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Create a blog from scratch with PHP and Subversion

You don't need fancy software to create a blog with a powerful undo feature

Tyler Anderson (tyleranderson5@yahoo.com), Freelance writer and developer, Backstop Media

Tyler Anderson has graduated with a degree in computer science in 2004 and a Master of Science degree in computer engineering in December, 2005, both from Brigham Young University. Tyler is currently a freelance writer and developer for Backstop Media.

Summary: PHP is a great Web programming language to use when creating dynamic Web sites, such as blogs. This tutorial explains how to build a blog from scratch, while storing data using flat files. The Web site will be backed up on a remote system using Subversion, protecting data in the event of a Web-site crash. Subversion is growing in popularity, and it is a great candidate to back up the Web site. With Subversion, it's also possible to roll back the Web site to earlier versions of the blog if your server crashes, or if you just didn't like last week's rambling.

Date: 14 Feb 2006
Level: Intermediate
PDF: A4 and Letter (442 KB | 33 pages)Get Adobe® Reader®

Activity: 19603 views
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Before you start

This tutorial is for developers wishing to develop their own blog software from scratch using PHP and enhance it by storing the entire database as flat files using a version control system called Subversion. This tutorial assumes basic PHP knowledge and no knowledge of Subversion. The application was built and tested on a Windows® machine using PHP and Apache V2.

About this tutorial

You will build a Web log (blog) application from scratch using PHP that stores daily blog entries in flat files. Creating the blog application from scratch allows you to customize your blog in whatever way best suits you. Given how important your blog entries will be, it is important that you back up all of your relevant data. This tutorial will show you how to back up your blog using a version control tool known as Subversion.

Prerequisites

The following tools are needed to follow along. This tutorial was written on Microsoft® Windows system. The differences should be minimal, if any, for following along using a machine with a different operating system, such as Linux®:

Web server: Any Web server can be used. However, this tutorial used Apache V2. Feel free to use Apache V2.x or the IBM HTTP Server.
PHP: You'll need PHP to code along. This tutorial uses PHP V5.0.3. However, anything higher is sufficient.
Subversion: A version control tool (the command-line client is svn), will be used in the last section. Download Subversion, install it, and place its bin directory in your PATH.