clicked link increases value in db - Help!

[lordlupin]

Hi.

I have almost finished creating a simple php script to display my songs with relevant data in a table. data is things like song length, name, format etc. and it also holds info for how many listens a song has had.

I need to update the value for listens in the db every time someone clicks the link to the song.

i can do the mysql commands etc but am unable to figure out how to activate any functions when the link is clicked. If i can get past this bit i can write the code to actually do the updating.

Can i include something into <a href="blah"> which will activate a function? how do i go about this?

The link which users will click to play the song is inside a while loop which repeats for each row in the db.

Cheers in advance for any help.

Bone

p.s. actually, heres the code i have so far...

<?php
$dbuser = "blah"; //the username
$dbpass = "blah"; //the users password
$dbname = "blah"; //the name of the database
$dbhost = "blah"; //the name of the host
$chandle = mysql_connect($dbhost,$dbuser,$dbpass) or die ("Cannot connect to database");
mysql_select_db($dbname,$chandle) or die ("Cannot open database");

echo "
<table width='602' border='0' cellpadding='0' cellspacing='0'>
<tr>
<td width='602' height='10' valign='top' class='tuneheaderSong'>Tunes</td>
</tr>
</table>";

$songrows = mysql_query("SELECT * FROM tbTunes WHERE songorset = '0' ORDER BY pref");
while ($songrow = mysql_fetch_array($songrows)) {
echo "
<table width='600' height='100' border='1' cellpadding='0' cellspacing='0' bordercolor='#000000'>
<tr>
<td width='100' height='10' rowspan='3' class='trackL' nowrap><a href=".$songrow['songlink']."><img src=".$songrow['frontcover']." border='1' width='59' height='59' alt='".$songrow['name']."'></a></td>
<td height='10' colspan='2' class='tunedesctop' nowrap>&nbsp;<font color='#000000'>Song name:</font> <strong><font color='FFFFFF'><a href=".$songrow['songlink'].">".$songrow['name']."</a></font></strong></td>
<td width='100' height='10' class='tunedesctop' nowrap>&nbsp;<font color='#000000'>Length:</font> ".$songrow['length']."</td>
<td width='100' height='10' class='tunedesctop' nowrap>&nbsp;<font color='#000000'>Listens:</font> ".$songrow['listens']."</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td height='80' colspan='4' class='tunedesc'>&nbsp;".$songrow['description']."</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td width='110' height='10' class='tunedescbot' nowrap>&nbsp;<font color='#000000'>Covers:</font> <a href=".$songrow['frontcover'].">Front</a> / Rear</td>
<td width='190' height='10' class='tunedescbot' nowrap>&nbsp;<font color='#000000'>Genre:</font> ".$songrow['genre']."</td>
<td width='100' height='10' class='tunedescbot' nowrap onmouseover='doTooltip(event,0)' onmouseout='hideTip()'>&nbsp;<font color='#000000'>Date:</font> ".$songrow['dateadded']."</font></td>
<td width='100' height='10' class='tunedescbot' nowrap>&nbsp;<font color='#000000'>Format:</font> ".$songrow['format']."</td>
</tr>
</table>";
}

echo "
<table width='602' border='0' cellpadding='0' cellspacing='0'>
<tr>
<td width='602' height='10' valign='top' class='tuneheaderSet'>Sets</td>
</tr>
</table>";

