recent posts script

Dada78

Hello again. I am trying to write a script that will show the last 5 post from my phpbb forum on my home page. Now I know I will need to create a file that will call the DB and the certain feilds I want. Then include that file into the table. I have done that, but I am having problems showing the information.

I get this error when trying to call the page.

Parse error: parse error, unexpected T_STRING in /home/texascam/public_html/2006/recent.php on line 16

Here is my php script

<?
include("dbinfo.inc.php");

mysql_connect(localhost,$username,$password);
@mysql_select_db($database) or die( "Unable to select database");
$query="SELECT * FROM `phpbb_topics`
$result=mysql_query($query);

$num=mysql_numrows($result);

mysql_close();

$i=0;
while ($i < $num) {

$topic_title=mysql_result($result,$i,"topic_title");

echo "<b>$topic_title</b>";

$i++;
}

?>

Thanks in advance for the help.

jc94062

If the error is on line 16 look up, its very often on a line before that...

As for the error, well I noticed this line...

$query="SELECT * FROM phpbb_topics

Wheres the ending " ? 🙂

[Edit] Probably because your next " is on line 16 that that is where the error is.

Dada78

Ok thanks, I don't know what I did but it's working now. One thing about it though is it displays all the topics. How could I go about it only showing that recent last 5 topics?

Here is the current script that is working.

<?
include("dbinfo.inc.php");

mysql_connect(localhost,$username,$password);
@mysql_select_db($database) or die( "Unable to select database");
$query="SELECT * FROM phpbb_topics";
$result=mysql_query($query);

$num=mysql_numrows($result);

mysql_close();

echo "<b><center>Recent Posts</center></b><br><br>";

$i=0;
while ($i < $num) {

$topic_title=mysql_result($result,$i,"topic_title");

echo "<b>$topic_title $last</b>";

$i++;
}

?>

Thanks in advance.

TheRealPenguin

not completely sure but might wanna try
you have

while ($i < $num)

you might wanna put

while ($i < 4)

so it only runs 5 times if you know what i mean right now you have it running for every row

Dada78

Thank you that works, sorta. While it shows only 5 topics like I want, it's not showing the last five recent posts. Also I would like to make the tile of each clickable so that you can click it and it will take you to the thread. as that are all running together instead of being on their own row. You can see the output and what I am talking about here:

http://www.texascampingforum.com/2006/recent.php

Thanks for the help

TheRealPenguin

im not sure on the newest but to get them to show up on different lines just change

echo "<b>$topic_title $last</b>";

echo "<b>$topic_title $last</b><br>";

sorry cant help with the newest post part

Dada78

Hey thank you that works on placing them on different lines. You've been a great help. If anyone else help me with making the links clickable and with showing the last 5 in the table that would be great.

-Thanks again.

PS I orginally had the <br> in the code and took them out, don't ask me why...LoL

Kester_

To link your posts to the forums you need to do this

Add this after you wile statement

$row = mysql_fetch_array($result);
$topic_id = $row["topic_id"];
$topic_title = $row["topic_title"];

replacing your

$topic_title=mysql_result($result,$i,"topic_title");

Then add

echo "<b><a href='".$forumroot."viewtopic.php?t=".$topic_id."'>$topic_title</a></b><br>";

replacing your

echo "<b>$topic_title $last</b>";

And to order them correctly add this into your $query

ORDER BY topic_last_post_id DESC

thorpe

you'll want a query more like.

"SELECT * FROM phpbb_topics ORDER BY topic_last_post_id DESC LIMIT 5";

this would only grab the latest 5 entries.

Dada78

Thanks guys that works great now. I knew it had to have somthing to do with adding the topic_id as that's how it knows what post are recent. I just didn't know how to insert it. Now I do and that will help me in the future. Since that was working I modified it a little bit to add the date. Only problem is the date is labeled as topic_time which I assume is the date. Anyways I got it to output it into the table. The problem is it's in the DB like this 1109305794 not in any actually date format which is how it outputs it on the able has well. Is their a trick to convert this or is something that is not possible?

-Thanks Again

Dada78

Just one more small issue I have run into. Since the forum is in it's own folder when you click on the link it states.

The requested URL /viewtopic.php?t=154 does not exist.

I know why since the forum has it's own dir under public_html where the index home page that this is displaying the info on is just under public_html. So how can I go about fixxing this. I tried to put the URL instead of the $forumroot but that didnt work ether. I don't think I entered it correctly or their must be a certain way to entered it. I have also been trying to read on how to convert the date so it shows but having now luck with that etheir.

<font face="Arial Narrow" size="2"><?echo "<a href='".$forumroot."viewtopic.php?t=".$topic_id."'>$topic_title</a><br>";?></font>
<?

