What do you think of this slideshow technique?

[macosxguy]

I am trying to set up a slideshow and am stuck in a particular approach, which I can't seem to get working properly, and I'm hoping someone out there can clarify the best way to implement it. I have a table containing image_id, image_path, image_description image_author. What I am trying to do is:

a) user clicks author name
b) script selects image_id where image_author = $_GET['author']
c) count the number of returned records
d) then the index of the array is passed via the URL to move forward and backward through the records.
e) each time the page reloads there is a new query to select the image_path and image_description based on the index of the array in the URL and it's corresponding value.

This is a little bizarre perhaps, but I'd like to know if it is doable and how. If not, is there a better technique for displaying a variable number of images without creating new tables?

[Merve]

maybe this is more of a JavaScript question....unless this has something to do with MySQL

[macosxguy]

It clearly has to do with MySQL...I'm talking about SQL statements. I don't want to involve any Javascript.

[Merve]

What I would do is use a loop to get all the pics from the database, then include() them using PHP.

Then use JavaScript to make the actual slideshow....slideshows are not a job for PHP....there is nothing similar to setTimeout() as there is in JavaScript. If you want a funky looking slideshow, consider JavaScript.

The only way PHP can be involved is if the user click a button to move to the next page, as in header(location: URL), and you can do that with a loop for each image in the database. If you do not want an interactive slideshow, use JavaScript.