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My latest project is creating a management system for my avatars. So far I have one directory called “avatars” and inside I have this sort of folder structure:

/avatars/category/subcategory/img.jpg

where there are multiple categories and subcategories. I want to create a page that displays all avatars from all categories and subcategories by order of file date modified. I’m not using MySQL to organize folder information though now I’m thinking it would be helpful to use MySQL.

I’ve created a very rough code that involves reading the categories and storing them in an array, then reading the sub categories and storing them into an array and using while loops so as to be able to retrieve all the array values when needed throughout the code. I’m stumped however, since at the moment the avatars are printed by category then sub category rather than just by date modified. I’m also having issues with a certain function (located on line 80) where if I declare it inside the while loops, it produces an error, but if I place it outside and out of the context it’s in, it doesn’t do what I want it to do which is to only display nine avatars per page and many avatars repeat while some aren’t displayed at all.

Here’s what I have. I know the code looks atrocious. I’m not that fluent with PHP though and I’m actually modifying a pre-existing script to do what I want it to do. If anyone can help me that would be great. I’ll keep working on it myself as well.

Edit: 6.4.09
The page is now working! I may write something for others to use as well if they’d like to manage avatars without using a database to store information on the avatars. You may see it working here.

I added some new avatars so you should check them out some time. They’re all under the category anime and are as follows: Escaflowne, Gakuen Alice, Rurouni Kenshin, and Trigun. There are five of each. I added the functionality of counting how many times each avatar has been downloaded so I can later figure out how to display the top 10 most popular avatars or something of this sort. I’m also trying to figure out how to display all avatars regardless of category from the most recent to the oldest. If anyone knows how to do any of that, your help will be much appreciated. Once again, to comment on this entry, click on the title “New Avatars”

I seem to have a knack for reading manga that is still being published and trying to finish them quickly knowing full well that I can’t finish them anyways because new chapters are still being published. Thus, the only manga I’ve managed to finish reading is Death Note. This can also be explained by the fact that I haven’t read as much manga as I have watched anime, though I tend to like the mangas I read more so than the anime. You’d think I’d read more manga than I’d watch anime but nonetheless I do appreciate what anime offers that mangas do not (i.e. motion graphics in color, music, voices of characters etc). That’s the same way with books though even though manga is more similar to anime than books are to movies since books don’t have graphics and movies are short whereas animes at many times try to follow the graphics of the manga, and manga is already in script format.

I’m actually afraid to watch this anime though since the graphics are not as nice as that of the manga in my opinion. Also, since the manga is still ongoing and the anime ends at episode 26, I’m a bit skeptical about the conclusion of the anime. Who knows, maybe they’ll make another series like Fullmetal Alchemist what with Brotherhood following the manga. Though I can tell even with Brotherhood, there are some variations to how the story is presented.

Alright, enough rambling about manga in general. I was wanting to write about Gakuen Alice, the manga, after all. My friend G recommended it to me during finals week and I was dying to read it…well, not quite as I didn’t allow myself to even think about reading manga. But right after finals (around 9:30pm May 13^th to be exact) I read the latest chapter of FMA and watched all six episodes of Brotherhood that had come out at the time and started reading Gakuen Alice the next day.

So far there are 111 chapters scantalated on Mangafox.com. It’s a pity that One Manga is behind on this manga and chapters 63, 64, and 76 are missing entirely, but applechips and mangahelpers are great places to go to for summaries of those chapters.

I really recommend this manga to people who like mystery, magic, romance, and comedy genres. It may be shoujo and I know some people are against reading shoujo manga, but it’s pretty different I think. The characters develop well in the manga such that you love them more as you learn more about them and watch them grow. Some characters may be disliked at first but loved later. Not only do you learn about the characters as they progress but you also learn about their pasts and how some characters are related to other characters. Learning about their pasts can be important to the storyline as well. Also, Higuchi (the manga artist and writer) does a wonderful job of adding suspense and mystery while at the same time revealing reasons and secrets later that enable you to understand why things happen. The reading is easy to follow and not confusing like some manga tend to be.

I think this series somewhat reminds me of Harry Potter in that students with magical abilities attend an academy and they live there. But unlike Harry Potter, every student has their own unique abilities called alices, and they don’t learn spells or own magic wands. In other words, they’re not witches or wizards, but people who are important to society as their alices are valued in certain jobs. There are many mysteries involved with the academy and the people who run the academy. You also learn reasons for why certain people choose to be teachers in the academy and how some students entered the academy as well as how their alices were discovered.

Also, two of the main characters remind me of Sakura and Shaoran from Cardcaptor Sakura slightly. The reason why I say slightly is because the girl doesn’t have a cool factor like Sakura, but she’s still lovable and courageous. Also the one who reminds me of Shaoran is…well, somewhat perverted and a lot meaner than Shaoran ever was, but he’s still an awesome character and you really see him change in the story.

The story is creatively written with interesting alices, events, and humorous parts. Each character has unique personalities and they really are lovable characters except for the few that are meant to be disliked.

I don’t think I should mention anything else for fear of giving the story away. I just wanted to write about it because I think it’s a great manga series. The excitement just makes me want to recommend it to other manga lovers.

Note: Feel free to discuss anything related to Gakuen Alice or other anime/manga in the forums. Membership is required to post but you’re only required to give a username and email address to create an account. Be sure to introduce yourselves before making other posts though.