[RESOLVED] help me to learn how to use date func...

ATS16805

i'm trying to learn a better way to enter date information along w/ other $_POST data in an HTML form. i decided to rebuild this big (well, big to me) project from scratch because my old scripts were littered with a lot of fixes and comments from "learning material" so to speak.

I found this tutorial at Zend , but it's not quite what i need, but it's close. for some reason, i didn't get what i wanted from it-- the script didn't work for me, and rather than fumble w/ it, i just moved on.

i have been using DATE data type in my db to accept form <input> w/ a pre-loaded value=\"yyyy-mm-dd\" to encourage the user to input the correct numbers-- because i never learned any proper way to pass date info like this, and i'm only just beginning to realize that this is NOT the way to do it-- at least not if i don't want a lot of headaches. i'm thinking i should do better to populate a dropdown list, w/ the options provided. yes?
i also realize that I should use PHP to parse the entry with time() on my $_POST data, instead of converting it to DATE at MySQL (at least, i think that's what i should do). it's additionally confusing to decide whether to use MySQL or PHP to format the date info. ugh!

all of this is to be used in a form for an even scheduler i've been working on. it's here if you want to take a look at that (center column)-- it doesn't really do anything yet, but maybe you'll see something in there that i should be advised to modify, or whatever.

i appreciate any help you can lend. thanks!

Azala

The best way in my opinion is to implement a Javascript or Flash calendar. That will make sure all your users pick a date in the format you want. You can set this format to be exactly like the data that is put into mySQL using the NOW() function with your custom PHP code.

HTH
Azala

ATS16805

hmm... well, that sounds like a great idea-- except that i don't really know any Javascript (yet) and i'd rather stay away from Flash-- i mean... part of the whole reason i'm working on this is to learn PHP and MySQL. the app isn't going anywhere and it will never be used. this is just for me to learn.

if i were to use jscript, which i'm not totally opposed to doing, where do you suggest i might look to learn what i need to know? it sounds like a good idea to me actually, but i'd still like to learn a way to get some dynamic data into a <select><option> dropdown. i dunno... i'm obviously not speaking from wisdom here. 😉

so many choices!

Azala

Don't limit yourself to PHP/mySQL during your learning process.

To me it seems like you have a project in mind. Try to think of the best possible user interface for the project you are making, then decide what languages to use for what feature.

You can of course make a calendar with javascript, but Flash has a mighty fine one shipped with it, easy to use too, so don't throw it away before you've evaluated each solution.

Use google to search for Javascript Calendars, you should get enough results, browse around and find one that you like, download and start messing around with it.

Javascript is very easy to work with so if you know some PHP you should get into Javascript quick.

If you want to learn how to populate a select box then test it in a separate file.

Lets say you want a select box with months...

$myArray = array('January', 'February', 'March', 'April', 'May', 'June', 'July', 'August', 'September', 'October', 'November', 'December');
echo '<select name="months">';
for ($i = 1; $i < count($myArray)+1; $i++){
echo '<option value="'.$i.'">'.$myArray[$i].'</option>';
}
echo '<select />';

There are many ways of doing this, all depending on how you want the date formatted and what you want the user interface to look like.

Once the above code is submitted through a form, you can grab the month number using $_POST['months'] which will tell you the number of the month the user selected.

HTH
Azala

ATS16805

Azala wrote:
Once the above code is submitted through a form, you can grab the month number using $_POST['months'] which will tell you the number of the month the user selected.

Azala, this is EXACTLY what i'm looking for-- this is going to help me to work on my own, and carve this log into a piece of better sculpted wood. what else might you be able to give me, similar to this, which might help me to sharpen my tools? 😉

Azala wrote:
Don't limit yourself to PHP/mySQL during your learning process.
To me it seems like you have a project in mind. Try to think of the best possible user interface for the project you are making, then decide what languages to use for what feature.

i understand what you're saying. and you raise a very good, viable point. there will be a time for me to adopt that way of thought, i believe, once i have fortified my mind w/ enough broad knowledge of different languages to do the things i want. for example, i'll bet ASP.NET, when used w/ something like Visual Web Developer (a free beta last i looked) has precisely this component built in as a drag and drop-- and would be just as user friendly as anything i could make as much as i struggle to learn PHP / MySQL. but, i've set out to learn to program (as high an aspiration that may be), and i'm doing "okay" w/ PHP, and a lot of other things are making sense to me from this perspective, so i feel like i want to take PHP a bit further, because i'm comfortable here, and continue down this path, taking on more diverse challenges, and soon I'd like to branch off into another language. i've toyed w/ coldfusion and asp.net just a very little bit, and flash too. my problem w/ flash is that i don't want to be forced to use that IDE environment if i don't have to. i'm no expert on the matter, so maybe i'm speaking from blind ignorance, but as far as i'm aware, one can't do much w/ flash unless one has the MM Flash software. i don't want that-- for one reason, because i can't afford it. 😉
but, maybe i'm wrong about that? i understand that Action Script is quite the worthy language, and i am interested in it-- for the future for me perhaps.

