Form over content?

Anon

I am using php to be a dynamic website and i have a general question for you people. Basically PHP is brilliant for actually working the site but Being a dreamweaver, flash, photoshop user I feel that I do not have enough control over the design of my website! I have one file which outputs the HTML so it can be easily changed if the site neads updating but only small sections are easy to output! Is there any demos of sample sites which look good and are powered by php and mysql?

thanks

simon

brandonschnell

mysql controls data, php controls program logic. neither have anything to do with how the web site looks. if you're not getting the look you want using HTML, then have Flash interact with PHP for the data.

fitzbean

PHP and MySQL are languages, they don't actually control anything to do with how the page looks. PHP can be used to aide generation of output, while MySQL can be used to supply it.

I never use Dreamweaver or Flash, but I'm sure PHP can work along side of them. Photoshop has nothing to do with it on a sidenote. I think your problem is stemming from the lack of over-all understanding of PHP, MySQL and thier use. Php.net and the manual is what I would recommend.

Anon

Trust me i know what mysql is for and what php does coming from an oracle and java background! its just that i am new to php and have just constructed my first site which is pretty good. I have used innodb tables which i know may not be necessary but I like referential integrity as i used to use oracle until i found out that i couldnt afford it myself!!!!! I have mixed php with dreamweaver and it work ok but i would like to know how the professionals go about doing it? obviously they have a team of software engineers and a separate group of graphic designers but i am doing it on my own for my degree.

Thanks for the help anyway!

Anon

I forgot to add! with CGI scripts you can create an HTML template and just refer to the PERL CGI script from a post action. Can this method be recreated using php instead of perl? This way you get more control over the design of the site too!

fitzbean

"How professionals do it?"

Do you mean like code structure or something?

Otherwise, post a code snippet that you feel can be improved by seeing how a professional would do it, and we'll tell ya what we think.

Anon

Here is my output php file:
I would like to know where I could add things like adding php inside tables so the layout of the page looks good! I'm not sure how to explain what i want but I would like to have a sort of template for each page but that takes up the whole screen and not just the top of the screen as I currently have.

function do_html_header($title = '')
{
// print an HTML header

<head>
<title><?=$title?></title>
<style>
h2 { font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 22px; text-align=center; color = #314671; margin = 6px}
body { font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px }
li, td { font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px }
hr { color: #9EA6BA; width=80%; text-align=center}
a { color: #000000 }
</style>
</head>

<body>
<table width=755 border=0 cellspacing = 0 bgcolor=#FFFFFF>
<tr>
<td valign="top" width="478" rowspan = 4 bgcolor="#FFFFFF">
<p><a href = "index.php"><img src="tastyok.jpg" width="474" height="132" alt="Return to start of booking section"></a></p>
</td>
<td height="46" width="7"></td>
<td valign = bottom width="125" align = right bgcolor="#9EA6BA">  </td>
<td colspan="2" valign="top" align = right rowspan="2">
<? if(session_is_registered("admin_user"))
display_button("logout.php", "log-out", "Log Out");
else
display_button("show_cart.php", "view-cart", "View Your Bookings");
?>
</tr>
<tr>
<td height="2"></td>
<td></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td height="20"></td>
<td valign = top colspan="2" bgcolor="#333366">
<div align="right" ><font color="#FFFFFF">
<?
$nowunix = time();
echo date("jS F Y");
echo "&nbsp";
echo date("H:i:s");
?>
</div>
</td>
<td width="1"></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td height="70"></td>
<td valign = top colspan="3"><img src="images.jpg" width="269" height="66" align="absbottom"></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td height="55" colspan="5" valign="top">
<div align="center"><img name="navbartw" src="images/navbartw.gif" width="755" height="34" border="0" usemap="#m_navbartw">
<map name="m_navbartw">
<area shape="rect" coords="657,21,712,32" href="www.pilsbury-krew.co.uk/sitemap.html" target="self" title="Site Map" alt="Site Map" >
<area shape="rect" coords="563,21,605,31" href="www.pilsbury-krew.co.uk/links.html" target="self" title="Links Page" alt="Links Page" >
<area shape="rect" coords="461,21,520,31" href="www.pilsbury-krew.co.uk/contact.html" title="Contact Us" alt="Contact Us" >
<area shape="rect" coords="361,21,424,31" href="www.pilsbury-krew.co.uk/about.html" target="self" title="About Us" alt="About Us" >
<area shape="rect" coords="654,1,740,15" href="http://pub.alxnet.com/guestbook?id=2176699" title="Guest Book" alt="Guest Book" >
<area shape="rect" coords="539,1,630,14" href="www.pilsbury-krew.co.uk/chart.html" target="self" title="Tune Reviews" alt="Tune Reviews" >
<area shape="rect" coords="428,1,517,15" href="www.pilsbury-krew.co.uk/package.html" target="self" title="TW Packages" alt="TW Packages" >
<area shape="rect" coords="348,1,407,15" href="www.pilsbury-krew.co.uk/eventpic.html" target="self" title="Upcoming TW Events" alt="Upcoming TW Events" >
<area shape="rect" coords="280,1,327,14" href="www.pilsbury-krew.co.uk/News.html" target="self" title="News" alt="News" >
<area shape="rect" coords="121,2,259,15" href="index.php" target="self" title="Artists For Hire" alt="Artists For Hire" >
<area shape="rect" coords="5,1,99,15" href="www.pilsbury-krew.co.uk/Main.html" target="mainFrame" title="Home Page" alt="Home Page" >
</map>
</div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td height="3"></td>
<td></td>
<td></td>
<td width="140"></td>
<td></td>
</tr>
</table>
<?
if($title)
do_html_heading($title);
}

function do_html_footer()
{
// print an HTML footer
?>
<div align="center"><p><font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="1">©Tastywet
2001. Simon Gerra Cogs University of Sussex, Falmer, Brighton</font></body>

<?
}

function do_html_heading($heading)
{
// print heading
?>
</div>
</p><h2><?=$heading?></h2>
<?
}

function do_html_URL($url, $name)
{
// output URL as link and br
?>

<p><a href="<?=$url?>"><?=$name?></a><br>
<?
}

function display_artists($artist_array)
{
//display all artists in the array passed in
if (!is_array($artist_array))
{
echo "<br>No artists currently available in this category<br>";
}
else
{
//create table
echo "<table width = \"100%\" border = 0>";

//create a table row for each book    
foreach ($artist_array as $row)
{ 
  $url = "show_artist.php?memberid=".($row["member_id"]);
  echo "<tr><td>";
  if (@file_exists("images/".$row["member_id"].".jpg"))
  {
    $stagename = "<img src=\"images/".($row["member_id"]).".jpg\" border=0>";
    do_html_url($url, $stagename);
  }
  else
  {
    echo "&nbsp;";
  }
  echo "</td><td>";
  $stagename =  $row["stagename"]." Genre: ".$row["genre"];
  do_html_url($url, $stagename);
  echo "</td></tr>";
}
echo "</table>";

}
echo "<hr>";
}

barbz

Php templating classes is what you need. Check for Easy templates and PHPLib. There are some srticles in this site too.
Have fun!

Sorry for my bad english!