This was an interesting project overall. I have learned a lot while working on it.
I opted to try my hand at creating some form of a chat application. The program is PHP and MySQL based, with a little bit of jQuery/AJAX. I originally began trying to do a frontend design, which resulted in me learning about Twitter Bootstrap and what it can do. I decided to change my focus to the backend. The chat app uses a few classes from Bootstrap in addition to MySQL, PHP, and jQuery/AJAX.
I really liked this project because it helped me make connections on how I could use these different technologies to create great things. AJAX, jQuery and Bootstrap were new to me.
My process resulted in a lot of hand-drawings and thinking. I had a vague idea on how to do it in PHP/MySQL: Create a form in HTML, get user input, insert data into database, get the data and format it in a separate panel. The thing I had to figure out is how to integrate these newer technologies with my idea on how to execute the project.
I learned a lot about what AJAX and jQuery is good for and researched and practiced a lot while trying to construct the chat application.
Here is a list of the files:
chatapp.sql - mysql table creation information.
conf.php - php configuration file for connectivity purposes.
shoutindex.html - the main HTML page
shoutglobal.js - relays information to post.php
post.php - inserts user information into MySQL database
getdata.php - retreives the MySQL data.
bootstrap/bootstrap.css - bootstrap file
style.css - basic css
Demo: here