featured items table

[cgraz]

Hey.

I wrote this code so long ago and just started working with it again and found some bugs. I was hoping someone could help me out with this logic. My PHP is pretty rust at the moment.

I have a MySQL table that contains an inventory of products. There is a column called 'featured', and if under that column the record has a value of 'y' (short for yes), then I want it to display on the homepage as a featured item.

The problem I'm running into is this:

There can be a total of 6 featured items listed on the home page at a time (I've set a lock so there won't ever be more than 6 records with featured equaling y...that's not the problem). The problem is there could be 1 item featured, there could be 4, or any other amount of items could be featured as long as it's no more than 6. I just can't quite structure my loop so that no matter how many items are featured, it will create a table with no problems.

The table is 390 pixels wide, and has 3 columns of 130 pixels. Here's some of the code

$query = mysql_query("SELECT id, year, make, model, picture FROM $table WHERE featured='y'");
$count = mysql_num_rows($query);

if($count >= 1) {

   while($row = mysql_fetch_assoc($query)) {
      $img[] = $row["picture"];
      $id[] = $row["id"];
      $year[] = substr($row["year"], 2, 2);
      $make[] = $row["make"];
      $model[] = $row["model"];
   }

?>

<center>

<table width="390" cellspacing="5">
  <tr>
    <td colspan="3"><center><b><font color="<?= $ftrd_color ?>">FEATURED VEHICLES</font></b></center></td>
  </tr>


  <tr>
    <td width="130" align="center" valign="top">

     <font size="1"><b><?= $year["0"] . " " . $make["0"] . " " . $model["0"] ?></b>
<? 

        if (($img["0"]) && ($img["0"] != "noimage.gif")) {
            echo "<br><img src=\"" . $vehicles_dir . "/" . $img["0"] . "\" width=\"130\" height=\"98\" border=1 class=border>\n";
        } else {
            echo "<br><img src=\"images/noimage2.jpg\" width=\"130\" height=\"98\" border=1 class=border>\n";
        }
?>   

        <a href="?p=specs&id=<?= $id["0"] ?>" class="featured">Details »</a>

</td>

<td width="130" align="center" valign="top"></td></tr></table>

  <? if ($count > 1) { ?>

//process basically repeats

I'm just having trouble with this and know it's something extremely simple.

Thanks,

Cgraz

[parawizard]

[EDIT IGNORE THIS POST AND READ THE LAST ONE]

ok id just restructure the whole thing 🙂 I cant really help you with your code it just dumbfounds me. No comments or anything. I will tho tell you how you SHOULD be doing this 😃.

ok first of all

1) make a second table in your database called featureditems. with one field called item_ids. In this field u would store feature item ids. that match the ids in your other table holding the items. These item IDS should be sepereted by something. (go with a comma).

2) query the featureitems table and grab the ids. Explode the ids into an array called $items using explode() function.

3) Count how many elements are in the array to get the loop ending number

4) Output first part of table.

5) declare $counter variable setup while loop that has a counter. The while loop should be like below.

<?

$counter = 0;

while($counter!=$featurecount)
{

// make a query to ur database. use the counter variable
query = " SELECT id, year, make, model, picture FROM $table WHERE id='$items['counter']";
$result = mysql_query($query);
$itemdata = mysql_fetch_row($result);

/* below you have to edit these to equal the fields in order that you pulled from your database */

$itemdata[0] = $id;
$itemdata[1] = $year;
$itemdata[2] = $make;
$itemdata[3] = $model;
$itemdata[4] = $picture;

//now output a new <TD> tag and the variables

?>

<td>

</td>

<?

$counter++;

}

[parawizard]

but before u change anything let me look at your code one more time

[parawizard]

how about this! 😃 the only thing that i couldnt figure out u were doing is that image thinger

<?

$query = mysql_query("SELECT id FROM $table WHERE featured='y'");
$result = mysql_query($query);
$itemdata = mysql_fetch_row($result);

$number_of_featured_items = count($itemdata);

//OUTPUT TABLE
?>

<center>

<table width="130" cellspacing="5">
  <tr>
    <td colspan="3"><center><b><font color="<?= $ftrd_color ?>">FEATURED VEHICLES</font></b></center></td>
  </tr>


  <tr>
<?

