[Resolved] Online Ticket Booking

[keithjasper]

this may be the most dificult thing i have ever had to explain.

I am trying to make an online ticket booking site.

7 days of showing 300 seats. 4 blocks of seats.

and i idealy would like the customers to be able to choose where they sit. select individual seats from a seating layout.

The problem to start with is i am not sure how to make the database tables for this task. If i understand correctly i need to give each seat an id... Simple C7... A10 ..... G20 however i then have to get it to translate that in to a table where bottom of the screen is the stage and top is the balcony...

i dont know how to make the database decifer that rows a-e are block 1

rows f-n seats 1-15 are another block seats 16-30 another

and rows o-t are the balcony.

im not sure exactly how complex this is... in theroy its just a shop where in the table every cell is a product and only 1 person can buy the ticket so there has to be a quantity count there somewhere.

as you can see not an easy thing to explain.. .but thats my need... and im not sure how to achieve it.

I have experience in online shop's and content management. but quite what league this comes under im not sure..?

Can someone help please.

Thanks

Keith Jasper

[sarahk]

the database doesn't have to understand. Your PHP script needs to understand that certain letters fall into 1 of the 3 sections.

Then to select you'll use a multiselect checkbox in a table and there will only be a checkbox where the seat is still available.

[njm]

Keith,
From your description, it sounds like the blocks are arranged something like this?
[FONT=courier new]
------------- T
|.....4.....|
------------- O
|..2..|..3..|
------------- E
|.....1.....|
------------- A
1->30[/FONT]

The database should be pretty simple - just a row for each seat, with id, price and whether it's taken or not, it sounds like the problem is the booker knowing where individual seats are located? Would a simple picture on the page be good enough?

hth, njm

[keithjasper]

both very corret. however how can i make the page display the information in a table?

<form action=orderscript.php method=post>
select ?? from seats where day = $day order by seatcode
rows...... etc
{
<tr><td>$rows[1]<input type=checkbox value=$row1></td>

now theres where i become stuck because i know that displays the first record in the database however i now need to make it display for example 30 accross and say 5 down for the balcony(block 4) then another section inside another table which contains blocks 2 and 3 then another for block 1...

but how do i make the balcony once im there i might be able to work the rest out... but i dont know how to get each seat look 30 times until end of the row then move to next row only up to end of row 5.?

thanks for the help so far i understand now what i have to do just not sure how to do it.

Thanks

Keith Jasper

[sarahk]

I'd be inclined to have an array like this

$blankarray = array();
for ($i = 1; $i <= 30; $i++) $blankarray[$i] = 0;
$seats = array();
for ($i = 0; $i < 20; $i++) $seats['row'. chr(65 + $i)] = $blankarray;
//I think it's 65 to get A

//then loop through your sales 
//and if the seat is sold then change the value from 0 to 1

//then loop through the array
for ($i = 0; $i < 20; $i++)
{
  if ($i == 1) // start a new table
  elseif ($i == 6) // finish the last table and start a new table
  elseif ($i == 16) // finish the last table and start a new table

  echo '<tr>';
  for ($j == 1; $j <= 30; $j++)
  {
    if ($i >= 6 && $i < 16 && $j == 16) // put in a spacer column
    // echo out the seat info
  }
  echo '</tr>';
  if ($i == 20) // finish the final table
}

[njm]

Sarah,

The array prints out nicely (I think it should be $j=1 not $j==1 in the second loop 🙂 )
However, the OP said there was 300 seats, so I'd guess not all rows have 30 seats (I guess most theatres I've been to don't have a perfect rectangular layout)? In which case, we'd need a slightly more complicated array.

njm

[keithjasper]

this may sound very very newbie ish... but i have to say that the comments included in the above code confused me greatly.

i like what i see but am unable to translate it in to something which i can see working.

I have tried but im not quite seeing what its getting at.

no offence intended although i can / could see where it can be found... however although before i got in this evening to see these posts i thourght i was good at php... boy do i have lots to learn... HE HE

now..
what i get is the top 3 & 1/2 lines up to the bit about 'row' which then confused me.

arrays have never been my strong point the best arrays i have worked with include the data extracted from a database. However from what i can see here i need to learn about them and will shortly find my self reading the php manual on them.

however this is not solving my problem. i think i am gonna need definatly to recieve more help from the more knowledgeable about this ticket booking system..

sarahk the 'give strategies not complete answers...' is very meaning full and i like as my main aim here is to produce a site which 'joe' public can book tickets for shows on i have another puropse to learn more about php and eventualy become as good as i can be.

However i donot want code which i do not understand so will evdevor to research all i can.. but if it would be possiable to adjust the comments on the above code i will search for a seating plan for the theatre as 'mjn' has stated this array thing may need to be more complicated depending on the seating layout and i believe him to be correct here. but i will find out.

to close i know this may sound like im asking for you and others out there to code this for me but i am not. i am asking for help... having other prople code this for me is not benificatial to me i want/need to understand this my self.

if it would be possiable to elaborate more on the comments on your code i would be amazingly greatful..

sorry to seem so new, but we are all learning all the time

Thanks muchly and all of you had a good christmas and have an even better new year... dont get too drunk...

Thanks

[sarahk]

Hi Keith

Sorry about the vagueness. I didn't want to give you something more complete because then I'd feel obliged to debug it and ensure it was 100%. Code that looks right but isn't can be harder than skeletons.

I've just started a new pet project and am flat out trying to ensure it works ... so I'm not really in a position to help more ... unless...

