Update Fields Using A Form

[Sharif]

I've stumbled upon one my yet, stupidly challenging, but good ideas: I want to create a page that will let a user update a news article. First of all, this will all have to be done on one page. Second, the user will select the article by the article's 'title', I want the page to display all the articles for say, "user 1" in a drop down selection box. After the artice is selected, the page will refresh with a textarea (editable) that will display the 'news' for whatever 'article' was picked from that drop down menu. The user should be able to edit the article through that textarea AND then hit submit and have the changes that he/she made in the textarea updated into the sql field.

Here the fields I have in the table:

ID | date (datetime) | title (text) | author (text) | authoremail (text) | html (text)

html stores the news article. Is what I am asking even possible?

[jassh]

yup! it is more than possible..
in fact, it has been practised by for ages by web developers
to delegate the task of updating website content..

i think the stuff that ur looking for is categorized as
"Content Management System" ak.a CMS

try to look up at sourceforge.net for some really kewl example..

for the drop down list that select the page / segment
that could be authored..
i think you can use some sort of java script OnClick() funtion
if im not mistaken... (i'm not really good a java script)
the function will redirect the page based on the selected value

hope that helps 🙂

-jassh

[Sharif]

Well How can I do what I want to? Is there a page with a tutorial out there? What should I search for and where? Please help, I'm on a deadline.

[kevinsequeira]

im not sure where the tutorials are, but here is something to get you started

edit_article.php

<?php
// set up the database connection
// $user_id is the users id and $title is the article id

if(isSet($POST['user_id']) && isSet($POST['title'])){
// this means user has selected an article to edit

$article_id = $_POST['$title'];
// using this article id get the article details and display the html in a text area
}else{
// this means user has not selected the article so
// populate the drop down box of titles using the user's id
?>
<form name="select_article" action="edit_article.php" method="post">
<select name="title" onchange="document.select_article.submit();">
// poplulate the various articles for this user
</select>
<input type=hidden name=user_id value=<?php print($user_id); ?>>
</form>
<?php
}
?>

[Sharif]

Kevin I have another idea,

Sorry for not posting it before but I think doing the page this way would be more organized:

Step by step of what I want to happen for a specific user: user1.

.. login script processes... directs user to this page:
1) Page loads, user selects date of article (that is all the is shown up on the page) from a drop down menu, and page refreshes
2) After page loads, another drop down listing the titles of all the articles of that date by that user (this is all that appears), and page refreshes
3) After page loads, a textbox appears with the article that was selected and user can edit this and after user's done, user presses update and whatever was in the text box, is reflected on the article on the database, aka gets updated.

Can this all be done in one page?

[Sharif]

So I'm guessing it cant be done...

[kevinsequeira]

oh its possible.. the bit i posted is the framework for
1. user comes to the page, chooses article directlly from drop-down and then edits

u need to add steps for selecting date and then displaying the dropdown for articles

reg
kevin

[Sharif]

Okay. I just don't get how I can have only somethings show up at once.

[minds_gifts]

hi sharif,

sure you can do that in one page.Kevin has given u some idea to start up.
well, I've done some time before an application similar to yours.

I first select a topic from the list box, press a button, it shows me all the subtopics in another list box related to that topic.Now, i select a subtopic and press a button and now the subtopic is shown in the text box.The user updates the subtopic and submit it, thats it.

In your case the date is a topic and the subtopic is an article.

If you can show me your table structure, i might help u to proceed.

Good luck

[kevinsequeira]

this make things clearer ?

<?php
// set up the database connection
// $user_id is the users id

if(isSet($_POST['user_id']) && isSet($_POST['article_id'])&& isSet($_POST['article_date'])){
// this means user has selected the article to edit, so make the html to edit and submit the changes

}
if(isSet($_POST['user_id']) && isSet($_POST['article_date'])){
	// this means user has selected only article date,
	// so display all the articles for the current user and selected date in a dropdown
?>	
<form name="select_article" action="edit_article.php" method="post">
<select name="article_id" onchange="document.select_article.submit();">

</select>
<input type=hidden name="user_id" value=<?php print($_POST['user_id']); ?>>
<input type=hidden name="article_date" value=<?php print($_POST['article_date']); ?>>
</form>
<?php	
}else{
	// initial, when the user comes to the page, display the form with the dates drop down
?>
<form name="select_article" action="edit_article.php" method="post">
<select name="article_date" onchange="document.select_article.submit();">

</select>
<input type=hidden name=user_id value=<?php print($user_id); ?>>
</form>
<?php
} 
?>


reg
kevin

[Sharif]

Here is the structure, the table is titled NEWS, the database is sharif_site.

NAME |TYPE |NULL |DEFAULT
id | int(11) | No

date | datetime | No | 0000-00-00 00:00:00

title | text | No

author | text | No

authoremail | text | No

html | text | No

This was taken from the table generated by PhpMyADMIN when I wanted to see a printable version.

[Sharif]

Kevin,

Based on your code, I started by myself and so far, have been 99% successful with the code. Here is what I don't get, first the code:

else{
echo ("<center>Please Select The Date Of The Article To Be Edited:\n");
echo ("<form action=\"updater.php\" method=\"post\">\n");
echo "<select name=\"article_date\" onChange=\"submit\">\n";
$query = mysql_query ("SELECT date_FORMAT(date,'%m/%d/%Y') AS date FROM news WHERE author='$author' ORDER BY date ASC");
while ($row = mysql_fetch_array($query)) 
{ 
	$date = $row["date"];
	//List the options for the list field
	echo "<option>$date</option>\n";

}
echo ("</select>\n");
echo ("</form>\n");
echo ("</center>\n");
}

You see the onChange=\"submit\"? That does not work, that's not even a php code - it's html. What is going on?

