Variable Trouble

[theDog]

Wow. I built my first interactive, e-commerce enabled website, and boy was i proud.

It's got a form for the client to submit new products to the database, and then a nice gallery/shopping cart page to display her stuff in categories.

Now she's asked me if she can make new categories. NO! They're hardcoded!

I guess i got ahead of myself, but in the table header where all the stuff is displayed, i had to take all the category variables and convert them into nice-looking strings for display. The site uses the same variables for navigation and display. IOW, if someone comes looking for Fish Waffles, the variable passed in the URL, and what is in the database, is $fishwaffle. That doesn't look good in the table header, so i have a series of ifs to change them.

Long way of asking, is there an http/mySQL friendly way that, if the client wants to add the category "Flax Whackers," i can make a variable that actually says Flax Whackers in the URL and in the db, instead of FlaxWhackers or flaxwhackers, or whatever?

Am i speak good?

[Bunkermaster]

ermm paste some code so we understand something maybe 🙂

[theDog]

But i'm embarrassed. :eek: So n00b....

Well... here is the links on side of gallery page

      <td align="left" valign="top"><font size="5"><b>Products</b></font><br />
        <a href="<?php echo $PHP_SELF; ?>?display=fishwaffle>  Fish Waffles</a><br />
        <a href="<?php echo $PHP_SELF; ?>?display=flaxwhacker>  Flax Whackers</a><br /> 

... and this is the display of items, with category in table header.

$result = @mysql_query(
"SELECT * FROM things WHERE cat = '$display'");
if (!$result) {
echo("<p>Error performing query: " .
mysql_error() . "</p>");
exit();
}
// List Items
if (isset($display)){
echo("<table cellpadding=\"3\" border=\"1\">");
echo("<tr>");
// here is where $display should = "Flax Whacker" if it actually
// is "flaxwhacker." I had it working, and then i broke it, which is
// yet another good reason to do something differently.
echo("<td colspan=6 align=\"center\"><b>$display</b></td>\n");
echo("</tr>");
echo("<tr>");
echo("<td><B>SKU#</B></td>\n");
echo("<td><B>Description</B></td>\n");
echo("<td><B>Click for<br />Pic</B></td>\n");
echo("<td><B>Price </B></td>\n");
echo("<td><B>In <br />Stock?</B></td>\n");
echo("<td align=\"center\"><B>Buy It!</B></td>\n");
echo("</tr>");
echo("<tr>");
while ( $row = mysql_fetch_array($result) ) {
$description = $row["descr"];
$stock = $row["stock"];
$sku = $row["sku"];
$price = $row["price"];
$img = $row["img"];
$tn = $row["img_tn"];
if($stock=1){
$stock="Yes";
}
else($stock="No");
echo("<td>&nbsp;$sku</td>\n");
echo("<td>&nbsp;$description &nbsp;</td>\n");
echo("<td><a href=\"$img\" target=\"_blank\"><img align=\"left\" 
  src=$tn><small>More<br />info</small></a></td>\n");
echo("<td>&nbsp;\$$price </td>\n");
echo("<td>$stock</td>\n");
echo("<td align=\"center\"><img src=\"./images/buy.gif\"></td>\n");
echo("</tr>");
 }

I didnt need to paste all that. did i?

Anyway, in the admin form, when the client enters an item in the category "Slap Diddles," it's entered in the db as a "slapdiddle" and $slapdiddle is the variable i use for navigation and category displays.

I can't, IOW, allow the client to make a new category called "Foo Flingers" because that's not an acceptable format for either variables or URLs. But if i don't, then everywhere i want to display the string "Foo Flingers," i have to specifically declare that's what the variable $fooflingers means.

Speak i good yet? Fuddled be me.

[Bunkermaster]

and you just want to add a category?

try to create your categories list like this :

$result = @mysql_query(
"SELECT cat, catfullname FROM things");
if (!$result) {
echo("<p>Error performing query: " .
mysql_error() . "</p>");
while ( $row = mysql_fetch_array($result) ) {
<a href="<?php echo $PHP_SELF; ?>?display=<?=$row['cat']?>"><?=$row['catfullname']?></a><br />
}

you have to have a display name in your database and please change your ids to real autogenerated INT ids (prevents doublons).

You could also use urlencode() and urldecode() to pass the display name through the url...

🙂

[theDog]

Just to be clear, i don't want to make new categories,
the client does. And who knows what she's going to
type in the field. :rolleyes:

This is a helpful suggestion. I guess i was thinking
backawards, and what i really need to do is generate
a $cat from whatever she types as $catfullname.

I have no idea how to go about that. I don't suppose
there is an analogue to urlencode() that would strip
out spaces and make a proper variable? Or i can make
a function that does that? Sounds scary.

Or... i can make $cat a stepped integer...? That sounds
less scary, but i still don't know how i would do it. Pls
point me at code snippet or something? I guess i need
to check for highest integer for $cat and add one...

Thanks

[Bunkermaster]

make it autoincrement in table and voila

[theDog]

OK. But, to do that, i will need another table just to
assign categories, yes?

I haven't gotten to the relational database stuff yet,
so if the answer is yes then i guess it's time i learnt.

:eek:

[Bunkermaster]

dunno why u should... post your table def and explain storage struct and i will look at it

[theDog]

Yes, well, here i be more embarrassed again because i really
don't know what i'm doing with these data types and null/not
null fields. ahem anyway.. file attached.

Not sure what you mean "explain storage structure." The stuff
goes into the db like this:

if ($Submit) {
    $sql = "INSERT INTO things SET
sku='$sku',
descr='$descr',
stock='$stock',
price='$price',
img='$upload',
img_tn='$tn',
cat='$cat' "
;}

"Cat" is the last thing i added, to make everything go, so it's not
a real hardship to redo the scheme.

$cat is a string that's defined in a select tag. The difficulty my
brain is having is how, if $cat is an integer defined in the db, i
associate it with unique items in the same table.

IOW, this is a list of items. If $cat is an integer, and associated
with a string $catfullname, don't i need a separate table of
categories to associate the items with? I'm sorry to be stoopit.

[Bunkermaster]

well your code isn't THAT bad 🙂

the logic is this :

u have a product category, if you manage only one instance of this category in your system then you don't need to split in 2 tables.
If you have multiple stocks for example and you want to store what's in each of them then yes you need to split and use relations.

but right now I think u can just add a field to your table named catFullName and enter the full name in it, make the cat field the primary key and make it autoincrement so each time you insert new category you have a new catID.

WARNING : I have been known to pass "other world logic" advice at this time of this day (monday 01:45 AM here now) and at this level of intoxication (calvados all the way baby).

But as I didn't pass out code you should be alright 😃