Hey all, I am currently hosted on a Freehost server that doesn't support PHP and I am wanting to make a forum. Its just a small site, that gets a little traffic so there isn't any issue of a database getting too big. I have searched Google for several hours and come up empty-handed and then i thought "Astahost! someone there is bound to know" So here are my questions... Is it possible to make a forum using XML? (No PHP), and if so, is it safe? or will i just open up my site to anyone with XML knowledge to hack my site by passing code? Thanks in advance for any help you can give.

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It is impossible to use XML to create a forum, as XML (or rather, the way webpages use it, XHTML) does not have the ability to store to databases and read files, one of which is necessary to create a forum. This is because it is a markup language, not a scripting or programming language. Markup languages are designed to provide formatting for files, not interactivity.

~Viz

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If your server doesn't support PHP, what does the sever support? I guees you NEED some server-sided script-language on the server, otherwise HOW should the forum posts be written in an XML-file? Sure, you can use XML as a database, you can let your visitors use some great XML-functions like sorting data and filtering data in the browser window. But if it comes to writing data in files on the server, you need PHP or ASP or ASP.NET, any server-sided script language ... as far as I know.

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They're all right, unfortunately.
You could try one of the free forum places like Proboards(http://www.proboards.com) or ezboard(www.ezboard.com), although ezboard is terrible, I don't reccommend ezboard.

Or, you could keep posting and sign up for an account here. With Fantastico you can install PHPBB in a matter of seconds.

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You don't neccessarily need a serverside scripting support, just some sort of possibility to run programs on the server, ie. CGI will do. Although it is highly likely that they won't support CGI if they don't support PHP, PHP being more server friendly.

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Actually, Herrco, many hosters do offer CGI in perl support without offering PHP support for two reasons: 1) they wanted to offer limited SSL capability, and perl came out first and 2) it is easier to restrict to the program writer what can and can't be done in perl.

~Viz

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Yeah, you're probably better off at a place like ezboard.com or proboards. I liked proboards much better, because ezboard had too many system glitches. My board one day just disappeared and I couldn't sign in to my account. My proboards account has always been fine.

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Thank you all very much for your replies, although not the answer I was hoping for but still good to know. I just thought there may have been some way for the data to be written directly to the XML file as a "post", maybe I was just getting my hopes up but looks like I will have to go to a server that supports PHP as suggested. I will look into all of your suggestions for servers.

Unfortunately doesn't support CGI either, from what i know it is a very limited server as far as the support and software it has to offer. I think that if i want PHP and ASP on that server I would have to pay, and being a student I cant really afford to pay for anything like that . So I guess I should post more here and build up my points.


Once again, thank you all for your help, it is highly appreciated.

 

 

 

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