viewing text in two places

hamburgerlove41

ok, im very new to php and need some help. I make a band's website, and i want to show the latest shows theyve added to the schedule section on the front page. I've got everything working, but i want to limit the ammount of shows listed on the main page to the 3 latest added. How do I do this? currently, everything in the table just shows up. I don't know if i did this right, but both the schedule and the front page use includes to get the information. Is that where im going wrong?

oh yeah, one more question. How can I make it so that when someone adds a new show, the list goes in order of date??

jasonmills58

Where is the data coming from? Is it in a database?

hamburgerlove41

yeah, sorry i didnt mention that.

jasonmills58

Well, if the schedule and the front page both include the same data, I don't think you can display it differently. I would recommend having them do their own database calls.

Then, when you do it on the front page, you can just add a LIMIT and an ORDER BY to the SQL call for the front page.

Does that help?

hamburgerlove41

when i say im really new, i pretty mean i know nothing. hah. Ive been reading stuff, but I just can't seem to grasp this. I need a little bit more indepth help.
I use two different pages for the front page and schedule page. is that what you mean? as in, when i put the <?include on the front page it points to a page called latestschedule.php and then when i put the <?include on the schedule it points to schedulelinks.php. but those two pages use the same table in the database. Can i still just do that LIMIT thing you were talking about to one of the pages, and it will work? im sorry if im confusing you. Ill try to clarify if what im saying doesnt make sense.

jasonmills58

Its ok, I know how you feel. Can you post the code from those two pages? Be sure to use the [ php ] [ /php ] tags (but without the spaces), it makes it easier to read.

celibate54

there are alot of books out there for $25 or less that could really assist you in your start. I'd recommend that before asking every question possible as that tends to irk some of the more Senior members of the board - at least search first, minimally =)

i'd love to see your code to see if i could help in any way (i am far from an expert, still)

hamburgerlove41

to celibate: as i mentioned in my previous post, i have read stuff. I just am not very good at it. I know these kinds of posts can be annoying, but I'm not really sure what to search on for my problem. I just figured since this was the newbies forum that my question wouldnt be too innapropriate.

hamburgerlove41

for the front page:

<?
$usr = "a0017807";
$pwd = "*******";
$db = "a0017807";
$host = "localhost";

# connect to database
$cid = mysql_connect($host,$usr,$pwd);
mysql_select_db($db);
if (mysql_error()) { print "Database ERROR: " . mysql_error(); }

?>
<html>
<head>
<title>Display Link</title>
</head>
<body bgcolor="#ffffff" >

setup SQL statement

$sql = " SELECT * FROM schedule ";

# execute SQL statement
$rs = mysql_query($sql, $cid);
if (mysql_error()) { print "Database Error: $sql " . mysql_error(); }

# display results

while ($row = mysql_fetch_array($rs)) 
{
    $event = $row["event"];
    $date = $row["date"];


    echo "<table width=208 cellpadding=3 cellspacing=3>" ;
	echo "<tr><td><font size=1 face=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif color=white>" ;
	print "<dd>$event</dd>";
    echo "<br>" ;
	print "<b>[$date]</b>";
	echo "</td></tr>" ;
   echo "</table>" ;
}
print "</dt></p>";

</body>
</html>

hamburgerlove41

for the schedule:

<?
$usr = "a0017807";
$pwd = "*******";
$db = "a0017807";
$host = "localhost";

# connect to database
$cid = mysql_connect($host,$usr,$pwd);
mysql_select_db($db);
if (mysql_error()) { print "Database ERROR: " . mysql_error(); }

?>
<html>
<head>
<title>Display Link</title>
</head>
<body bgcolor="#ffffff" >

setup SQL statement

$sql = " SELECT * FROM schedule ";

# execute SQL statement
$rs = mysql_query($sql, $cid);
if (mysql_error()) { print "Database Error: $sql " . mysql_error(); }

# display results

while ($row = mysql_fetch_array($rs)) 
{
    $event = $row["event"];
    $date = $row["date"];
	$time = $row["time"];
	$featuring = $row["featuring"];
	$other = $row["other"];

    echo "<table width=780 cellpadding=3 cellspacing=3 border=0 align=center>" ;
	echo "<tr><td width=260><font size=1 face=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif color=white>" ;
	print "<dd>$event</dd>\n";
    echo "<td width=70><font size=1 face=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif color=white>" ;
	print "$date \n";
	echo "<td width=104><font size=1 face=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif color=white>" ;
	print "$time \n";
	echo "<td width=170><font size=1 face=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif color=white>" ;
	print "$featuring \n";
	echo "<td width=100><font size=1 face=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif color=white>" ;
	print "$other";
   echo "</tr></td>" ;
   echo "</table>" ;
}
print "</dt></p>";

</body>
</html>

hamburgerlove41

i wasnt really sure what you meant by using [ php ], but if i need to change something for you to see it, tell me.

jasonmills58

Well, its not a big deal, your code is pretty clean. But if you add [ php ] without the spaces - as in with the brackets right next to the php, it displays everything color coded and properly spaced etc. Feel free to click the edit button on your post and try it out. Just click the PHP button in the formatting row above the data entry box. Type an X and hit enter. Cut your code and paste it in place of the X.

Anyway, I would think both pages would want to be in chronological order. Simple change

 $sql = " SELECT * FROM schedule ";

 $sql = " SELECT * FROM schedule ORDER BY date";

if 'date' is the name of the column with the dates in it. You can also add ASC or DESC after date to specify which direction to list in. Then, to just get the first 3 for the front page listing, add a LIMIT clause to it, like so:

 $sql = " SELECT * FROM schedule ORDER BY date ASC LIMIT 0, 3";

The LIMIT simply means, "Start at 0 (which is the first record in your database, thats just how DBs order stuff) and give me the first 3 results.

My code is untested, so I might have missed a comma or something, but if you have any trouble, I'll have to double check it after work. I don't have all my files with me.

If your dates are entered in an odd format, they may not order correctly. We can look at that later too.

Cheers,
Jason

hamburgerlove41

yeah, that worked. thanks alot for your help.

jasonmills58

No worries. Happy to help.

hamburgerlove41

ok, one more quick problem. On the front page, i have the event and the date listed. for some reason the event is centered and the date is aligned to the left. I want the event aligned to the left, but when i add that to the <td> tag, nothing happens. what do i need to change to make it align left?

jasonmills58

So, you're adding <td align="left"> ?

hamburgerlove41

yeah, but without the quotes. when i add the quotes, i get a parse error. This doesnt do anything though

jasonmills58

OOOHHHH! Ok, I get it. I didn't see that you were writing html with php. nice. add quotes to all your values, and slash them. They will end up looking like

hamburgerlove41

ok, i tried the slashes, but it still didn't work. any other suggestions maybe?

jasonmills58

try switching echo to print. i use it for everything.