Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with PHP

How to send phone pics to a spartan web site via Flickr?

ehamiter — Sun, 20 Dec 2009 12:16:59 -0800

What's a minimal self-hosted "blog" that hooks into Flickr's API so I can send photos from my camera directly to my web site? Ideally, I want a blog that is not a blog. I don't want tags, or articles, or categories, or spam filters, or any of that stuff. A perfect solution workflow would be this:

I take a picture with my phone
I send it to Flickr via e-mail
Flickr then posts it to my website with no interaction

The ideal layout would be a main site title, and each time I send a photo it appears as the newest one, using the title I typed. There would be maybe 10 photos on the main page. You could access earlier photos by clicking "older" or something like that which would serve as the archives.

I can do this with wordpress, movable type, typepad, etc., but they are all way too huge feature-wise and not what I want. I can also do this with blogger or tumblr, but they are not self-hosted. I tried this recently with textpattern, but the templates and general admin are much too complicated for my needs.

It should be very simple, aesthetics-wise. You could maybe change the color scheme / typography via CSS, but that's about it.

Does something like this exist? For the Flickr hook-in it needs to be a MetaWeblogAPI Enabled Blog or other Flickr-approved application.

Thanks for any suggestions.

Learning Php in New York City

chirico — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 09:20:23 -0800

I would like to learn Php & Web Development programming by taking courses in NYC. Any advice, suggestions?

Simple suggestion engine

jonah — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 10:41:57 -0800

Looking for an existing script to do some data matching and suggesting. Sort of like a very simplified Netflix suggestion engine. I'm trying to set up a website that takes a user list of a defined number of inputs from a database of options. From those inputs, a number of outputs would be offered to the user based on other people's inputs.

For instance User 1 inputs: Apples, Bananas, Carrots

User 2 Inputs: Apples, Bananas, Watermelon

Based on matching Apples and Bananas, User 2 would see: You might like Carrots

Sort of like a dating site or the Netflix suggestion engine, but just for specific items. Is there something out there that could be modified to do this in php? I did some searching, but my google-fu is failing.

I realize that some of the answers might be "this would be easy to write in php", but I'm mainly looking for something already out there. I'll explore developing something if it isn't already out there.

Best practices for benchmarking and profiling!

Kwine — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 06:42:13 -0800

Help me develop a performance and concurrency testing and improvement plan for an ecommerce site. IANA DBA, but "Trial by fire is one of the best career paths." My company is developing an ecommerce site that may have up to 50,000 visitors/day when W-2 forms are released in mid-February, but significantly less traffic for the rest of the year-perhaps a few thousand per day when their client companies have payday. My experience (read: the companies experience) is limited to mom and pop sites that are lucky to receive that much traffic in a month. It's a Magento site (php/mysql, fairly resource intensive).

We currently host a few sites on the Rackspace cloud (including some Magento sites), which we are comfortable with after trying a couple of other Magento hosting options, but the cloud limits our configuration control to a .htaccess file, limits our log access, etc. To get more control, I have a virtual dedicated server set up on Rackspace, running a fresh CentOS image (chosen because the documentation for setting up magento on it is better than the other options); I'm going to install php and mysql and move the development site over to it today. (The dev site is waiting for a front end redesign, but is otherwise finished). This server has 256 MB RAM and a 10GB hard drive; it can be resized (with some down time) all the way up to 15872 MB and 620 GB, at additional cost/hour. My rough plan:

1) In a planned, organized, unbiased way, benchmark and profile the performance of the site at the current server size. I need the most help with this. I've read the O'Reilly "High Performance MySQL" book, which was somewhat helpful; I've toyed with ab, and poked at some of the other possible benchmark/profiling mentioned in there, but it seemed like the time required to get up to speed on the more sophisticated options might be too much for this project. I'm aware of the optimization chapter in the MySQL manual, but I haven't looked at it yet. I run OS X 10.5 and Windows 7. Budget is limited: cheap options are good, free is better. I also don't want this to consume my life: we have many other projects in the hopper. I want to think it through in a confident, measured way, and not be having panic attacks on February 10th.
2) Modify server settings and configuration. I DON'T want to be in the business of modifying Magento's core code, potentially putting us out of sync with future upgrades, so things like optimizing individual SQL queries are out.
3) If performance remains unacceptable, resize the server and repeat.