-Thanks in advance

TheRealPenguin

try putting

<font face="Arial Narrow" size="2"><?echo "<a href='forumurl/viewtopic.php?t=".$topic_id."'>$topic_title</a><br>";?></font>
<?

that should work

Dada78

Thank you, that works great now. I think I had something extra added or probably left something out when I tried to use the forumURL.

Now if I could just figure out how to decode the date in the DB from 1109305794 to DD/MM/YYY format.

-Thanks Again.

thorpe

why dont you have a look at the date/time functions in the manual? that should sort you out.

Dada78

Thank you but those functions are dependent on the locale settings of my server. Therefore it won't work when trying to parse data that is encoded in the DB that was sent from another script. So I need to figure out how to decode the data so I can output it in DD/MM/YYYY/. What this means is that when a forum post is made the funcations you have stated will time and date stamp onto the post from the server. What I need to do is output the date that the server stamped when the post was made. I am not sure how to decode that data in the DB they have set for the date as it is stmaped in the DB as 1109305794.

Thank you for the suggestion. I do apperciate it, if you have any more suggestions I do welcome them.

thorpe

they are all the date/time functions php has to offer. i understand what you are trying to do, and beleive me, the solution is amongst the functions i showed you. you just need to understand how they work.

Dada78

The date/time has already been stamped by the server with these same functions and stored in the DB. I don't need to date or time stamp anything, just need to decode how the stamp was stored in the DB so I can output it in a table.

That page doesn't show me anything I can use or know how to. If you could give me an example to go by then please post it. Because I didn't see anything about decoding date stamps stored in a DB in the manner it is stored on mine.

-Thanks

thorpe

you must haver missed the [man]date/man function then?

<?php

  $today = "1109305794";
  echo date("d/m/Y",$today);	

?>

Dada78

Thank you, I really appreciate your help, but you could be a little more nicer and forgiving to those trying to learn this. I saw that page already, It doesn't tell me how to get 1109305794 from the DB though. That's great if I wanted to manually enter 1109305794 and show the coverted time. What I need to find is how to incorporate the date function with what is stored in the DB. I know how to output the 1109305794 in a results query. Just don't know how to incorporate the php function above in the query. I have played around with it, just not sure what I am doing and I have search MySQL references for something but with no luck. Maybe I am just overlooking it or something or don't know what to actually look for.

The one problem I am having when inserting the topic_time is it then seems to not show the correct posts. for example this is the correct output

http://www.texascampingforum.com/2006/recent.php

But when I add the topic_time to the query as shown in the code below.

<?
include("dbinfo.inc.php");

mysql_connect(localhost,$username,$password);
@mysql_select_db($database) or die( "Unable to select database");
$query="SELECT * FROM phpbb_topics ORDER BY topic_last_post_id, topic_time DESC LIMIT 5";
$result=mysql_query($query);

$num=mysql_numrows($result);

mysql_close();

$i=0;
while ($i < 5) {

$row = mysql_fetch_array($result);
$topic_id = $row["topic_id"];
$topic_title = $row["topic_title"];
$topic_time = $row["topic_time"];
?>

<font face="Arial Narrow" size="2"><?echo "<a href='http://www.texascampingforum.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=".$topic_id."'>$topic_title</a>$topic_time<br>";?></font>
<? 
$i++;
}

?>

It comes out like this:

http://www.texascampingforum.com/2006/date.php

I remove topic_time from the script and it outputs the recent topics. Another weird thing is that the feild for the table is actually called post_time and not topic_time. But it returns errors and won't work when I use post_time instead of topic_time. If anyone could offer some insite or suggestions on this that would be great cause it has me scratching my head.

-Thanks.

bpat1434

Use mySQL to format the date....

<?
include("dbinfo.inc.php");

mysql_connect(localhost,$username,$password);
@mysql_select_db($database) or die( "Unable to select database");
$query="SELECT *, FROM_UNIXTIME(`topic_time`, '%d/%M/%Y') AS itemDate FROM phpbb_topics ORDER BY topic_last_post_id, topic_time DESC LIMIT 5";
$result=mysql_query($query);

$num=mysql_numrows($result);

mysql_close();

$i=0;
while ($i < 5) {

$row = mysql_fetch_array($result);
$topic_id = $row["topic_id"];
$topic_title = $row["topic_title"];
$topic_time = $row["itemDate"];
?>

<font face="Arial Narrow" size="2"><?echo "<a href='http://www.texascampingforum.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=".$topic_id."'>$topic_title</a>$topic_time<br>";?></font>
<?
$i++;
}

?>

Read up on the mySQL date and time functions if you're looking for how to modify it:
MySQL Date and Time Functions

~Brett