[Sharif]

Okay,

I've been working on the code a lot and here is what it looks like so far:

// $author is the Auther that the script will sort articles by
$author = "Sharif Tanvir Karim";
if(isSet($_POST['article_date'])){
// This executes if the user selected a date
echo ("<center><u>These are the articles available for the date:</u><br> ");
echo ("<b>$article_date</b></center>");
echo ("<center>Please Select The TITLE Of The Article To Be Edited:\n");
echo ("<form action=\"updater.php\" method=\"post\">\n");
echo ("<select name=\"article_title\">\n");
$query = mysql_query ("SELECT title FROM news WHERE author = $author AND date = $_GET['article_date'] ORDER BY title ASC");
while ($row = mysql_fetch_array($query)) 
{ 
	$article = $row["title"];
	//List the options for the list field
	echo "<option>$article</option>\n";

}
echo ("</select>\n");
echo ("<input name=\submit\" type=\"submit\" value=\"Select Title\">");
echo ("</form>\n");
echo ("</center>\n");
// This executes if the user did not select a date
}
elseif (!isSet($_POST['article_date'])) {
echo ("<center>Please Select The DATE Of The Article To Be Edited:\n");
echo ("<form action=\"updater.php\" method=\"post\">\n");
echo ("<select name=\"article_date\">\n");
$query = mysql_query ("SELECT date_FORMAT(date,'%m/%d/%Y') AS date FROM news WHERE author='$author' ORDER BY date ASC");
while ($row = mysql_fetch_array($query)) 
{ 
	$date = $row["date"];
	//List the options for the list field
	echo "<option>$date</option>\n";

}
echo ("</select>\n");
echo ("<input name=\submit\" type=\"submit\" value=\"Select Date\">");
echo ("</form>\n");
echo ("</center>\n");
}

Two things are wrong:

First:For the elseif {}, in the database there are currently 6 rows, with dates: 05/18/03 three times, 05/19/03 two times and when it returns the dates, it returns the dates the amount of time it exists... it just doesn't make sense with having the ability to select the same date more than once so how can I display one date only once.

Second:

the IF {} is not working. It does not return any of the titles in the list field... I don't know why when I used basically the same code for the date (which works).

Where am I messing up?

[kevinsequeira]

well this the response to your earlier post

You see the onChange=\"submit\"? That does not work, that's not even a php code - it's html. What is going on?

i posted this ...

<select name="article_date" onchange="document.select_article.submit();">

its a call to submit the document through javascript where select_article is the name of the form !!!!

reg
kevin

[Sharif]

Hey... guess I forgot to add the name="" attribute to the <form> tag 😃

[Sharif]

Well I am having so much fun....

Here is the newly created code which lets you select the title AFTER you select the date:

$author = "Sharif Tanvir Karim";
if (!isSet($_POST['article_date'])) {
echo ("<center>Please Select The DATE Of The Article To Be Edited:\n");
echo ("<form name=\"select_date\" action=\"updater2.php\" method=\"post\">\n");
echo ("<select name=\"article_date\" onChange=\"document.select_date.submit();\"> \n");
$query = mysql_query ("SELECT date_FORMAT(date,'%m/%d/%Y') AS date FROM news WHERE author='$author' ORDER BY date ASC");
while ($row = mysql_fetch_array($query)) 
{ 
	$date = $row["date"];
	//List the options for the list field
	echo "<option>$date</option>\n";

}
echo ("</select>\n");
echo ("</form>\n");
echo ("</center>\n");
}
else 
{
if(isSet($_POST['article_date'])){
// This executes if the user selected a date
$sql_date = $article_date;
echo $sql_date;
echo ("<center><u>These are the articles available for the date:</u><br> ");
echo ("<b>$article_date</b></center>");
echo ("<center>Please Select The <b><u>TITLE</u></b> Of The Article To Be Edited:\n");
echo ("<form name=\"select_title\" action=\"updater2.php\" method=\"post\">\n");
echo ("<select name=\"article_title\" onChange=\"document.select_title.submit();\">\n");

$query = mysql_query ("SELECT title FROM news WHERE author = '$author' AND date = '2003-05-18 12:14:47' ORDER BY title ASC");
while ($row = mysql_fetch_array($query)) 
{ 
	$article = $row["title"];
	//List the options for the list field
	echo "<option>$article</option>\n";

}
echo ("</select>\n");
echo ("</form>\n");
echo ("</center>\n");
}
}

Now here is my problem:

You see on the IF, inside the ELSE, in the sql query I have AND date = ''2003-05-18 12:14:47'. '2003-05-18 12:14:47' is a timestamp of a article. I figured out why it wasn't working.

When you go to select the date, the sql query formats it to ONLY select the date as m/d/y and not the time. This is where it screws me because, I HAVE to do this in order for the date to display as m/d/y. I don't know any other ways to get it to show up as m/d/y without having to format it in the sql query itself. So please help me with this.

Next, as I stated in one of my earlier posts:

in the database there are currently 6 rows, with dates: 05/18/03 three times, 05/19/03 two times and when it returns the dates, it returns the dates the amount of time it exists... it just doesn't make sense with having the ability to select the same date more than once so how can I display one date only once.

PLEASE PLEASE HELP, I'm so close to being done - I can taste it.