$setrows = mysql_query("SELECT * FROM tbTunes WHERE songorset = '1' ORDER BY pref");
while ($setrow = mysql_fetch_array($setrows)) {
echo "
<table width='600' height='100' border='1' cellpadding='0' cellspacing='0' bordercolor='#000000'>
<tr>
<td width='100' height='10' rowspan='3' class='trackL' nowrap><a href=".$setrow['songlink']."><img src=".$setrow['frontcover']." border='1' width='59' height='59' alt='".$setrow['name']."'></a></td>
<td height='10' colspan='2' class='tunedesctop' nowrap>&nbsp;<font color='#000000'>Set name:</font> <strong><font color='FFFFFF'><a href=".$setrow['songlink'].">".$setrow['name']."</a></font></strong></td>
<td width='100' height='10' class='tunedesctop' nowrap>&nbsp;<font color='#000000'>Length:</font> ".$setrow['length']."</td>
<td width='100' height='10' class='tunedesctop' nowrap>&nbsp;<font color='#000000'>Listens:</font> ".$setrow['listens']."</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td height='80' colspan='4' class='tunedesc'>&nbsp;".$setrow['description']."</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td width='110' height='10' class='tunedescbot' nowrap>&nbsp;<font color='#000000'>Covers:</font> <a href=".$setrow['frontcover'].">Front</a> / <a href=".$setrow['rearcover'].">Rear</a></td>
<td width='190' height='10' class='tunedescbot' nowrap>&nbsp;<font color='#000000'>Genre:</font> ".$setrow['genre']."</td>
<td width='100' height='10' class='tunedescbot' nowrap onmouseover='doTooltip(event,0)' onmouseout='hideTip()'>&nbsp;<font color='#000000'>Date:</font> ".$setrow['dateadded']."</td>
<td width='100' height='10' class='tunedescbot' nowrap>&nbsp;<font color='#000000'>Format:</font> ".$setrow['format']."</td>
</tr>
</table>";
}
?>

[dcav]

What I would do is to play with the URL...
Example: lalala.com/songTemplate.php?songID=XXX&action=Clicked

Inside songTemplate.php:

if ($_GET[action] == "Clicked")
// UPDATE YOUR RECORD BASED ON songID

[lordlupin]

That would definately work.

But could i keep it all to one page though? like this maybe-->

<a href=".$songrow['songlink']." onclick[ListenUpdate]>

where ListenUpdate is a function within php (on the same page) which will update the db for me? Can you integrate php and java this way? I'd rather not have any url's that are too long on my site, especially the ones which are for the tunes as that is the whole reason i have the site there in the first place. I don't want Google or other search engines to be put off my site because of url's like that. It also looks neater etc...

Cheers for your help dude. I'll try your way anyway until i see if there are other ways of doing it. I'm such a noob at this.

check it out so far tho. not bad for 3 days of writing php

http://www.musicbybone.co.uk/indexTunes.html

Not live yet, but will be soon.

Cheers

Bone

[fean0r]

I created a database the used uniqueid links

download.php?link=2

The query the link db and update the clicks and also retrieve the proper url and forward the users, this can also be used for files to ensure only logged in users can grab your files....

[lordlupin]

So in download.php i would have all the work being done such as forwarding them to the file, updating the link, authentication etc?

yeah, it's defo simpler and less cumbersome.

I'm not planning of having logins tho. I'd rather have access for anyone without them having to go through all that to get my tunes.

cheers dude.

[fean0r]

if ($ID) {
$items = mysql_query("SELECT * FROM ads WHERE ID='$ID'");
$myrow = mysql_fetch_array($items);
$page = $myrow['url'];
$hit = $myrow['hit']+1;
$sql = "UPDATE ads SET
   hit='$hit'
    WHERE ID='$ID'";
if ($result = mysql_query($sql)) {
header ("Location: $page");
}
else {
    die(mysql_error());
}
}
if (!$ID) {
echo "Your Ad ID is incorrect!";
}
?>

thats a sample of the code i use...

[lordlupin]

so in that example, $ID refers to the info on the link which activates the external php file

e.g. <a href='playtune.php?ID=1'>

the value for ID is passed to the playtune.php file and inside the playtune.php file it takes the value and uses it in the if statement

e.g. if ($ID) {

Am i right with all this so far?

What about this line--->

header ("Location: $page");

I understand the rest but not this.

[fean0r]

Thats send the person to the link they have selected or file in this case...

$page = $myrow['url'];

so $page = "http://www.mysite.com/test.mp3"