ATS16805

oh, and by the way-- w/ all due respect, what i mean by "what else can you give me", i don't mean you have to write code for me, but what you have submitted here, i most certainly appreciate. i guess what i'm sayin' is, even just the part about telling me how to use the dropdown to grab the user input-- all that stuff. remember, i'm really a novice here-- at least when it comes to practical application of the functions, and how to manipulate the data most efficiently, etc. i'm trying to learn from the wise, so i don't need to stick my fingers in the fan-- cause someone can tell me that it hurts!

edit: if you look at my link above, you'll see (at this moment) select boxes w/ nothing in them-- it's cause the db is empty. my local db has stuff in it, and they are populated here on my testing server. for the record. 🙂

ATS16805

okay... cool! i've worked w/ this Month array a bit-- now i've figured out what i need to do... here's what i have so far, based off of Azala's code. i'm thinking i'll pass this to a second form w/ a similar dropdown for the year, then i'll have month and year to pass to a third form to get the days for that specifc year (to account for leap years). it's the rendering of the data where i'm realy having to concentrate (shh... don't laugh!)

$htmlblock = "
	<form method=\"post\" action=\"date_drop-downs2.php\" >";

 $myArray = array('January', 'February', 'March', 'April', 'May', 'June', 'July', 'August', 
 'September', 'October', 'November', 'December');
$htmlblock .= "<select name=\"months\">";
for ($i = 0; $i < count($myArray)+1; $i++){
$htmlblock .= "<option value=\"'.$i.'\">".$myArray[$i]."</option>";
if ($i == 11) {
	break;
} else {

}
}
	$htmlblock .= "</select>

<input type=\"submit\" name=\"submit\" value=\"getyear\" />
</form>"; 

?>

i had to tweak just a few things to get it to work how i needed. (does that if / else/ break look okay to you?)

how can i build an array, based off of this same script framework-- w/ the for loop in there, w/ the count thing making the select options-- but, what i need to do is select a month, and then have the next array, for the days-of-the-month be based on that month selection-- so i can determine from there how many days the array needs to count... know what i mean? then i can probably do something similar for the year-- based on now() plus 5 years would be plenty, and then i think my date-dropdown will be finished! woohoo!

😃

(uh... but i still need a little help w/ how i'm going to use this month and year data to make the array for the days if anyone is listening. thanks!)

ATS16805

sorry for the bump, but i'm almost there-- i wanted to make sure that you saw what i edited since i made this bit of progress. thanks!

ATS16805

here's where i'm stuck. i have this, and all of my values are correct for month and year, but i can't figure out how to take that data-- and use it to figure out how many days are in that month, depending on the year, so that i can make my "days of month" dropdown list

$month = $_POST['month'];
	$month = 1 + "$month";
	$year = $_POST['year'];
	$year = $year + 2005;
	$testblock = $year." ".$month;
	$time = time($testblock);
	$date = date("F Y", $time);

my $date variable keeps showing me November 2005, when i'm expecting it to give me, if $month is 3, and $year is 2006, i'd like to see the output as March 2006 (not sure why i'm expecting this but...). as you can see, i'm trying to turn the strings from the post data into a timestamp.

it's okay to tell me i'm going about this all wrong... if that's what's going on here. 😉
but, i'm collecting the data just fine up to this point. what should i do instead to get those days of month input?

thanks!

Azala

First your for loop.

You should start your loop at 1, so that the first month won't be 0 when selected.

Remove
if ($i == 11) {
break;
This serves no purpose at all, the for loop will break automatically when it reaches 12, since the count($myArray)+1 is 13.

You can of course use 0 as the first month is you like, but then you have to remove the +1 after count($myArray).

I've never had to programatically find out how many days there are in a specific month as i've never made a calendar before. But if you download a javascript calendar for example i'm sure the internals would give you some pointers how to go about it.

To find out which month the returned number you got is, then use the for loop as 0 and not 1, remove the +1 and do this:

$myMonth = $myArray[$_POST['month']];

$myDateString = $myMonth.' '.$myYear; //myYear is the returned year from the POST array.

ATS16805

going w/ the code, unmodified, as originally offered in post#4 of this thread, the dropdown was starting on February instead of January, and there was an empty slot-- that's why i shifted from the array key starting at 1, to 0-- so the first month would be January-- and my conditional if $i == 11 { break; } was to eliminate the blank dropdown selection. it was just me adapting to what i had at the time (not really knowing the inner workings of the script provided in post#4... at that moment that i created that workaround).

but-- what about getting this TIMESTAMP ? in the proposed $myDateString (or my own $testblock shown in post#8 here). can i somehow turn that data into a time stamp? i guess it doesn't really matter about a time stamp necessarily-- my goal is simply to enable the option to select the days-of-the-month based on the existing $testblock value-- so the date value (whether stored as Date type or TIME type) which ultimately resides in my MySQL db will be accurate and versatile-- that's what i'm going for. i understand that a timestamp is most versatile, hence my desire to turn my data into a timestamp-- but maybe i'm just making extra work for myself. this is inexperience talking.