So I guess the main questions are as follows: Is this rough sketch of a plan reasonable? Which tools should I use to benchmark and profile? I could use some guidelines about what constitutes "acceptable performance" as well (I know this is in some sense a ridiculous, hopelessly idiosyncratic question). What am I not thinking of? Our target launch date for this site is January 2nd, but as stated above, the big performance requirements don't arrive for six weeks or so after that. Thanks!

How do I pass form data between pages and have it email me the results?

Elminster24 — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 23:06:52 -0800

Help me learn to code a form that passes multiple fields across several pages and ultimately emails me the results. For purposes of this question, lets say I have a website with three pages.

* Page 1 has a form with a drop-down to select what industry someone is in.

* Page 2 should list the selection that was made on page one, and possibly change some of the other form fields on the page as a result of what was selected on page one

* Page 3 summarizes all of the selections that were made and requests the submitters email address. Upon submission, all of the data is emailed in a cleanly formatted text email to sales@mydomain.com with the from address also being sales@mydomain.com. Mydomain.com is the site where this form will be located. Additionally, I would like to pass through the referrer string from Page 1 so I can see where the lead came from (for example, if they came from google this would give me the keyword and other data).

Right now I have a simple one-page form on my site and I use the free service from a site called emailmeform.com to email the form to me but there MUST be a way to just have it handled all from my site and not need a third party.

I know a decent amount of HTML/CSS to the point where I can code a nicely designed site and I'm just getting started with PHP. I'd say I know enough to do includes and have some sense of what is going on in the code with limited ability to hack it but I don't yet have an understanding of how to implement global GET and POST commands (which I have a hunch is what is involved in passing the data between pages according to the initial research I've done).

I'm eager to learn the required coding skills to be able to do this myself but I'm not quite sure where to start as there are several components to this I've identified. I would appreciate suggestions, links, guides, tutorials, and anything else that can help me figure out:

1. How to properly build the form so I can pass form field inputs between several pages during a session

2. How to properly capture the referrer string when the user submits the form on the first page to move on to the next step (I assume this would then be stored as a hidden field input)

3. How to simply set things up so I can manage the emailing of all this form data on my own. I've seen various PHP scripts out there that claim to do this but they are a bit intimidating as I'm not quite sure what is involved in making this work. Ie. could I set it to send from any email address I want or does it have to be from the same domain as the site is hosted on and do I need to do anything to email settings with the site, etc. Right now these scripts are essentially a black box to me and I want a better understanding of how they function

I figured the best approach after getting answers here would be to build a simple bare bones test site with this functionality and then try to implement it on my live site so I look forward to your answers and I am happy to clarify any of this further. Please note, I am not looking for you to code this for me...I honestly want to learn how to do everything that is involved in this as I am very much a "teach me to fish" type of person and while I don't know a ton of PHP yet, I tend to pick up fairly quickly on how to code specific things and hack snippets together even if I don't know a ton about the language.

Also, my preference for this is to keep it doable while utilizing XAMPP so that means PHP (MySQL if necessary) and CSS/html. Thanks AskMeFi!

I need a gallery script that isn't retarded.

borkingchikapa — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 01:23:45 -0800

I have a lot of photos on my blog that I want to put into a gallery, but there are so many that I don't want to deal with reuploading them somewhere or installing a feature-creepy (I just made that up!) gallery script and putting them all into it. They're all in a big messy directory on my server, so is there a very simple script that will look in the directory for anything that's a JPG and spit it out in gallery format? Or, if you know PHP: I could probably write the thing myself, but what would the code for "look in /directoryx/, put all filenames into this array" look like?

Game got switched. Pass the noobsauce plz?

TomMelee — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 09:04:43 -0800

I suck at wordpress. Should I start over or can someone help me fix this? I do a lot of hardware repair for side money here, and recently had an established customer ask me to do a site for her daughter. I thought it would be extremely simple, and it was. I did a typical wordpress install and modified the heck out of a template I found somewhere to make it match her colors/logo/etc. I don't usually do web work because it's not my strongsuit.

So I'm doing all this in a sandbox site (live, but not at her .com) and thinking its coming together fine. Top menu, 4 pages, nice gradient, etc. This was originally a right-side menu template, and I've taken all the right column out because it's unnecessary. (blogroll, rss, etc.)

