Dreamhost - XML-RPC, PhP, LSL

A RL friend of mine and I were going to start out on a project for SL, although I have very limited knowledge in XML-RPC and PhP. I've run some searchs on the forums, and am slightly familiar now with this, although would be greatly appreciated if someone could take me through step-by-step, or atleast broaden my knowledge.

First off, Dreamhost. I'm using Dreamhost as my 'web-hosting provider'. I've learned that in order to start a channel via XML-RPC from LSL to PhP, i'll need to E-mail the PHP script. How can I set up a DreamHost E-mail account to route the E-mails to a specific route? Anyone have a link or guide on this?

As I stated about, my knowledge is VERY limited when it comes mainly to PHP. I was wondering if anyone had an example PHP script that could recieve info via SL, and store it in a database (or, if not the database part, atleast recieveing info (Starting small )). For the database, I'm not quite sure how to properly set it up via DreamHost, so if anyone has a guide on that, or if it's simple, can just let me know, would be awesome.

php - As I've seen in some PHP scripts including XML-RPC, I need some things which only I can get, such as localhost, and e-mail information. Does anyone know how to get this information from DreamHost (A link?)

LSL - To start off, I'll probably just start with sending small strings, so I'll keep looking for more example scripts to learn off of.

Thanks in advance to anyone who understood what I said (pretty sure most of it is jumbled or doesn't make sense).

Given that 1.9.1 will include a function for making straight HTTP requests, it's probably not worth your while to learn to deal with XML-RPC if you don't already know PHP.

Yeah, echoing that - wait for 1.9.1, it eliminates the need for a lot of the hassle in setting up external coms.

Awesome =D Although I don't know PHP. Would still be nice to see any example scripts for these problems though, even if I won't be using them (Unless I get a real nice feel for it)

Hmm. Just occured to me, do you mean with HTML I won't need to use XML-RPC, or it'll just be easier to start the channel (Like no E-mail?)

email to php script for dreamhost

first create a shell account and email address for the account. Then in the home directory put this code named ".forward.postfix"

|/home/<username>/path/to/script.php

Then in your php script . . .

#!/usr/local/bin/php
<?php
// read from stdin
$fd = fopen("php://stdin", "r");
$email = "";
while (!feof($fd)) 
	{
		$email .= fread($fd, 1024);
    }
    fclose($fd);
// handle email
$lines = explode("\n", $email);

// empty vars
$from = "";
$subject = "";
$headers = "";
$message = "";
$splittingheaders = true;


for ($i=0; $i < count($lines); $i++)
{
    if ($splittingheaders)
	{
        // this is a header
	    $headers .= $lines[$i]."\n";
		// look out for special headers
		if (preg_match("/^Subject: (.*)/", $lines[$i], $matches))
		{
			$subject = $matches[1];
		}
		if (preg_match("/^From: (.*)/", $lines[$i], $matches))
		{
		    $from = $matches[1];
		}
	} else {
		// not a header, but message
		$message .= $lines[$i]."\n";
	}
	if (trim($lines[$i])=="")
	{
	// empty line, header section has ended
	$splittingheaders = false;
	}
}

//now do something with the information contained in the email

When you say 'Home directory', would that be the root folder of the whole server?

|/home/<username>/path/to/script.php

^ - <username> - Would I need to change that?

Thanks for the script =D. Helped a bit, although still need to find out how to initialize a XML-RPC channel via having the object e-mail the server.

Bump

Okay, with the help of some friends, I've managed to get 'some' of this down, although I'm still not sure how to access a database via PHP. Any help would be appreciated

Well, you are in luck. I'm a PHP coder by trade. What you are asking for, I'm assuming, is how do you connect to a mySQL database through PHP.

If that is the case, I'll show ya. (just remember... you asked for it...)

Now. To start, you need the following.

mySQL Database Information:

1. DB name
   
2. username
   
3. password
   

Now, please make note, I keep my DB access into in a separate file to keep it safe from prying eyes. I then include that info into the main page, checking for a constant variable. if the variable it not there, it breaks the process. You can conbine the files if you wish, but I do not reccomend it.


Also, please note. This is not a PHP class. It's just a basic example of what can be done and, hopefully, gives you something to work from.

Lets say you have a database called sl_stuff

Inside that db, you have a table called keys


The table keys has the following columns within it:

1. key_id //The table row
   
2. key_value //The key value
   

In this example, we only really care about the column key_value and the data stored within.




So, lets start with the db connection information:


Call this file db.php

<?php
     
     if ( !defined('HACK_PROT') )
     {
             die("Hacking attempt");
     }
     
     /*------------------------------------------------------*\
       Standard mySQL Connection strings
     
       These sub-routines will be refferenced by all 
       scripts to access the mySQL dB.
     \*------------------------------------------------------*/
     
     /*------------------------------------------------------*\
       Variable Definitions
     \*------------------------------------------------------*/
     $mysql_host;
     $mysql_user;
     $mysql_password;
     $mysql_db;
     
     /*------------------------------------------------------*\
       User Set Variables
     \*------------------------------------------------------*/
     $mysql_host = "localhost";
     $mysql_user = "USERNAME";
     $mysql_password = "PASSWORD";
     $mysql_db = "sl_stuff";
     
     /*------------------------------------------------------*\
       DO NOT Edit anything below this line unless you
       EXACTLY what you are doing to the code!!!
     \*------------------------------------------------------*/
     
     // Connecting, selecting database
     $sqlopen = mysql_connect($mysql_host, $mysql_user, $mysql_password)
             or die("Could not connect: " . mysql_error());
     
     mysql_select_db($mysql_db) or die("Could not select database");
     
     ?>

Just replace the access variables.



Now for the actual connection stuff.



Call this file anything you want. Me, I'd call it sl_stuff.php but that's just me:

  <?php
  
  
  
  define('HACK_PROT', TRUE);
  define('DEBUG', TRUE);
  $root_path = './';
  
  include_once($root_path . 'db.php');
  
  $sql = ("SELECT * FROM keys");
  
  if ( DEBUG ) {echo "$sql\n\n";}
  $sqlresult = mysql_query($sql) or die( mysql_error() ); 
  
  while ($results = mysql_fetch_array($sqlresult, MYSQL_ASSOC)) {
  	 print ("$results[key_value]\n");
 	 $SLkeys[] = $results[key_value];
 
  }
  

That's pretty much it. All the contents of the DB will be printed out and stored into the array $SLkeys. Past here, you'll need to pull the data from the Array and process it.... something that is probably better done in a PHP specific forum.



I hope this helps and gets your off the ground.