Quote Originally Posted by dunfiddlin View Post
Well obviously the 'proper' way to do this would be to write a server level program (php or similar) to interact with a database kept on the server. If you want to retain the simple html model, however, it is just another text file so you can download and upload with ease (no need for ftp) and using String.Format it is easy to maintain a template into which values simply need to be slotted.

The problem with that, of course, if you have many users, is concurrency, While there is no problem with multiple downloads, uploads won't play well together and synchronisation could very easily be lost. Ultimately the only reliable method is the one that I started with though I appreciate you may not want to be learning yet another language to implement that at this stage.
Hmm you may be right, php/DB would probably be the best method as its natively supported by VB. I will look into that method, as I would like it to be as fast and efficient as possible and I'm sure there are many methods available online that would help me With the scenario I am wanting to do. I'm guessing if its involving a DB, I would also need to use SQL, which I know a little of already cos i used it at school last year.

On the other hand, at this stage it is just for a simple TAFE project, and will only be used by a small minority of users, but its something worth implementing now if I can figure it out.

Im wondering in this case, whether or not I would need to use a highscores.php file than a HTML file though? Or would I just have a separate php file that interfaces with the currently existing HTML file. I suppose having the one php file would be easier to manage.

In regards to not needing FTP with the HTML model, I'm a little confused at how I would update the text file on the web server without authenticating the website?. And i do agree it is quite slow, even just me trying it once with VB was very slow to open the port etc.

I will try the php method though as I think that would be the most efficient way.

Thanks a lot for your help,
Masterg174