help with a php listing thing!!

pablopicasso

Hi,

Im fairly new to php and want to make a listing. its very hard to describe but ill try. How do i make a listing which in my case will list bands dynamicly. so like a A list will be listed from a text file preferably not a SQLserver. but also so that it can be formated and will create table cells for each band name which also has to be made a link....

if anyone can help itll save me alot of time...

id search on the web but im not sure what to put in the search engines??

thanks for any help.

devinemke

a simple example:

let's say your text file (bands.txt) looks like this:

Beatles|http://www.beatles.com
Rolling Stones|http://www.rollingstones.com
Lead Zeppelin|http://www.ledzeppelin.com
Pink Floyd|http://www.pinkfloyd.com

and your PHP might look like this:

<?php
$file = file('bands.txt') or exit('error opening file');

echo '
<table border="1">
<tr>
<td><b>Band:</b></td>
<td><b>Website:</b></td>
</tr>
';

foreach ($file as $value)
{
	$explode = explode('|', $value);
	$explode = array_map('trim', $explode);

echo '
<tr>
<td>' . $explode[0] . '</td>
<td><a href="' . $explode[1] . '">' . $explode[1] . '</a></td>
</tr>
';
}

echo '</table>';
?>

i strongly urge you to consider using a database instead of a text file, especially if the file will be updated frequently and by outside users.

pablopicasso

thanks ill give that a go and let you know how it goes. im not sure wether or not to use a database mainly cos i dont know how to use one and it wont be updated by outside users just by me and my sister, lol.

ive been wondering how to do something else with this thanks to my sisters ideas (shes design guru ya see lol) how would i do the dynamic list but so that each row that each band is in is an alternate color so say pink and purple pink and purple and so on but using css classes (which i already have written i just need it to put the class name in dynamicly), and also so that the full table row itself is clickable. i have this javascript code i was using to make full table trs clickable:

<script type="text/javascript">
		window.onload = function(){
			ConvertRowsToLinks("table1");
		}
		function ConvertRowsToLinks(xTableId){
			var rows = document.getElementById(xTableId).getElementsByTagName("tr");
				for(i=0;i<rows.length;i++){
					if (i % 2 == 0) {
						var color = "cell1"
					} else { 
						var color = "cell2"
					}
			var link = rows[i].getElementsByTagName("a")
				if(link.length == 1){
					rows[i].onclick = new Function("document.location.href='" + link[0].href + "'");
					rows[i].onmouseover = new Function("this.className='highlight'; this.style.cursor='pointer'");
					rows[i].onmouseout = new Function("this.className='" + color + "'");
				}
		}
}
</script>

if this is possible thats brill if not it means ill have to go back to the old writing it all out in html which ive been doing but its taking a hell of a long time...

thanks

yinrunning

Basically you need to read up on loop functions and if/elseif clauses. It's a pretty simple logic puzzle as such things go.

quasi-code:

set a variable to 0;
input next table cell data from list;
check to see if variable == 0;
if so, make green, add 1 to variable;
elseif not, make pink, subtract 1 from variable;
some other elseif clause to check for something else, etc.;

rinse, repeat.

Or something like that...

pablopicasso

im not sure about the list bit, how would i get the information out of the file and tell it to get the next line each time? you see i understand flash actionscript and javascript but PHP is new to me....i dont even know what to search for so i can help myself a bit?

thanks for any help..

pablo

yinrunning

That's kind of a broad topic. If you understand programming / scripting fundamentals, then it's going to be kind of falling off a log once you start digging into some tutorials. There's free ones all over the place, and a ton of books to get you started. The stuff you're trying to do is really not that complicated or advanced, no offense!

Probably the biggest adjustment would be that PHP is a Server Side Scripting language, as opposed to JavaScript. ActionScript is technically server-side as well at a higher level, but for most people does pretty much the same stuff as JS.

Seriously look into database fundamentals, tho. You're gonna do 20x's the work trying to use flat files. If you're going to go that route, just put a list (array()) into your php file and loop through that. It'll take save you alot of time with flat-file manipulation and string-parsing.

