movie schedule database using php and mySQL

ZWANPHONY

Hi all, i'm VERY new to php and mysql. just got "the PHP bible" today from a friend. Let me first say thanks for reading this far!

Onto my onset: i plan on making a site for a local tv station that plays only about 10 different movies a week, all day long, at different times. their website sucks and i am going to revamp it for them for no cost because i'm tired of not knowing when a certain movie begins!

my idea: i asked a friend if i could use php grab information from a database that will be updated regularly with the movie's title, date, time, and review...i was hoping that php could grab the current time and list which movie is currently playing based on the computer's time that is accessing the webpage and also display which movies are coming on for the next 24 hours. of course i am new to php and i am not sure if php is the best/easiest/fastest/ way to do a website using a general design which will grab information from a database to make a unique page...

i have php installed ( somewhat installed... not sure about how to test it on my laptop, i hear you have to test it on a public domain which i have at http://people.clemson.edu/~guerry/info.php )

any comments, help with how to get started once i have the design done (the webdesign will quickly done because i'm more worried about content than aesthetics), and any help in general will be much appreciated. i have a good background in hypertextmarkuplanguage, very little knowledge of java (got a D in the class), knowledge of Matlab for engineers if this relates, and no knowledge of C (my book tells me php is very similar...dern it!)

THANKS, I look forward to hearing from you guys/gals!

Frederick

Spend most of your reading for now on the areas of:

//Inserting records
$sql = mysql_query("INSERT INTO tablename (field1,field2,field3) 
    VALUES ('$var1','$var2','$var3')
    ") or die (mysql_error());

//Update records
$sql = mysql_query("UPDATE tablename SET field1='$var1', field2='$var2', field3='$var3' 
    WHERE id=$id") or die (mysql_error());

//Delete records
$sql = mysql_query("DELETE FROM tablename WHERE id=$id") or die (mysql_error());

//List records
$sql = mysql_query("SELECT * FROM tablename WHERE id=$id") or die (mysql_error());
while ($row = mysql_fetch_array($sql)) {
    // display info here
}

ZWANPHONY

thanks Frederick, I'll review those areas in extreme detail so that I can hopefully understand what is going on...it's 4:12am here, so maybe i'm not thinking straight...but what does delete/insert/update exactly do? does this mean i can delete/insert/update a certain unique database object from the actual website i will be making? i don't think i need to do that, i think i plan on getting the database up from excel and letting them upload it to the server with revisions/updates/deletions/insertions
...maybe i'm just not thinking right, you definitely seem to know what's going on from your other posts i have been reading before i started this topic.

thanks again Frederick!

Frederick

You sound like your wanting to use MyAccess database if using excel unless you plan to convert the .xls file to .csv

MySQL can inport .csv files and it is a lot more work but it would be a lot better for the administrator of the site if you created an admin area for maintaining records. This way there is no need to access MySQL tables directly. Better and safer.

The examples I posted prior are items you will recognize in the book for data maintenance.

ZWANPHONY

thanks for the prompt response, so you think i should make an admin only page inwhich i can have a form setup to which he/she can input info into the fields "movie name" "movie times" "movie dates" "movie review" ? sorry if i'm being sluggish, i don't understand how this all really works. i understand php is embedded in html and grabs data from a server which corresponds to what the viewer of the webpage is asking for and outputs it like i had written a seperate webpage for that particular data (in my case, movie start times, names, dates, and reviews)...

i'm going to sleep now, but hopefully sometime tomorrow I will have time to look into this again.

thanks

Frederick

I checked out your link you posted in your first post and you need to place an index.html page into your root directory (main directory)

It displays all your items right now.

ZWANPHONY

yeah, i have my directory set like that because i often put up new guitar riffs every other week or so...thanks though..