Junior PHP Coder requires Assistance

[Dalec]

I currently need to do something, i have had a go at it but don't really have a clear idea of how to go about it so therefore need an expert to perhaps offer some expert guidance, i would be infinately grateful if anyone could lend me a helping hand.

Basically, i want a script that will look into a mysql database, and pull out the latest entries to the database, and then display on a webpage a certain field like a title field, which hyperlinks to a specific URL.

It could be quite complicated, but if someone could come up with something that just looks into one table of database and does what i have mentioned above, i could manipulate and duplicate the code to look into multiple tables and pull out multiple results etc.

If anyone could help me with this i would be exremely appreciative as it is very important, as it is something i would like to implement into my web site.

Thanks in advance,

Dale C
MSN Messenger: [e-mail]

[ahundiak]

This might get your started.
http://www.mysql.com/articles/ddws/

[Dalec]

Ok ill try finding some help in there, quite a big tutorial though :eek:

[Dalec]

I haven't really been able to find what im looking for, can someone please help me?

[ahundiak]

How about this for getting started.

<?php

  mysql_connect('host','user','pass');
  if (mysql_errno()) die(mysql_error());

  mysql_select_db('dbname');
  if (mysql_errno()) die(mysql_error());

  $set = mysql_query('SELECT person_id,lname FROM person');
  if (mysql_errno()) die(mysql_error());

  $row = mysql_fetch_assoc($set);

  echo $row['person_id'] . ' ' . $row['lname'];

?>

[Dalec]

Ok thanks very much thats a nice start. What would be the next step do you think?

Thanks - Help really is appreciated here.

[diego25]

Check out http://www.php.net/mysql

There are many examples there on how to query a database. One thing that ahundiak's code doesn't do is output multiple rows. To do that, you just put the fetch function inside a loop. Again, there are plenty of examples of this in the above link.

To output the link, just wrap the db fields with <a> tags, e.g.

print "<a href=\"$row[url]\">$row[title]</a>";

Diego

[Dalec]

Ok thanks thats even better.

Could someone please give me some example code for a while loop which displays multiple rows?

That would be fantastic. I then want to look into displaying rows in html tables which are formatted etc.

Thanks guys.

[baffled_in_UK]

very simple example.

// Db connection
$db = mysql_connect("localhost","user","password") or die: 
mysql_select_db("databse_name",$db) or die;

// get all records from a table
$result = mysql_query("SELECT * FROM your_table",$db);
while ($myrow = mysql_fetch_array($result))  { 

// print details/build table/perform calcs etc.

}

You really should take the time to read some of the tutorials, they will help you actually understand whats going on.

Good luck.

[Dalec]

Ok thanks, have you any ideas of how i could print that query into an html table and for each record a new row is created in the html table?

[baffled_in_UK]

Methinks that you want the members of this forum to write your web site for you 😉

This will be my last post on this topic.
where I put "// print details/build table/perform calcs etc." in my last reply...

$code .="<tr><td>$field_name</td></tr>";

then in your html part of the page.

<table>
<? echo"$code"; ?>
</table>

Now go and read some tutorials :rolleyes:

[epimeth]

Dalec, in high school I never liked doing people's homework for them, even if they were very close friends of mine. I doubt any of the people here did, either.

That is basically what you're asking us to do here. How about you write as much of it as you can and post your code here. Then we'll be much more open to helping you out and be able to give you much better pointers.

Now, for my bit of help :-)

you should have an id or a timeadded field in your table so you can tell which records are the most recently added....

[Dalec]

I know what i am doing now thanks, I just find it hard to understand the tutorials. I will go and work away at it now. Is it ok to come back if i experience any problems?

Anyway thanks guys...

[epimeth]

come back any time!

and not just when you need help, either. Helping others is a great way to improve your own php skills.

[Dalec]

Sure ofcourse i will contribute to the community as much as possible in the future...

Could i ask then, what would be wrong with this code as it isnt displaying the query?

<html>
<head>
<title>Untitled Document</title>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1">
</head>

<body bgcolor="#FFFFFF" text="#000000">
<?php

  mysql_connect('localhost','otb','mypassword');
  if (mysql_errno()) die(mysql_error());

  mysql_select_db('post');
  if (mysql_errno()) die(mysql_error());


// get all records from a table
$result = mysql_query("SELECT * FROM mytable");
while ($myrow = mysql_fetch_array($result))  { 

// print details/build table/perform calcs etc.
$code .="<tr><td>$pn_description</td></tr>";
}
?>
<br>
<br>
<? echo"$code"; ?> 
</body>
</html>

[epimeth]

quick lesson in debugging...

if something isn't do it what you want it to do, force it tell tell you exactly why.

first, initialze $code to "THIS IS WHERE THE CODE SHOULD GO<br />\r\n"
before the while loop...

and maybe an

echo mysql_num_rows($result) . "rows have been recieved from query<br />\r\n"

put this right after the $result = line...

this way you will know if the result even has anything in it to output...

if there aren't then myTable might be empty... check that.

have you installed phpmysql? if not you should, its an excellent tool for administrating your mysql databases.

[Dalec]

Thanks for the advice mate, i have MySQL and PHP set up on Windows so i just use MySQL Front to administer my datbases.

[epimeth]

phpmyadmin offers a very good way to administer your databases. If you install it on your webserver you can edit your database from anywhere, as long as you have web access to your site, instead of just from your home machine.

its really just a website made up of php pages.

get it here

[xblue]

check ahundiak's example code again.

the return value of the mysql_fetch_ functions is an array that is assigned to a variable, $myrow in your case.

then you access the elements like this (assuming pn_description is a column name)

$myrow['pn_description']

[Dalec]

Well, thanks for your help guys, in the end i used the following code:

<?php



$db = mysql_connect("localhost", "otb", "mypword");

mysql_select_db("post",$db);

$result = mysql_query("SELECT * FROM nuke_downloads_downloads",$db);

if ($myrow = mysql_fetch_array($result)) {



  echo "<table bgcolor=000099 border=1 cellspacing=1 cellpadding=5>\n";

  echo "<tr><td><b><font color=FFFFFF>ID</b></font></td><td><b><font color=FFFFFF>URL</b></font></td><td><b><font color=FFFFFF>Description</b></font></td></tr>\n";

  do {



printf("<tr><td><font color=FFFFFF>%s</font></td><td><font color=FFFFFF><a href=\"%s\">Download</a> </font></td><td><font color=FFFFFF>%s</font></tr>\n", $myrow["pn_lid"], $myrow["pn_url"], $myrow["pn_description"]);

  } while ($myrow = mysql_fetch_array($result));

echo "</table>\n";

} else {

echo "Sorry, no records were found!";	

}



?>

And got this as a result....

Which i am reasonably pleased with but there is still a long way to go.

The next things i want to look into are...

- Maximum Records Per Page and Next/Previous Page Buttons etc.
- Alternating Row Colours - i.e Blue Row then Grey Row, Blue Row then Grey Row
- Displaying latest records added to the database.

Once again, i will be looking through tutorials but any more pointers or advice would be appreciated.

Thanks a lot so far guys!!!

Dale C