News Script

NZ_Kiwi

Hey all...

I'm making a news script and I have one feature which i'm not sure how to do.... I want to diaplay a section on the front page so you can read it before you click on it to read the full story!

Do I set my sql table to insert on a set length from my one text box? or do a change my settings so it will only display so much on my front page?

Any ideas on how to do this?

vaaaska

many ways of doing this...you could do a word count, minus the html tags and then output a set number of words or if the number of words is less than that then just output everything...

this is totally rough, as i did this a long time ago, but it has some things you could use for research en route to your own solution...basically is explodes your text, takes out some tags, reduces the words to 50, then gives you back the new text...

good luck...v

function reduceText($txt) {
// delete images
$preg = "'<img(.?)>|<IMG(.?)>'";
$txt = preg_replace($preg, " ", $txt);

// take out links
$preg = "'<a(.?)>|<A(.?)>'";
$txt = preg_replace($preg, " ", $txt);
$preg = "'</a>|</A>'";
$txt = preg_replace($preg, " ", $txt);

// reduce number of words for page
$txt = explode(" ", $txt);
$txt = array_slice($txt, 0, 50);
$txt = implode(" ", $txt);

$s = "$txt...\n";

return $s;
}

NZ_Kiwi

Originally posted by vaaaska
many ways of doing this...you could do a word count, minus the html tags and then output a set number of words or if the number of words is less than that then just output everything...

this is totally rough, as i did this a long time ago, but it has some things you could use for research en route to your own solution...basically is explodes your text, takes out some tags, reduces the words to 50, then gives you back the new text...

good luck...v

function reduceText($txt) {
// delete images
$preg = "'<img(.?)>|<IMG(.?)>'";
$txt = preg_replace($preg, " ", $txt);

// take out links
$preg = "'<a(.?)>|<A(.?)>'";
$txt = preg_replace($preg, " ", $txt);
$preg = "'</a>|</A>'";
$txt = preg_replace($preg, " ", $txt);

// reduce number of words for page
$txt = explode(" ", $txt);
$txt = array_slice($txt, 0, 50);
$txt = implode(" ", $txt);

$s = "$txt...\n";

return $s;
}

I new there would be heaps of ways of doing it... is this way very good when you display say 15 records??

So how would I fit that into this code???

<?php
require("includes/dp.php");
$result = mysql_query ("SELECT * from News limit = 15'");	
while ($row = mysql_fetch_array($result)) { 
?>
<a href=story.php?id=<?php echo $id; ?>"><?php echo $header; ?></a><br>
<?php echo $body; ?>
<?php
}
?>

TheDefender

This method is fine for 15 records... That's not that much, and loads quickly... I would personally clean up the code just a bit, and not keep opening and closing my <?php ?> tags.

<?php
require("includes/dp.php"); 
$result = mysql_query ("SELECT * from News limit = 15'");     

while ($row = mysql_fetch_array($result)) {  

  echo "<a href=\"story.php?id=".$row['id']."\">".$row['header']."</a><br />";
  echo $row['body']."<br />";
} 
?>

Also, on your tag, start coding for XHTML compliance...

Also, I assume the $id, $header and $body tags all come from the $row array, so see the changes I made there too.

NZ_Kiwi

Originally posted by TheDefender
This method is fine for 15 records... That's not that much, and loads quickly... I would personally clean up the code just a bit, and not keep opening and closing my <?php ?> tags.
<?php
require("includes/dp.php"); 
$result = mysql_query ("SELECT * from News limit = 15'"); 

while ($row = mysql_fetch_array($result)) { 

 echo "<a href=\"story.php?id=".$row['id']."\">".$row['header']."</a> ";
 echo $row['body']." ";
} 
?> 
Also, on your tag, start coding for XHTML compliance... 

Also, I assume the $id, $header and $body tags all come from the $row array, so see the changes I made there too. [/B]

yip, but were do I fit your code in there?

TheDefender

Sorry, I missed that the first time... You would put vaaaska's code in the while loop like so:

<?php 
require("includes/dp.php");  

$result = mysql_query ("SELECT * from News limit = 15'");      

while ($row = mysql_fetch_array($result)) {   

  echo "<a href=\"story.php?id=".$row['id']."\">".$row['header']."</a><br />"; 
  // reduce number of words for page 
  $txt = $row['body'];
  $txt = explode(" ", $txt); 
  $txt = array_slice($txt, 0, 50); 
  $txt = implode(" ", $txt); 

  $s = "$txt...\n"; 
  echo $s; 
}  

?>

Of course, you could combine some functions to shorten up the code, but I left it all expanded like that so you could see what was going on...