Php menu to call new pages into table, Help?

sclady

Hi, Newbie here, I am using an index page with includes on the top, bottom, and side of the page for a nav bar. I used to know a way to use php to link the navbar buttons to call the page into the middle section , but cant find a way to do this now. Can anyone help? I would really appreciate it.

msound

At the top of your page, let's say this page is named index.php:

<?php
$incMiddle = "$_GET[midPage]" . ".php";
?>

Down where you'd like to include the file:

<?php
include ("/absolute/link/to/page/$incMiddle");
?>

Now your nav buttons

<a href="index.php?midPage=nameofpage"><img src=navButton1.jpg border=0></a>

Here's what that all means. The nav bar links link back to the same page, in this case its index.php. It uses a ? in the <a> tag to pass a variable called midPage back to the index page.

The index page looks for the midPage variable, and adds a ".php" extension to the end of the variable. In the exampe above it would be nameofpage.php.

It then uses that nameofpage.php when including the file.

Make sure you use an absolute page to the filename. Otherwise people could try and compromise your server by manually typing midPage=/etc/passwd into the URL.

SV1

Hi Guys & Girls,

I finally bit the bullet and joined PHPBuilder... This is my first post!

I am pretty new to writing php but I am picking it up faster than I thought I could. Since finding this post I have been able to do alot more very fast. I've been able to do a quick and simple include template which is what I wanted and having a visual site to look at while working on the code is very helpful, to me anyway.

But besides all of the positives, I'm running into some trouble with linking and mysql. I hope that this method of linking isn't limited and that I can still pull info from mysql.

The variables are all getting the proper info from the DB and this is an example of how I'm trying to make a link but it doesn't work. So my biggest question is will this method of linking allow for mysql querys or should I use another method.

<a href=\"main.php?Forums=viewform?Forum=$forum_id\">$forum_name</a>

Keep in mind that I want a half and half system that works with mysql and that will pull a flat file for content pages (for now) and also for the simplicity of the include templates. I have tried everything I can think of, and have searched about but still don't have a clue on this one. If you can help me out or point me to something that is written for beginners that makes sense I would appreciate it alot.

thorpe

its not your links that are the problem. post the code your using to query the database from this link.

SV1

Maybe this is where I'm confused...

From what I've read you need to query the db to get the values to create the link url in (e.g. main.php) and then you need to query the db again in the next page (e.g. results.php) to get the results from the link. Is that correct or am I way off.

Here is the code I am using to create the link from:

$sql2 = "SELECT f.*, p.post_time, p.post_username, u.username, u.user_id
				FROM (( " . FORUMS_TABLE . " f
				LEFT JOIN " . POSTS_TABLE . " p ON p.post_id = f.forum_last_post_id )
				LEFT JOIN " . USERS_TABLE . " u ON u.user_id = p.poster_id )
				ORDER BY f.cat_id, f.forum_order";

$result2 = mysql_query($sql2, $connection) or die(mysql_error());

while ($forums_rows = mysql_fetch_array($result2)) {

$forum_id = $forums_rows['forum_id'];
$forum_name = $forums_rows['forum_name'];
$forum_desc = $forums_rows['forum_desc'];
$forum_posts = $forums_rows['forum_posts'];
$forum_topics = $forums_rows['forum_topics'];
$forum_last_post_id = $forums_rows['forum_last_post_id'];

$count = 1;

$content .= "<a href=\"main.php?Forums=viewform?Forum=$forum_id\">$forum_name</a>";

$count = $count + 1;

}

I should have a query on the page that returns the link right?
I have tried but I probably have it totally wrong. This is what I have for that...

$Fourm = $_GET['forum_id'];

db_connect();

$sql2 = "SELECT t.*, u.username, u.user_id, u2.username as user2, u2.user_id as id2, p.post_username, p2.post_username AS post_username2, p2.post_time 
	FROM " . TOPICS_TABLE . " t, " . USERS_TABLE . " u, " . POSTS_TABLE . " p, " . POSTS_TABLE . " p2, " . USERS_TABLE . " u2
	WHERE t.forum_id = $forum_id
		AND t.topic_poster = u.user_id
		AND p.post_id = t.topic_first_post_id
		AND p2.post_id = t.topic_last_post_id
		AND u2.user_id = p2.poster_id 
		ORDER BY t.topic_last_post_id DESC 
	LIMIT $forums_topics_per_page";


$result2 = mysql_query($sql2, $connection) or die(mysql_error());

while ($topic_rows = mysql_fetch_array($result2)) {

$topic_id = $topic_rows['topic_id'];
$topic_title = $topic_rows['topic_title'];
$topic_poster = $topic_rows['topic_poster'];
$topic_views = $topic_rows['topic_views'];
$topic_last_post_id = $topic_rows['topic_last_post_id'];
$topic_replies = $topic_rows['topic_replies'];

// echo "Output html";

Like I said, it's probably wrong but when I call the link with the variable in it I get my template returned with a blank content area. If I just go directly to the results page there are no results of course but the page does display. So anyways, it may take me a while to get my head wrapped around this stuff for the first time but I'm trying.

SV1

Well for one I was missing the letter u in forum in my url - DOH!

For two I seriously simplified my sql query and after that it started to cough up the info 😃

I took the files out of my system and made the standalone for trouble shooting. Now I'll put them back in and see if it still works. It turns out I wasn't that far off after all.

Thanks for the URL tip