Today I get a call that she loves all of it but she wants the menu down the left side. This was a right/top menu template. I'm in waaay over my head trying to figure out how to chop it up. I've looked at the css, and there's nothing in there that declares positions---only widths. I looked in the wordpress themes settings and there's no place to move the menu left. I've played around in the index moving the php calls to alternate locations and the page doesn't change (or doesn't change significantly.) Changing the sidebar.php to "left column" instead of "right column" puts the menu at the bottom of the body, because the body is the left column.

So I'm assuming the only real way to fix this is to figure out how to resize the columns and move the body to the right and the menu to the left...unless I'm overthinking it?

Happy to share the live-site address and assorted template files if anyone out there in mefi land is willing to take a peek. Otherwise I'll just start modifying a left-column template. Grrr.

Solutions for a web-based form that takes payment...?

You Should See the Other Guy — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 12:27:22 -0800

Have to build a form for a web site that takes generic stuff (name, address, etc.) but also processes a payment, preferably through Paypal Pro. The site is hosted by Dreamhost and the CMS is Expression Engine. Paypal Pro's site is a little mind-boggling for an amateur like myself. Are there companies that will just do this aspect of the development (and quickly) or a site that has solutions given these variables? I don't mind paying, I just need it done fast.

The Elusive Quick and Dirty iPhone App

The Winsome Parker Lewis — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 16:05:05 -0800

What is the most painless route to developing and selling an iPhone app? I'm interested in building a game similar to the ones made by Storm8. As far as I can tell, those games are just web apps -- HTML, JavaScript, and some server-side scripting. The apps used to access them are just simple skinned browsers with some hooks for device ID authentication. Since almost all of the game is managed server-side, Storm8 can push updates to all players instantly without requiring them to download a software update.

I know HTML, JavaScript, and PHP. I have a killer game idea that seems to fit into that model and I don't see why I couldn't make it happen with my current skill set. So, where do I go from here? How do I painlessly build a client app to connect to my web interface, and get it in the App Store? I don't want to touch Xcode or Objective-C if I can avoid them. I'm willing to outsource development of that part if the price is right (meaning: extremely, ridiculously low).

How can I avoid the nightmare of complicated legal gymnastics I've heard some devs go through? Where can I find the official list of guidelines Apple supposedly follows when deciding to accept or reject apps? I should probably make sure my idea complies before I start coding. What else do I need to know before I enter the strange, intimidating land of iPhone development?

Need ideas for a really cool (and challenging) beginner's program I can write in PHP.

kitcat — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 15:01:40 -0800

Need ideas for a really cool and challenging beginner's program I can write in PHP. For the final assignment of my beginner's programming class (the language is PHP), I get to write a program that will do whatever I like. I'm really dorkishly excited and I want to choose something both cool and kinda tough - something I'll learn a lot from putting together.

The program has to contain decision structures, looping and arrays at the very least. I can involve other scripts / languages or web stuff if I choose, but as it stands right now, I don't know how to run web apps - only a little bit of HTML and CSS. And there won't be any GUI, since we haven't learned any of that in conjunction with PHP. My instructor has suggested a financial calculator or a contact manager. These seem booooring. And a little bit too easy, too. Yes, I'm a beginner, but I think I can handle something more than that.

Please help me come up with some ideas. What was the coolest 'first real program' you wrote?

How to make coding php easier?

funkyavocado — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 10:57:37 -0800

I'm about to start on a medium sized php project and am looking for some ways to make things easier on myself. I would like to avoid frameworks. I've used cakephp before and found too many frustrating obstacles. I was considering codeignighter this time around, but am worried that it will just be more of the same. What I'm trying to avoid is my normal hodgepodge of code and would like to find some libraries and organization structure for my code. Any suggestions?

How to make my PHP-generated URLs prettier?

fellorwaspushed — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 12:55:53 -0800

I'd like to make more easily understood URL paths for my PHP-generated pages. Instead of using the conventional query string method such as

mysite.com/page.php?section=2&product_id=1

I'd like to be able to set up my URL to read

mysite.com/tools/widget/

It's more human-readable, and I think better for SEO, but I don't know how to do it! Unfortunately, all my Google and PHP.net searches around URL parsing, etc. don't seem to address how to use alternatives to the ?& method of using GET variables. Does anyone have any advice or links to articles on this subject?

