The function below sets the database connection details:

function forumdb(){
$dbname="forum";
$host="localhost";
$dbh=mysql_connect($host) or die ('I cannot connect to the
database because: ' . mysql_error());
mysql_select_db ($dbname) or die('I cannot select the database
because: ' . mysql_error());
}

Remember to add your connection details to the this function.

This function shows a form that will enable you to enter a word that you want banned from the forum.

function showfrm(){
echo '<center> <form name="form1" method="post" action="' .$_SERVER['PHP_SELF'].'?action=writewords"> ';
echo 'Enter word to ban:<br>
    <input type="text" name="word"><br>
    <input type="Submit" name="Submit" value="Submit"
class="altButtonFormat"> ';
 echo '</center></form>';
 echo '<center><font color="#FF0000">Banned words will be replace
with XXXX.</font></center>';
}

Here's what the form looks like:

Fig. 3 The form is presented when you want a new word to be added to the banned word list.

The "getword()" function retrieves all the banned words:

function getword(){
echo "<center><b><h3>Banned Words</h3></b></center>";
echo "<center>---------------------</center>";
 $words=file('badwords.txt');
for($i=0; $i < count($words); $i++){
echo "<center>$words[$i]</center><br>";
}
}

The function interacts with a text file on the disk and uses PHP's very handy file handling functions to retrieve a list of banned words. Here's a screen shot of the above function result:

Fig. 4 A list of  banned words.

The writeword() function writes all the words to a file called "badwords.txt."

function writeword(){
if(isset($_POST['Submit'])){
$word=$_POST['word'];
if($fp=fopen('badwords.txt', 'a+')){
fwrite($fp, "$wordrn");
fclose($fp);
echo "<center>The word <b>$word</b> has now been
banned.</center>";
}else{
echo "could not open file";
}
}
}

As I mentioned before we will use a $action variable to receive the value passed from the link that has been clicked, and then use the switch command to handle the value accordingly. Here's a snippet of the switch command:

if(isset($_GET['action'])){
$action=$_GET['action'];
switch($action)
{
    Case "gettopics";
        getall();
    break;
  Case "deleteall";
        delall();
        break;

As the code above shows, once the user clicks on the "get all main topics" link the "getall();" function is called. The same thing happens when the user clicks on the "Delete all topics" link; the "delall()" function is called.

Conclusion

That's it for the admin section of the forum. Here are a few suggestions to improve its performance: create a table to store the "bad words." This will enable you to add/remove words more easily than you would with a file-based system. Try to set up a login script to control access to the admin area, as I'm sure you would not want just anyone to have access to the functions on that page!