PHP-Based Chat Room Page 3

Now we finally have all we need to write the new file :

<?php 
// Opens file for writing and truncates file length to zero.
$open_file = fopen("messages.html", "w");
// write file header...
fputs($open_file, $header);
// ... new line...
// (stripSlashes because we don't want all
// our escape characters appearing in the
// message file)
fputs($open_file, stripslashes($new_message));
// ... old lines ...
fputs($open_file, $old_messages);
// ... and footer.
fputs($open_file, $footer);
// Close the file when you're done. Don't forget to wash your hands
fclose($open_file);
?>

So we now have a very very basic web chat. Let’s look
at some of the features.

<form action="chat.php3">
Name : <input type="text" name="name"> Color: <input type="text" name="color"><br>
Message : <input type="text" name="message"><br>
<input type="submit" name="Send">
</form>

We’ve added a new input to the form, meaning we get
a nice new variable to play with in the script. We
read the old messages as before, but in compiling
the new one, we use a little more HTML.

<?php 
$new_message = "<font color="$color">$name : $message</font><br>n";
?>

And while we’re thinking about it, we’ll add a
few more bells and whistles.

<?php 
$time = date("H:i");
$new_message = "<font color="$color"><b><i>$name</i></b>".
    " <font size="1">($time)</font> : $message</font><br>n";
?>