Newbie Frustrated with MYSQL & PHP...Need Help

artisticre

I have posted in the past and have gotten varied responses. The following databases are for greetingcards that we sell. They come in packs. Some packs have 5 different images, some have 4, some have 3. Someday we might have some that are more than 5. I understand how to do this if I have have a field for each image, but what if someday we add images? I am very new at php & mysql. I am hoping someone would help me by writing code to insert images into these databases and then display them on a website as well as explain the code. This would help me learn. Any help would be very appreciated.

CREATE TABLE greetingcards (
card_id tinyint(4) NOT NULL auto_increment,
card_name varchar(20) NOT NULL default '',
card_demensions varchar(100) NOT NULL default '',
card_assort varchar(50) NOT NULL default '',
card_price varchar(50) NOT NULL default '',
card_catid tinyint(4) NOT NULL default '0',
card_imageid tinyint(4) NOT NULL default '0',
PRIMARY KEY (card_id)
) TYPE=MyISAM;

CREATE TABLE cards (
card_id tinyint(4) NOT NULL auto_increment,
image varchar(255) NOT NULL default '',
PRIMARY KEY (card_id)
) TYPE=MyISAM;

tomwerner

I couldn't fully work out how you store paths for images but I would do this:

have one field called 'images' or whatever and seperate them by an obscure character like ^. so an example of the contents of the field would be "mypath/img1.jpg^{mypath/hi.jpg^{mypath/cover.jpg"}} then the php to break it up and print them out would be:


// Create an array, each entry is string split by the ^
$images = explode("^", $mydbimagevar);

// Count how many entries are in the array
$count = count($images);

// Create a Counting Variable
$x = 0

// Start a while loop that prints all the variables.
while ($x <= $count) {

print("<img src=\"$images[{$x}]\" />");

$x++;

}

when you want to put images in (if you are doing it manually it doesn't matter) remember to add the new entry onto the end of the field data, not overwrite it so very crudely:


$my_img_var_to_go_back_into_db = $fieldcontents . "^" . $mynewpath;

The . acts like a combination operator, it adds strings or varaibles either side of it together.

Post back if you need more help and I will try ande help as soon as possible

tomwerner

Sorry I didn't read your post with enough scrutiny, I will add a script for adding images to the DB when I get home tonight because my PC there has got the scripts I need on it!

dp777

tomwerner's solution should work great for you. Here is another idea though, if you wish to keep a column for each image: when running your insert script count your images. If you run into more than 5 then run the sql ALTER command http://www.mysql.com/doc/en/ALTER_TABLE.html
This way you can insert an extra column if needed. HTH!

ultraslacker

Writing the code for you will not help you learn. Your new at this so you dont know where to begin really. How about understanding the design first?

The card table - how can you tell which images go to which card packs? And what is greetingcards.card_imageid?

Once you have the correct design, it doesn't matter how many images you add. (As far as the mechanics of the insertion, use a form, and loop through the post vars. I would build an extended insert which is a mysql trick.)

ultraslacker

have one field called 'images' or whatever and seperate them by an obscure character like ^. so an example of the contents of the field would be "mypath/img1.jpg^{mypath/hi.jpg^{mypath/cover.jpg"}} then the php to break it up and print them out would be:

That is awful advice! What if the path changes, or an image needs to be updated?

Why not use a normalized approach?