written in 'noposts.txt'... Again, you can see that from the code as it is commented.
If you need more info, just ask.

The complete PHP code from post.php is here, I'd really be grateful if you could take a peek -> http://www.pastebin.com/91794

Thanks in advance!

When I clicked the link I didn't see any code

Seems like Pastebin deleted it already... I've renamed post.php to post.txt, so you can view it. Here it is - http://rum.f2o.org/temp/post.txt

Is it possible for you to add a unix timestamp to your posts?

Or you have to get the auto remove to work with the date you aleady have present.

Unix timestamp? I don't know what that is, but if it is of any help, my server is on Unix OS.

If you have an idea how to auto delete with the date set up how it's set up right now, I'd appriciate your help... But anything that works is fine with me, of course

How does the date look in the file?

Like is it setup like: 8/19/2004

What kind of format does it loook like after you post it into the script?

After the post is cast, this is the date next to the post on index.php, and also below the actual post (after you click on the post) ->

Nick - Sunday, August 15. - 9:00

Well that would be hard to removed based on that time format. In my opinion anyways. SO, I suggest using the timestamp. The timestamp is the date and time of the post writin in one long variable.

To get the timestamp you use:
$timestamp=time();

Then to check it you would do this:

$timestamp=time();
$timestamp2=Post time //However you want to pull it
$checktime=$timestamp-$timestamp2;
if($checktime<86400){
//REMOVE
}else{
//NO REMOVE
}

86400 = 24 hours in seconds.

Hope that helps.

Hm, '$timestamp2' is the time when the post was cast? What do you suggest I use for that?
So, this code would remove all post more than one day old?
Which piece of code actually deletes the posts (or you left that out?)?

Hey daiv,
Sorry I did't explain very well. Okay.

When a user posts add to the database (or index) that is holding all of the posts the unix timestamp.

The timestamp is accessible by using: time()
$timestamp=time();
echo $timestamp

Then in your auto delete script. You would pull ALL of the posts. (However you want to do that) and check the timestamp value.

same as you would try to check the DATE that you showed me erlier.

To check the timestamp you would do this:
$timestamp=time(); //This gives the timestamp for right now.
$timestamp2=Post time //The Posts Timestamp
$checktime=$timestamp-$timestamp2; // Minusing the two.
if($checktime<86400){ //Checking to see if its been 24 hours.
//It has no been 24 hours. DO NOT REMOVE
}else{
//It has been 24 hours. REMOVE POST.
}

However you want to remove the post is up to you.

Hope that helps

Ah, I see... I'll try to implement this... Thank you for the help, I appriciate it. Cheers.

Anytime, Good luck!