Does php fork standalone mysql queries or wait for them?

twine42 — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 07:21:04 -0800

How does PHP handle mysql requests (in regard to time and 'forking') A piece of PHP code does a mysql INSERT. Assuming that there are no further mysql commands (ie, another SQL query or a request for the insert id), does PHP wait for the mysql to be completed before it continues with the rest of the PHP? Or does it wander on ahead?

The reason I ask, is that I have a server that is (occasionally) stacking a load of slow queries.

I've also got a system that does inserts a record, then redirects the browser to a different page which looks for a modified records.

I'm getting reports of a bug that could be a race condition, but I'd assumed that PHP was waiting for a response from mysql...

What kind of word does an entry level PHP programmer do the first few months on the job?

zorro astor — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 21:59:01 -0800

What can I expect in terms of daily tasks from an entry level php programmer? I'll be looking for an entry level position as a php programmer eventually and I was wondering what basic knowledge I will need and what sort of tasks I'll be asked to do. I want to be able do those things and I'd like to know what the first few months for an entry level PHP programmer would be like. I've looked at interview questions on the internet, but are those for advanced programmers? I find I can answer a fair number of them but not all by any means. I can usually figure something out by looking on the web. I'm very light on Javascript and Ajax but studying it as we speak. I am concentrating on OOP and MVC (separation of content from scripts).

My background is in data operations (computer operator). I have a fair amount of light database work (queries, fixing screwed up records). I understand the basics of data normalization, subqueries, joins. I am currently working on a travel oriented site (CodeIgniter) and will have that finished before I even submit a resume. I do not have a degree in CS, though I have taken a few courses.

Also, I am 45 years old and am worried about know how much of an effect that will have.

Best programming language for a web design class?

satori_movement — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 17:07:22 -0800

What programming language should I teach my kids? (web dev) I've got about 20 interesting and enthusiastic highschool kids in a web design class. I'm having a blast teaching them, and so far we've covered some of the basics(html, css, and trappings of JS).

We're going to be on Javascript for a while, but at some point we're going to move on to a little database stuff and I want to be ready.

My own personal background is in PHP, but I've played with ruby and done a decent amount of work in python. I've also read that lua is a good choice, and there are some interesting MVCs in that area(plus Lua's syntax is similar to JS which I like).

Really though, I want to avoid running around in circles. So what programming language should I teach my kids? Lua, python, ruby, php, something else entirely?

Drupal vs Joomla vs Wordpress vs ...?

AmbroseChapel — Sun, 30 Aug 2009 20:59:33 -0800

Drupal vs Joomla vs Wordpress vs ...? I'm a web developer with a fair bit of experience with both front- and back-end. I've done plain-HTML websites and I've done completely custom CGI websites, but I'm realising I should probably start working with frameworks.

So ... which one, for which kind of task? Does anyone have a rule of thumb, like "the site is of size X and content type Y and you want to spend no more than Z amount of time looking after it for the client, so you should choose this framework"?

My question is a little open-ended, and I realise it may turn into framework-chatfilter or even "your favourite framework sucks", but that's OK, I wouldn't mind taking part in the same kind of conversation I'd have if I was having a beer with a bunch of web developers.

I'm inspired to ask partly because I've got a project coming up and I have to decide on a system, and partly because I see people discussing the frameworks on Ask all the time and I see offhand remarks like "Oh, but Wordpress is a security nightmare!" and "Drupal, Ugh! Half the contributed modules don't even work properly!" and so on, and well, every system has its fans and its haters, I'd like to hear, politely, from all sides.

Web App to manage client uploads???

spock — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 10:20:46 -0800

I'm looking for a web application (preferrably Open Source) that will help me accomplish the following: I have a service business that works on digital files for clients. I'd like to broaden my reach through web, so want to give clients/public the ability to upload files to me and for me to keep track of who those files are from, and to be able to invoice them and track when they have paid, etc. so I can return the finished file to them. I'd like it to work with Paypal. It is possible that this cannot all be done by a single application, but I'd prefer an all-in-one solution. But feel free to suggest partial solutions.

