Using and "id" to manage content?

kckflpsk8r91

Hi Everyone,

I have been a webmaster for a few years now and I'm pretty new to PHP, but I was wondering how some websites have a main sort of "content" page that can dynamicly display different media (games, video clips, pictures). I have noticed that the url usually looks something like this:

http://www.somewebsite.com/games.php?id=42065

The red text is just an example and is always different but I think thats how the PHP code is able to tell the browser what to display (what game or video clip).

Here is an example of what I am talking about:

http://allfunnystuff.com/content.php?iid=1367

Notice that the URL has an ID followed by a number system, that is what I think tells the browser what to display as I said above.

My question is how can I do this? If there is an article or another source that can help me answer this question I would appreciate it.

Cheers,

Chase

bpat1434

It's a type of a form submit. Anything contained in the URL is available in the $_GET array in PHP.

The ID that's passed is usually the ID to the item in the database. The ID is usually autocreated by mySQL or whatever database you're using. You can see this by just changing the number from between 1 and whatever you linked above...

I don't know of any tutorials, but if you just look around forms, you'll learn a lot. Also, plenty of mySQL tutorials out there.

kckflpsk8r91

Do you know of any articles or scripts I could look over to try to learn. A link would be great if possible.

bpat1434

Scripts? Pic one.... most operate this fashion. Most BB systems operate in this fashion. Look at phpBB or SMF.

You might also look at my articles for the image gallery, I use a similar type of system, but not exact.

kckflpsk8r91

I'll check them out, thanks. Any other info would be helpful too.

steviedifranco

Dude, just read the tutorial at php.net. Its got everything on there.