delete from link

starter911

Hi!
I'm using a very simple function to display my db in a html table.
Now I want at every row end a delete link, in order to delete the specific line in my db. Can somebody help me??
thanks a lot
s911

function displayTasks($result){

echo "<h1>Overview Tasks</h1>\n";

echo "\n<table border=1>\n<tr>\n" .
	 "\n\t<th>task id</th>" .
	 "\n\t<th>employee name</th>" .
	 "\n\t<th>company</th>" .
	 "\n\t<th>priority</th>" .
	 "\n\t<th>task</th>" .
	 "\n<tr>";

while ($row = @mysql_fetch_row($result))
{
	echo "\n<tr>";
	foreach($row as $data)
		echo "\n\t<td> $data </td>";
		echo "\n\t<td><a href='delete.php'>delete</a></td>";
	echo "\n</tr>";
}

NetRoam

Firstly I would create a little javascript, so if you click the Delete link, a little screen would popup asking if you really want to delete or not. The link should be something like:

(remember to include the little javascript in the link with the help of an onClick function)

In your delete.php the code could look something like this:

include "common.php";
connectDatabase($dbHost, $dbUser, $dbPass, $dbName);

@mysql_query("delete from news where newsID = '$newsID'");
mysql_query("close");

header("Location:***link to your db-table***");
exit;

Of course I may have used different variables than you do, but that's something you can change of course 🙂

starter911

Hey, thanks a lot, I got your idea and it's exactly what I need.
still I somehow have a syntax error with my link?!?
can you help me??

echo "\n\t<td><a href='delete.php?task1ID=<? echo $row['task_id'];?>'>delete</a></td>";

NetRoam

My guess is that you use 2 echo's in the same line which isn't necessary ... I used the following code:

<a href='delete.php?task1ID=<? echo $row['task_id'];?>'>delete</a>

when writing in normal HTML because the <? echo $row['task_id']; ?> is written in PHP and since you already have an echo " running it's not necessary to do it again in the link, so either change it to this:

<td><a href='delete.php?task1ID=<? echo $row['task_id'];?>'>delete</a></td>

or to this:

$task_id = $row['task_id'];
echo "\n\t<td><a href='delete.php?task1ID=$task_id'>delete</a></td>";

Then I think it should run perfectly ... unless there's something wrong with the task1ID which you use in the link 🙂 Hope this works

maxpup979

Just a small word of caution--
NEVER EVER EVER use a link to control a delete--If you ever run a spider, or any other kind of program that walks your site, you will lose all of that data--and most of those spiders ignore the javascript alert boxes. One alternative is simply use a form--most spiders won't click a submit button-

Sxooter

I agree with maxpup979 here, I learned it the hard way.

Boss: Hey, what happened to all the information in our database?
Me: I don't know, did a user get an itchy finger.

... several hours later.

Me: Oh crap, our own search engine deleted everything. Thank god for nightly backups. Oh crap, our nightly backups run AFTER the search engine.

NetRoam

Yeah, I agree with both of you, but I just made the easy version here which worked quite fine - of course it'd be more safe to use a submit button instead.

I bow my head to ye' 🙂

starter911

Thanks a lot to you all. I still couldn't get it to work though.
task1_id is the name of my primary field in the database, so that shoul be correct. $test stores the task1_id of the specific row, which is what I want, isn't it? how do I do that with the form??

while ($row = @mysql_fetch_row($result)){
	echo "\n<tr>";
	foreach($row as $data)
		echo "\n\t<td> $data </td>";
		$test = $row['task1_id']; 
		echo "\n\t<td><form method='POST' action='delete.php'><input type='Submit' value='delete'></td></form></td>";
		//echo "\n\t<td><a href='delete.php?task1_id=$test'>delete</a></td>";
	echo "\n</tr>";
}
echo "\n</table>\n";
}

and here is my delete.php

<?php
  include 'error.php';
  include 'db.php';

  if (!($connection = @ mysql_connect($hostName, 
                                      $username, 
                                      $password)))
     die("Could not connect to database");

  if (!mysql_select_db($databaseName))
     showerror();

@mysql_query("delete from task1 where task1_id = '$test'"); 
mysql_query("close"); 

header("Location:index.php?"); 
exit;
?>

NetRoam

I suppose you need to change the url of your action in the <form>. You want to delete a row where task_id equals $test but you never tell the form which task_id you wish to delete. So I suppose it should be something like

<form method='POST' action='delete.php?task1_id=$test'>

Hopefully this helps.