I'm an experienced server and web application admin with multiple platforms. I'd prefer a PHP/MySQL solution, but will certainly consider others. My Google-Fu is not strong today, apparently, as I'm having trouble locating this, but I'm sure that somebody has already invented this "wheel".

TIA for any words of wisdom you may have to share.

Adding Gogle Analytics to Opentapes

boombot — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 14:04:36 -0800

I've got a series of Opentape mixes set up (http://opentape.fm/), and would like to add Google Analytics to them. How do I do that?

Turn on, tune in, log out?

telegraph — Sun, 09 Aug 2009 12:27:55 -0800

Webdev filter: What tools can I use to avoid developing a registration/log-in feature from scratch? I'm an amateur web developer -- I took a few programming classes in college (Java), know HTML and CSS pretty well, and can get by in PHP and SQL, albeit while checking references constantly. I'm trying to build what I think should be a pretty simple web application: the nuts and bolts of it are that it should allow member registration and login/out, and while the user is logged in, s/he can input numerical data, as well as view some statistical juggling of that data.

The data entry bit I feel fairly confident that I can do using PHP/MySQL. I've written a rudimentary registration and login system (with an email confirmation message, etc), but I can tell that it needs a lot more features and even though I am mostly n00b I can think of ways it could be compromised -- if at all possible I'd prefer to just use code that is already written and known to be fairly stable.

Is there a pre-built, standard kind of thing (I don't even know what the proper word to call it is) I can use for this? I think that Ruby on Rails could be used here, but my attempts at teaching myself how to use it have been kind of futile, and I don't really need all of the version control and other features like that. I'd like to keep this really really simple, at least for now.

As you can see I'm not very experienced and don't really know the proper terms are, so let me know if I need to clarify anything. While I'd like to learn other languages in the future, my goal is to get this thing up and running so I'd prefer advice that presupposes PHP use as opposed to telling me to go learn Python (though I guess I understand if that's the only option). Thanks.

3-5 days and good programming skills. I wanna build something cool!

cgg — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 13:37:11 -0800

I have 3-5 days (starting tomorrow!) in which I'm off from work, and have really nothing planned. As a developer geek in a crappy economy, I'm looking at looming unemployment and/or the start of a freelance career in the very near future. I want to this time making "something" that I can use in my portfolio to show potential employers/clients. What on earth can I build? Ideas for sites are a dime a dozen, except for when I need one. I'd like to build something cool that I can show off. Trouble is, I'd like to get it out, at least v0.1, after only 3-5 days of work. All my ideas involve considerably more effort than that. And I at least want it to be somewhat fun and/or interesting and/or to teach me something new... I can write boring code at work.

So mefites -- what should I build? I know the LAMP stack pretty well, where the 'P' can be either PHP, Python or Perl (although right now PHP is my strongest language). I can thnk in SQL -- databases are not a problem. I have more than enough hosting and a good dev environment. I can learn things (APIs, etc) pretty quickly. Maybe something fun with Google Maps? A Facebook app? An entire site? I'm open to all and any ideas...

Yes, there are better uses for my time. I should be networking, yadda yadda, but this is my vacation and I don't wanna. :) I never get to write what I want to write anymore. Assume my resume is up to date and polished.

into a black hole

mwhybark — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 11:17:14 -0800

Any Cloudy Nights folks on MeFi? I am googling around in getting going with backyard astronomy and Cloudy Nights appears to be (or to have been) a decent resource, but it has been nothing but failed MySQL connections and php pathing errors since I started digging. Any info? Is it dead, Bones? I did find this older AskMe which includes a bunch of good info, btw.

http://ask.metafilter.com/13386/quality-astronomytelscope-websites

How can I find someone willing to let me, an amateur, design a website for them for practice?

oracle bone — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 21:50:57 -0800

How can I find someone willing to let me, an amateur, design a website for them for practice? I've worked amateurishly with website design/coding before, largely on my own, in a learn-as-needed learn-as-I-go style. Most of these projects have been done for fun, and as a result, most of them are simple websites & have not stayed online for too long. I'd like to eventually work for pay. However, since I've never worked professionally before, I don't think I have enough experience, so I'm looking for opportunities to gain more experience & expand my portfolio.

Can anyone suggest how I can find some people who would be willing to let me design a website for them? I can work for little/no pay, but I'd really like this project to be comprehensive in the sense that I get to work with all components of a website (coding/databases/etc). Also, I'd like to be able to use this as an example of my work for my portfolio.