[njm]

Keith,
I'll try to explain the array in Sarah's code a bit more.

1. The first few lines initialise an array of 20x30 seats.

2. The rest of the code is basically two nested loops.

3. The first ($i) loops through the rows (A->T). At rows 1,6 and 16, you're moving into a new block so create a new table.

4. For each row, run a 2nd loop ($j) for each seat in a row. If you're between rows 6 and 16, then print a spacer column between the two blocks.

5. The hard part, which sarah didn't give you 🙂, is matching up the $seats array to the table cells.

Below is sarah's code, with the actual table drawn in:

$blankarray = array();
for ($i = 1; $i <= 30; $i++) $blankarray[$i] = 0;
$seats = array();
for ($i = 0; $i < 20; $i++) $seats['row'. chr(65 + $i)] = $blankarray;
// njm: echo the $seats array
echo '<pre>';
print_r($seats);
echo '</pre><hr />';
//then loop through your sales
//and if the seat is sold then change the value from 0 to 1

//then loop through the array
for ($i = 1; $i < 21; $i++)
{
  if ($i == 1) echo '<table border="1">';
  elseif ($i == 6) echo '</table><table border="1">';
  elseif ($i == 16) echo '</table><table border="1">';

  echo '<tr>';
  for ($j = 1; $j <= 30; $j++)
  {
    if ($i >= 6 && $i < 16 && $j == 16) echo '<td>||</td>';
    echo '<td>S</td>';
  }
  echo '</tr>';
  if ($i == 20) echo '</table>';
}

Hopefully this gives you a bit more idea as to what the table might look like, and how to tackle the 'hard bit' 😃

hth, njm

[keithjasper]

Ah ha.. that looks better now i can see it it makes more sense...

so the top bit <pre> <? print_r($seats) ?>

is the pages of array which are at the top with array names

the chr(65 + $i) --- i understand that the 65 what ever that is is added to the $i

but the actual tables look good now that i can see them...

so adding a form to that would be making the form outside the loop. ending outside.

But specifiying the seat name would be <input type=checkbox value=".$i.+.$j."> ?

whats with all of the [??] => 0?? in the array all of them are 0

how do they start as 1 and if the seat is sold they turn to 0... or can i not just get a seat name specify it in the database and do the 1 & 0 there?

[keithjasper]

ok i have been playing around and if i do

echo $seats[rowA][5]

outside the look and got 0 which im assuming is the correct value for this array.

so i then tried this

{
if ($i >= 6 && $i < 16 && $j == 16) echo '<td>||</td>';
echo "<td><input type=checkbox value='".$seats[row. chr(65 + $i)][$j]."'>S</td>";
}

to add the stuff to the indicidual cells... and all i get is value=' ' echoed in to the browser... for each cell so that confusedme a little... otherwise i have nothing for sending to the database... and how do i extract the rowa[1]=0 from the database to be able to sell the tickets?

still confuded but now understand where it all comes from

Thanks People making sense slowly.

HE HE

Keith Jasper

[njm]

Keith,

I think the difficult part of all this is getting the database table into an array and vice-versa. I had a play around and created a table with all seats in format A1...T30 with a sold field (which I popluated randomly with ones and zeroes in SQL).
I pulled this into a $seats array (replacing Sarah's original code for initialising the array)

$sql = 'SELECT id, sold FROM table';
$res = mysql_query($sql);
$seats = array();
while ($row=mysql_fetch_array($res))
  {
    $r = substr($row['id'],0,1);
    $s = substr($row['id'],1,2);
    $seats[$r][$s]=$row['sold'];
  }

That gives a 20x30 array indicating whether a seat has been sold or not. Now, in the loops, you can disable the checkboxes for each seat if the seat is already sold.

if ($seats[chr($i+64][$j]==1) // this one is already sold

This should give you a few more pointers.
hth, njm

[keithjasper]

in thinking about this a bit more i decided to go to the theater in question and get a seating plan..

this may need to be copied in to a text viewer to be seen proper not sure but ill paste any way..

  1  2  3  4  5  6  7  8  9  10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17	  DD

1 2 3 4 | 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 | 14 15 16 17 18 CC
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 BB

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 AA

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 | 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 Q
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 | 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 P
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 | 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 O
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 | 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 N
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 | 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 M
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 | 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 L
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 | 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 K
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 | 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 J
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 | 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 H

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 | 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 G

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 F
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 E
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 D
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 C
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 B
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 A

This seating plan tends to put a bit of a problem with the origional arrays..... but aside from that i have been thinking about the data in the tables.... however the seats are echoed to the browser in the array where each S is placed shouldnt the script only need to be like

if ($seat[???] == 1)
{
echo "<td>B</td>";
}
else
{
echo "<input type .........";
}

having that inside the loop build from the array.

am i starting to understand this better now..

and mjn i am unsure in your code where you extracted the data from the table i see the $res and fetch array however i do not see any of those var's in the loop?

or did i miss a step?

once i understand how all this works i shouldnt need to ask again except for debug. but have no fear you and sarahk will be mentioned on the credits as long as it is ok by both of you to do so.. hey ill even link ya... aint i nice!!... he he

Thanks for all of your help and support hopefuly i will be able to stand on my own two feet soon..

Thanks again...

Keith

[keithjasper]

sorry i didnt /pre the text which was above from the seating plan... all of them are centered with the last letter on each line refering to row name... although the aa bb ..... can be renamed it can be our / groups internal naming system for the seats... he he

thanks