$counter = 0;

while($counter!=$number_of_featured_items)
{

$query = " SELECT id, year, make, model, picture FROM $table WHERE id='$items['counter']";
$result = mysql_query($query);
$itemdata = mysql_fetch_row($result);

$itemdata[0] = $id;
$itemdata[1] = $year;
$itemdata[2] = $make;
$itemdata[3] = $model;
$itemdata[4] = $picture;

?>

<td width="130" align="center" valign="top">

     <font size="1"><b><?= $year[counter] . " " . $make[counter] . " " . $model[counter] ?></b>

      im not sure about your image thing here what you are doing so you can add that in

     <a href="?p=specs&id=<?= $id[counter] ?>" class="featured">Details »</a>

</td>

<?

$counter++;

} //end while loop

?>

[parawizard]

are u having problems fitting them all in the same amount of pixels? if so i add a few things into the code to auto adjust from 1-6 different widths of columns to fit all the features. Im not sure exactly what the problem is but maybe this is it. More explain on exactly what you want to do with the output would help

<? 

$query = mysql_query("SELECT id FROM $table WHERE featured='y'"); 
$result = mysql_query($query); 
$itemdata = mysql_fetch_row($result); 

$number_of_featured_items = count($itemdata); 

//adjusts the width of column for each item 
if($number_of_featured_items==1)
{
$spanpercentage="100&#37;";
}
if($number_of_featured_items==2)
{
$spanpercentage="50&#37;";
}
if($number_of_featured_items==3)
{
$spanpercentage="33&#37;";
}
if($number_of_featured_items==4)
{
$spanpercentage="25&#37;";
}
if($number_of_featured_items==5)
{
$spanpercentage="20&#37;";
}
if($number_of_featured_items==6)
{
$spanpercentage="16&#37;";
}

//OUTPUT TABLE 
?> 

<center> 

<table width="130" cellspacing="5"> 
  <tr> 
    <td colspan="3"><center><b><font color="<?= $ftrd_color ?>">FEATURED VEHICLES</font></b></center></td> 
  </tr> 


  <tr> 
<? 

$counter = 0; 

while($counter!=$number_of_featured_items) 
{ 

$query = " SELECT id, year, make, model, picture FROM $table WHERE id='$items['counter']"; 
$result = mysql_query($query); 
$itemdata = mysql_fetch_row($result); 

$itemdata[0] = $id; 
$itemdata[1] = $year; 
$itemdata[2] = $make; 
$itemdata[3] = $model; 
$itemdata[4] = $picture; 

?> 

<td width="<? echo $spanpercentage; ?>" align="center" valign="top"> 

     <font size="1"><b><?= $year[counter] . " " . $make[counter] . " " . $model[counter] ?></b> 

      im not sure about your image thing here what you are doing so you can add that in 

     <a href="?p=specs&id=<?= $id[counter] ?>" class="featured">Details »</a> 

</td> 

<? 

$counter++; 

} //end while loop 

?>

[cgraz]

parawizard: Wow! First of all thanks for all the time you put into working on my problem. I really appreciate it!

I couldn't quite get your code to work, although I'm very close to coming up with a solution for this. I just had to sit down and really think it through and I'm allllllmost done...

Give me a bit of time and I'll post what I came up with as soon as it's done and I've got it all tested for bugs.

Thanks!!

Cgraz

[parawizard]

Originally posted by cgraz
parawizard: Wow! First of all thanks for all the time you put into working on my problem. I really appreciate it!

I couldn't quite get your code to work, although I'm very close to coming up with a solution for this. I just had to sit down and really think it through and I'm allllllmost done...

Give me a bit of time and I'll post what I came up with as soon as it's done and I've got it all tested for bugs.

Thanks!!

Cgraz

hehe darn...... well i went throught my code and FOUND SOME BIG BIG BOO BOOS lol

<?

$query = mysql_query("SELECT id FROM $table WHERE featured='y'");
$result = mysql_query($query);
$itemdata = mysql_fetch_row($result);

$number_of_featured_items = count($itemdata);

//OUTPUT TABLE
?>

<center>

<table width="130" cellspacing="5">
  <tr>
    <td colspan="3"><center><b><font color="<?= $ftrd_color ?>">FEATURED VEHICLES</font></b></center></td>
  </tr>


  <tr>
<?

$counter = 0;

while($counter!=$number_of_featured_items)
{

$query = "SELECT id, year, make, model, picture FROM $table WHERE id='$items[counter]";
$result = mysql_query($query);
$itemdata = mysql_fetch_row($result);

$id = $itemdata[0];
$year = $itemdata[1];
$make = $itemdata[2];
$model = $itemdata[3];
$picture = $itemdata[4];

?>

<td width="130" align="center" valign="top">

     <font size="1"><b><?= $year[counter] . " " . $make[counter] . " " . $model[counter] ?></b>

      im not sure about your image thing here what you are doing so you can add that in

     <a href="?p=specs&id=<?= $id[counter] ?>" class="featured">Details »</a>

</td>

<?