This could be local, but I have already tried several non-profits in the area but most already have webmasters. (I live in a pretty small, non-tech town, so to speak.) I can also consider working over the internet with someone/some group, ideally with programmers more experienced than me so I can still learn new techniques.

Techniques I'm quite comfortable with/experienced in: HTML, XML, CSS
Techniques I'd like to practice: PHP, MySQL/databases, JavaScript, AJAX.

Any suggestions appreciated!

PHP -> Twitter API at specified times: what am I Doing Wrong?

goodnewsfortheinsane — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 18:29:11 -0800

Please help me write a PHP script that publishes Twitter updates at pre-specified times. I'm working on a script that will update Twitter with reminders about upcoming shows at a music festival, building on lodev's idea here.

I've currently got this script, which calls a text file structured like in this made-up example:

XXXUPDATE SponsorCo Stage: THE BEATLES in 30 minutes XXXTIME August 21 2009 21:30 +0200 XXXDONE 0 XXXENDLINE XXXUPDATE MegaCorp Stage: ROLLING STONES in 30 minutes XXXTIME August 21 2009 22:45 +0200 XXXDONE 0 XXXENDLINE

Proprietary format, I know. :) There are six Twitter accounts right now for separate concert stages, more may follow.

All six separate scripts are called from a Ruby file via pycron, every minute. I understand that's plenty often and I don't really need that kind of temporal resolution, but it uses relatively few processor cycles so I'm not really complaining.

As you can see in the PHP code:

if (($now <= ($utime + 30)) && ($now >= ($utime - 29))) {

if ($update[3] !== 1) {

When an update is ready for publication it should, theoretically at least, satisfy the first "if" statement and be published. The second "if" checks a "done" flag in the text file which I have as of yet not used (i.e. they're all set to 0 and the current code doesn't amend them).

Now, I "stress-tested" this with some test updates on all six accounts, including many simultaneous ones (carrying the same timestamp) on the different accounts for ten minutes with six (one for each account) every minute, and out of maybe a hundred-something tweets (I ran multiple iterations of the test) only one was dropped, i.e. it was in the text file but was not published.

Even one dropped update is unacceptable to me, and I strongly suspect I am Doing It Wrong. But how? The problem basically boils down to the following question:

What better method would there be to push out the updates reliably using the server config I currently have (XP, Apache, PHP5, Ruby, pycron), very preferably without using databases?

When it comes to scripting I really only speak PHP and a little JavaScript: even the (very basic) Ruby script was kindly provided to me for a different project.

So there's just too little time before the event to learn a new language or start out with MySQL or whatever before the event, and I'm not really eager to change to different software or change my server configuration (or set up another box) just for one-off project that will last just a few days. This is just to say that it's not due to an unwillingness on my part, but rather due to practical considerations.

If anyone could offer their insights I would be ever so grateful. Thanks in advance, guys.

Time zones and PHP question ...

jbickers — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 07:05:41 -0800

PHP gurus: please help me do something specific with the date function. So my website uses some logic to determine what time of day/day of week it is, and display content accordingly. It all hinges on this variable:

$now = date('l H:i');

Over the weekend, we moved web hosts - to a company in California, and now the dynamic content is always three hours off. I've looked up the documentation on the function, and it makes my head hurt. What do I do to that variable assignment to add three hours to the result it returns?

I thought WAMPserver was, like, for idiots. I feel like an idiot so why doesn't it work?

Foam Pants — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 11:49:39 -0800

I am following a tutorial on how to install WAMPserver and Wordpress on my Windows machine to kickstart my learning of CM systems and PHP. A crucial component won't install and I don't know nuthin' about how to fix the problem. I found This tutorial on installing and configuring WAMPserver, which is ideal for a dunderhead like myself who can barely compute. When I get to the part where they tell you to go to SQLitemanager, I realized that it wasn't in my WAMPserver menu. I have unistalled and reinstalled twice and it doesn't show up. I have tried to duplicate their instructions using a SQLite Manager plugin for Firefox but it isn't working. I have searched for evidence of other people having the same problem but came up empty-handed. I am at a loss to find a solution. Am I looking for the answers in the wrong places? This is being installed on a machine without windows server software.