My college Flute prof. always used to say, "The more music you know, the more music you know." Kind of a duh statement, but translates well into programming / scripting. The more languages you know, the more you know about each language that you know.

Also, it occurs to me that you've already stated every solution that you need from a logic perspective as far as this individual task is concerned. All you need to know is how to express that in PHP. It's not that big of a leap, really.

Good Luck with all that! 🙂

pablopicasso

Thanks that was very well put, its just from looking into the web i cannot find anything on how i would put the info from the file into an array, or is it already in an array because of the array_map? also i would like to sort the results from the file but keep them matched up to each other(for obvious reasons). Im not sure if i know programming basics i just know what ive picked up from writing stuff i mean im only 18 but i still remember programming the atari when i was 6 or 7 lol...

thanks for any help on this or for any help on where or what to search for..

Pablo

pablopicasso

hi again,

ive pieced together this from tutorials and things but it doesnt quite work and i woas wondering if you could help me understand whats wrong.....cos its got me beat.
i need the colors so that each table row are alternate colors and i want it so that when it gets through half of the results it starts listing in a new table on the other side so theres two columns type of thing...

heres the code:

<?php


//FUNCTION DECLARATION START
function alternate_rows(
// $color_1 and $color_2 have default values, but can be over-ridden.
$data,
$color_1 = 'cell1',
$color_2 = 'cell2'
)
{

static $color;// Declare $color as static so it retains its value when program execution leaves the local function's scope.

if ( $color == $color_1 )// Set the color to that's not currently set.
{
$color = $color_2;
}
else
{
$color = $color_1;
}
$file = "bands.txt";
$data = file($file);
foreach ($data as $line){
	$val = explode("::", $line);
        echo "<tr class='$color'>
		<td width='290' class='cellleft'><span class='ArtistName1'>$val[0]</span></td>
		<td width='100' align='left' valign='top'><span class='ArtistName1'>$val[1]</span></td>
	</tr>";
    }


}



echo '<table align="center" width="820" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="border" id="table1">
<tr>
	<td width="820" height="3" colspan="2" class="black"></td>
</tr>
<tr>
	<td width="820" colspan="2" class="Maintab" valign="top"><br />
<table width="790" align="center" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0">
	<tr>
		<td height="45" colspan="5" class="headercell" id="borderall"><span class="title">Search Results for : A </span></td>
	</tr>
	<tr>
		<td height="8" colspan="5"></td>
	</tr>
	<tr>
		<td valign="top" width="390"> 
<table width="390" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" class="borderinner">
	<tr>
		<td width="290" align="left" class="headercell1"><span class="subheaders">Artist</span></td>
		<td width="100" align="left" valign="top" class="headercell2"><span class="subheaders">Genre</span></td>
	</tr>';
	for ( $i = 1; $i <= 10; $i++ ) //your old friend the for loop
{
$data = $i;

alternate_rows( $data );//the function call itself
} 

echo "</table>";
?>

if ya wanna see how it looks go here http://umdb.natural-tys.com/Untitled-1.php

thanks

pablo

pablopicasso

thanks to alot of perseverance and blood sweat and tears ive finish a prototype of the list so if ya wanna have a look go here http://umdb.natural-tys.com/untitled-13.php

that took along time if anyone wants the code for whatever reason email me on charlottesbeach@gmail.com

thanks for the help you gave me it helped me alot.
😃 😃

yinrunning

Good job!

So, what do you want it to do generally as a list? As in, when someone actually comes to view part of this data set, what viewing options do you want to give them?

yinrunning

Never mind. You REALLY, really REALLY REALLY want to learn databasing. I just looked at the main page of your site.

See if this inspires you at all (I'm adding more to the article today. stay tuned.):

http://yinrunning.com/proposal.php#databases

To start learning, go here:

http://www.freewebmasterhelp.com/tutorials/phpmysql/1

Start there. That should give you most of what you need to get started. I haven't read the whole thing, but the person seemed to know what they were talking about based on the first couple of pages. Go download mySQL stable from SourceFourge, argue with it till it's installed and playing well with PHP, and then start playing with it. You'll never look back.