$counter++;

} //end while loop

?>

maybe that work for u know?

[cgraz]

Parawizard: There weren't any errors...it just wasn't quite working and I couldn't get it to work.

Now this may not be the best fix, but i thought out the logic and it works great

<?

$query = mysql_query("SELECT id, year, make, model, picture FROM $table WHERE featured='y'"); 

$number_featured = mysql_num_rows($query);

if($number_featured >= 1) {


   while($row = mysql_fetch_assoc($query)) { 
      $img[] = $row["picture"]; 
      $id[] = $row["id"]; 
      $year[] = substr($row["year"], 2, 2); 
      $make[] = $row["make"]; 
      $model[] = $row["model"]; 
   } 

   if($number_featured <= 3) {
       $counter = "2"; // 3 td's, on 1 tr
   } else {
       $counter = "5"; // 6 td's, on 2 tr's
   }

?>

<center>

<table width="390" cellpadding="5">

  <tr>
    <td width "390" colspan="3" align="center">FEATURED VEHICLES</td>
  </tr>

<?

for($i=0; $i<=$counter; $i++) {

  if(($i == "0") || ($i == "3")) {
     echo "<tr>\n";
  }

  echo "<td width=\"130\">&nbsp;".$id[$i]."</td>\n";

  if(($i == "2") || ($i == "5")) {
     echo "</tr>\n";
  }



} // end for loop

 echo "</table>\n";

} // end my if statement

It's pretty self-explanatory, but in case you're having trouble following the logic of my code (I have the problem with other people's code ALL the time lol), let me know and I'll break down how it all works.

BTW, in the code I posted above, all I had it do was print the id of the field in the db that is featured. In my code, I have to display the actual item, provde some info, and also include a link...that's what all that other crap was in my original code 😃

Thanks for your help bro!

Cgraz

[parawizard]

ok hehe 🙂 Im still going throught my code for errors tho hehe found 1 more and i created a fake DB to test her on. just a learning thing for me

[parawizard]

do u have this hosted? online? if so can i see the final product? 🙂

ps my code works great now I got it working on my mawk thing tho in the querys i have replaced $table with items 😃

<?


$query = "SELECT id FROM items WHERE featured='y'";
$result = mysql_query($query);
$number_featured = mysql_num_rows($result);

if($number_featured >= 1) {


   while($row = mysql_fetch_assoc($result)) {
      $itemids[] = $row["id"];
   }

}
$number_of_featured_items = count($itemids);

//adjusts the width of column for each item
if($number_of_featured_items==1)
{
$spanpercentage="100%";
}
if($number_of_featured_items==2)
{
$spanpercentage="50%";
}
if($number_of_featured_items==3)
{
$spanpercentage="33%";
}
if($number_of_featured_items==4)
{
$spanpercentage="25%";
}
if($number_of_featured_items==5)
{
$spanpercentage="20%";
}
if($number_of_featured_items==6)
{
$spanpercentage="16%";
}


//OUTPUT TABLE
?>

<center>

<table width="130" cellspacing="5">
  <tr>
    <td colspan="3"><center><b><font color="<?= $ftrd_color ?>">FEATURED VEHICLES</font></b></center></td>
  </tr>


  <tr>
<?

$counter = 0;

while($counter!=$number_of_featured_items)
{

$query = "SELECT id, year, make, model, picture FROM items WHERE id=$itemids[$counter]";
$result = mysql_query($query);
$itemdata = mysql_fetch_row($result);

$id = $itemdata[0];
$year = $itemdata[1];
$make = $itemdata[2];
$model = $itemdata[3];
$picture = $itemdata[4];

?>

<td width="<? echo $spanpercentage; ?>" align="center" valign="top">

     <font size="1"><b><? echo $year, " ", $make, " ", $model; ?></b>

      im not sure about your image thing here what you are doing so you can add that in

     <a href="?p=specs&id=<?= $id ?>" class="featured">Details »</a>

</td>

<?

$counter++;

} //end while loop

?>

are you doing this for a client or for yourself? Im just wondering, because im 15 and im trying to get my own PHP/Web design buisness started up 🙂 just any discussion or info about how you like working client wise with PHP or any opinions or tips would be much appreciated (if you do work for clients that is 🙂 )

anywaz laterz