How to make a dynamic forum signature [Page of 2]

Misc Links

Ads

Age of Valor - Ultima Online Free Shard
AoS/SE/ML/Custom - advanced code, dedicated staff, peerless bosses, non overpowered customs + much much more

Latest Forum Topics

Disable UAC in windows Vista/7/2008
Posted by Red Squirrel
on Jun 24 2009, 1:52:50 pm

IE 8 update error
Posted by rovingcowboy
on Jun 15 2009, 8:18:40 am

77' Chevy Nova
Posted by MikeDB
on Jun 25 2009, 4:36:46 pm

Bought a house
Posted by Triple6_wild
on Jun 15 2009, 3:22:07 am

computer desk chairs/office chairs
Posted by Onykage
on May 08 2009, 9:57:00 am

Send spam to: website@xeonlive.com nick@xeonlive.com georgiapeach1241@aol.com How to make a dynamic forum signature
Make people wonder...
By Red Squirrel

Ever thought it would be cool to have a forum signature that changes every time? But figured it would be a pain to somehow have an automated process upload a new one ever N minutes? Well it's very simple, and does not require anything but a bit of php code, so you do need a php enabled host. You don't even need lot of bandwidth either! This short guide will show you how you can make your own rotational signature for use in forums, emails and other places!

Setting up the folder
First, you need to setup a folder where the main image is. The main image is the image you will link to, this is actually not an image but php code which we will look at soon. You need to be running a server that uses apache and php, and type the following in your .htaccess file:

ForceType application/x-httpd-php

You should also create a file called "number.txt" which is used in the code to randomize the image. This will force all files to run as php. There's other ways of doing it so it only affects specific files, but this is the simplest one and works well since you can use a gif file or whatever, heck, you can even start your own service and put everyone's sig in that folder! If you want to specify specific files to run as php, you can lookup apache's documentation for other ways to do this, but in this case we'll simply make a folder that parses everything as php.
Notice: Do not store any other files in this folder, this folder should only be for the "fake" image and number.txt.

Next Page
spacer

33737 Hits

Pages: [1] [2]

145 Comments

Latest comments (newest first)

Posted by Guest on March 03th 2006 (07:06)
I must confuses your site is really cool!!! Great site, great idea, just all round great work, everyone.
spacer

Posted by Guest on February 02th 2006 (05:09)
Hi
Good site. It would be desirable to return again and again!
spacer

Posted by PCheese on July 07st 2005 (20:10)
Nice tutorial!

For those of you looking for a more complete solution, ampsig is a great free dynamic PHP signature script.
spacer

Posted by unacceptable on May 05th 2005 (14:09)
nice tut dude
just got something to add

AddType application/x-httpd-php .png

in your .htaccess is a good idea instead of the forcing the php

and add this inot you apachy conf file...

<Directory "c:\pat\to\sig\root">
AllowOverride FileInfo
</Directory>

using this method is better because correct information is shown when the user right clicks and saves or checks teh properties in IE, and is generally more compatable.

Cheers dude, iv got a kick butt sig thanks to this, pulling data from 4 different source (php, html and xml x2) and a set of random quotes. Its so easy to expand this code to make something pretty cool.

Once again thanks

spacer

Posted by ZenithalRavage on May 05th 2005 (13:11)
phew, Imagettftext works now! I got a reply from my webhost and all I had to do was put ./ infront of the fontname, so instead of:

$font = "arial.ttf";

this:

$font = "./arial.ttf";

sheesh

So if someone has similar problems and the host does not allow the GDFONTPATH command, this could be your solution
spacer

View all comments
Post comment

Top Articles	Latest Articles
- What are .bin files for? (534604 reads) - Big Brother and Ndisuio.sys (134493 reads) - PSP User's Guide (115017 reads) - SPFDisk (Special Fdisk) Partition Manager (84331 reads) - Text searching in linux with grep (82051 reads)	- Dynamic Forum Signatures (version 2) (2182 reads) - Successfully Hacking your iPhone or iTouch (9687 reads) - Ultima Online Newbie Guide (16559 reads) - BBcode editor: PHP - The sensible approach (14021 reads) - The Hitch Hikers guide to "the mouse" (12409 reads)