Seriously, with the kinds of things you're going to want to do with umdb... you just can't do it with flat files. You'll kill yourself trying. Learning SQL (Which is actually a REALLY simple language) and using a database server will allow you to do every single thing that's percolating through your head right now about this site 20-bazillion times easier. Anyone wanna back me up on this one?

pablopicasso

sorry i diddnt reply been busy with php, lol.

so the main reason for the list being php is just for ease purposes for me. you know update the text file at any time and the page updates and reorders so you dont have to worry about which order to put the band names in....apart from that its only so much dynamic as i can update it without every opening dreamweaver type of thing.....

while im on though what could you do with it i mean is there much you can let users do with a list?

Ill give SQL a go and have a muck around but i cannot find that mysql stable any chance of a link?

yinrunning

http://www.mysql.com/

latest is 4.1 stable. I'm sure there's tons of stuff in the Install forum threads to help you if you get stuck with that.

What can't users do with lists? I mean, are you really just going to have them go through ginormous lists of albums by band name? Think of any dynamic table you're every seen, down to viewing filenames in Windows Explorer. Databases provide the functionality to do all of that. Order by name, by rating, order by first name And age... find all bands who played in Paris in '62... whatever you want, really.

And that's the whole point of using PHP or ColdFusion. Otherwise, you might as well just do everything in HTML and JavaScript. Formatting basic text, JavaScript can actually do things that PHP can't, in my experience anyway. It handles things within the browser window, which PHP can't do. PHP is strictly limited to occuring before the page loads. As far as "Make this <td></td> pink, next one purple", you can do that with just about any language.

The reason for using server-side scripting is to make things dynamically adjust to the user and to the data.

Not to toot my own horn, but you should read the whole article:

http://yinrunning.com/proposal.php

It'll give you a good overview of what things relate to each other and how.

Anyway, hope I could be of help. Sorry for rambling!

pablopicasso

Oh thanks, No no ramble ahead im learning new things by the minute....yeah i new about some of the things that php can do along with SQL but i didnt think about the by age and all that sorta stuff. i was just thinking though at the min i have loads of pages. i have one page for each letter of the alphabet. Now correct me if im wrong but by what your saying you mean i could have one page and get it to pull all of the right stuff from the data base when a user presses B on the same php file?

Also you said about Coldfusion What is it? i have the program itself that i can install i got it with dreamweaver...

thanks alot for all the help.

EDIT: sorry for being daft before i thought you meant the program was called mySQL Stable lol. ive only just relised you meant mySQL the recent stable download. hehe

yinrunning

Read the article. Then ask some questions about ColdFusion. It's long, but I think you'd get some stuff out of it.

And Yes, databases are EXACTLY what you would use to have an option to "Search for Artists Alphabetically by first letter B" or whatever. All that stuff is built into the SQL language. PHP and ColdFusion (and lots of other things) just "interface" with it. i.e.- tells the database what to do and deals with whatever info it returns. The database does the work for you so that you can avoid writing billions of lines of code to do what it can do already. Don't reinvent the wheel and all that type of stuff.

pablopicasso

After looking at the SQL thing i always thought that you used the SQL on your servers computer???

ive installed it anyway to give it ago...

yinrunning

But it's good to have a development server on your own machine so you can play and learn without wrecking anything important on your public site.

pablopicasso

ah ok, sorry if im a bit thick just i diddnt know you could run a server on a normal computer safely with out it being extra powerful....ive got a bit of spare time today(you know with it being sunday and all) so im gonna muk around with php and sql for a bit...

could i pm you if i desperatly need help?

thanks for all the help, youve been brill.

Pablo 😃

yinrunning

sure. yinrunning. hotmail.

And you can run a server on a toothbrush if it's got an OS. It just won't be able to run alot of stuff.

pablopicasso

hehehe that had me in stitched run it on a toothbrush......sorry im easily amused.....thanks for all the help anyway ill keep in touch. 😉