MobileMe + Web hosting + vBulletin forums?

[w...b]

So im looking to create my own website. Its going to be based on current events of a region. I have the layout of the site basically done but i have a few questions.

Im looking at a MobileMe account for something a little bit more professional. I like how i can keep on my dates and addresses online and access them anywhere, along with the email account.

I was wondering if i can host my site on MobileMe server but have my own domain name. Like www.apple123.com without any .mac or .me prefix/suffix. Also i was hearing that .mac didnt support PHP which is what i believe forums use. I have no idea what vBulletin uses yet but i wanted to know if i could connect it to might site?

Another question - on iWeb can i change the html/css of the page? All i can see right now is a click and drag type of format with small html snippets here and there that you can add.

thanks

W...B

 

[angelwatt]

I was wondering if i can host my site on MobileMe server but have my own domain name. Like www.apple123.com without any .mac or .me prefix/suffix. Also i was hearing that .mac didnt support PHP which is what i believe forums use. I have no idea what vBulletin uses yet but i wanted to know if i could connect it to might site?

Another question - on iWeb can i change the html/css of the page? All i can see right now is a click and drag type of format with small html snippets here and there that you can add.

MobileMe does not support PHP from what I hear so any of the forums out there won't be able to be used. Most forums are powered with PHP and MySQL, which MobileMe can't handle.

iWeb won't let you directly work with the CSS or HTML. In iWeb it works with the site as a binary file rather than a plain text file like most web development software. It only creates the HTML when you do a publish. You can try to work with the HTML and CSS after publishing, but it's not pretty code so don't recommend it. Also, any changes you did make wouldn't go back into iWeb so you would have to make the changes every time.

 

[theappleguy]

MobileMe is basically for file storage and static websites as it doesn't support any form of server side scripting (such as PHP or ASP) or offer databases (both of which are required to run a forum).

You may find this thread useful as well.

 

[w...b]

thanks for the replies. Ill read through that thread when i get home. I was wondering what would be the best solution then.

Make a website through dreamweaver or regular text edit then find a good hosting server? Could any of you give me some suggestions?

and for iWeb, im still going to use it to create my moms site for her business. Could it be uploaded onto any server?

Thanks.

WB

 

[angelwatt]

I recommend giving the stickies in this forum a read through to see the different things people suggest. The software to use depends on your expertise, how much you're willing to learn, and such.

As for uploading your mom's iWeb created site, that should be fine. You'll just use iWeb's Publish to Folder option and take the contents of what it exports and upload it to a folder you want on the web server.

 

[Mitou]

Another possibility is to have an iweb site and to link to a free forum from you menu bar. The other one is to have your forum imbeded in an iframe on your page, it works and I have seen it done the look remains the same and people can navigate but I hate it and do not recommend it. It just is another way.
You can see something like this on this page
While that site is in French you can still see how he handles his forum.

 

[nfable]

Both possible - domain and forum

After swimming thru posts all over the web, I've found the answers (that I was searching for myself)

for your own domain name; yes, go to godaddy or some other domain name provider (godaddy $10/yr) and get your unique .com (or .net, whatever) then you can forward traffic heading to that .com to your web.me.com/yourname/yoursite as well as mask the address so users only see the .com you've purchased.
Below will walk you thru linking ...
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1616444

As for the forum -I've had success with an existing phpBB forum, by using the following code in a HTML snippet frame - JUST MAKE SURE THAT THIS FRAME IS BROUGHT TO FRONT; most all of the nav works fine, but if a user tries to edit their profile, it brings them to the originating forum for some reason... but here's the code to implant, I like it as it can maintain the look of my site for 98% of the users' experience...

<iframe src="http://www.yoursiteforumisattachedto.com/phpbb2/index.php" width="750" height="600" frameborder="no" scrolling="yes"></iframe>

Worked for me so far; hope it helps - and yes I'm on me.com

Best,
nf

 

[mathcolo]

This may seem outrageous at first... but have you considered just hosting your forum/site yourself?

It isn't that hard, and it costs almost nothing. You only really have to pay for your own Internet connection and a domain. Then all you have to have is a computer than is running all the time. I do it and it works great for me.

 

[theappleguy]

I wouldn't recommend doing that unless you have a really reliable internet connection with a really good upstream speed (most people will have 1MBit or less which isn't really sufficient). Web hosting is so cheap, it really isn't worth the effort in my opinion.