using a form to update a webpage

holly

I really don't know PHP, but I am currently building a band website. I would like to create a form that, when submitted would update the shows page to make it as easy as possible for them to update. For instance, the form would include fields for the date, venue, time, etc and each field would be placed in a table. If someone could please point me in the direction of a tutorial or some code, i'd appreciate it.

thanks.
Holly

Houdini

Well of course you can do what you are wanting to do you will find a well written online book right HERE. If this resource does not cover some of the questions that you might have then come back with a script that you are having troubles with and you will get some assistence, sometimes almost immediately.

This is such a great resource that I have it as a bookmark on Netscape firefox and as a favorite in Internet Explorer. I would look at the table of contents and possibly at least read the first as the whole book is presented and you will learn by doing.

I would also suggest that you put a webserver (Apache) on your machine at home and also PHP as well as MySQL. You can get all that with a simple download and install of XAMPP available HERE for FREE. Just download, install and start your experience with PHP and MySQL and an Apache webserver, as well as Perl and a mailserver (Mercury mail) and an FTP server (FileZilla). it is well worth the download and install and will keep you from the headache of trying to install all the above on your on.

holly

thanks for the info.
i actually figured out how to build a form and make it dynamically change a webpage, however when i go to this webpage on it's own, it is blank.

for example, i have created an html document form.html that includes all the fields i want. this points to "shows.php" when i click "submit" it looks fine (and goes to shows.php) however, if i go to this link via my webpage it is blank. notice if you go to http://www.golocalrock/holly/t361/shows.php it is blank.

what do i have to do so that the form updates the page?

here is my code:

form.html:

<HTML><HEAD><TITLE>HTML Form </TITLE></HEAD><BODY>

<FORM  ACTION="shows.php" METHOD=POST> 
date <INPUT TYPE=TEXT NAME= "date" SIZE=20><br>
venue <INPUT TYPE=TEXT NAME= "venue" SIZE=40><BR>
address <INPUT TYPE=TEXT NAME= "address" SIZE=40><BR>
city, state <INPUT TYPE=TEXT NAME= "city" SIZE=40><BR>
time / amount<INPUT TYPE= TEXT NAME="time_amount" SIZE=60><br>
guests<INPUT TYPE= TEXT NAME="guests" SIZE=60><br>

<br><br><br><br><br>
date <INPUT TYPE=TEXT NAME= "date_2" SIZE=20><br>
venue <INPUT TYPE=TEXT NAME= "venue_2" SIZE=40><BR>
address <INPUT TYPE=TEXT NAME= "address_2" SIZE=40><BR>
city, state <INPUT TYPE=TEXT NAME= "city_2" SIZE=40><BR>
time / amount<INPUT TYPE= TEXT NAME="time_amount_2" SIZE=60><br>
guests<INPUT TYPE= TEXT NAME="guests_2" SIZE=60><br>

<br><br><br><br><br>

date <INPUT TYPE=TEXT NAME= "date_3" SIZE=20><br>
venue <INPUT TYPE=TEXT NAME= "venue_3" SIZE=40><BR>
address <INPUT TYPE=TEXT NAME= "address_3" SIZE=40><BR>
city, state <INPUT TYPE=TEXT NAME= "city_3" SIZE=40><BR>
time / amount<INPUT TYPE= TEXT NAME="time_amount_3" SIZE=60><br>
guests<INPUT TYPE= TEXT NAME="guests_3" SIZE=60><br>

<br><br><br><br><br>

date <INPUT TYPE=TEXT NAME= "date_4" SIZE=20><br>
venue <INPUT TYPE=TEXT NAME= "venue_4" SIZE=40><BR>
address <INPUT TYPE=TEXT NAME= "address_4" SIZE=40><BR>
city, state <INPUT TYPE=TEXT NAME= "city_4" SIZE=40><BR>
time / amount<INPUT TYPE= TEXT NAME="time_amount_4" SIZE=60><br>
guests<INPUT TYPE= TEXT NAME="guests_4" SIZE=60><br>

<br><br><br><br><br>


date <INPUT TYPE=TEXT NAME= "date_5" SIZE=20><br>
venue <INPUT TYPE=TEXT NAME= "venue_5" SIZE=40><BR>
address <INPUT TYPE=TEXT NAME= "address_5" SIZE=40><BR>
city, state <INPUT TYPE=TEXT NAME= "city_5" SIZE=40><BR>
time / amount<INPUT TYPE= TEXT NAME="time_amount_5" SIZE=60><br>
guests<INPUT TYPE= TEXT NAME="guests_5" SIZE=60><br>


<br><br><br><br><br>


date <INPUT TYPE=TEXT NAME= "date_6" SIZE=20><br>
venue <INPUT TYPE=TEXT NAME= "venue_6" SIZE=40><BR>
address <INPUT TYPE=TEXT NAME= "address_6" SIZE=40><BR>
city, state <INPUT TYPE=TEXT NAME= "city_6" SIZE=40><BR>
time / amount<INPUT TYPE= TEXT NAME="time_amount_6" SIZE=60><br>
guests<INPUT TYPE= TEXT NAME="guests_6" SIZE=60><br>


<br><br><br><br><br>


date <INPUT TYPE=TEXT NAME= "date_7" SIZE=20><br>
venue <INPUT TYPE=TEXT NAME= "venue_7" SIZE=40><BR>
address <INPUT TYPE=TEXT NAME= "address_7" SIZE=40><BR>
city, state <INPUT TYPE=TEXT NAME= "city_7" SIZE=40><BR>
time / amount<INPUT TYPE= TEXT NAME="time_amount_7" SIZE=60><br>
guests<INPUT TYPE= TEXT NAME="guests_7" SIZE=60><br>


<br><br><br><br><br>


date <INPUT TYPE=TEXT NAME= "date_8" SIZE=20><br>
venue <INPUT TYPE=TEXT NAME= "venue_8" SIZE=40><BR>
address <INPUT TYPE=TEXT NAME= "address_8" SIZE=40><BR>
city, state <INPUT TYPE=TEXT NAME= "city_8" SIZE=40><BR>
time / amount<INPUT TYPE= TEXT NAME="time_amount_8" SIZE=60><br>
guests<INPUT TYPE= TEXT NAME="guests_8" SIZE=60><br>

<INPUT TYPE=SUBMIT NAME="SUBMIT" VALUE="let's go!">
<INPUT TYPE=RESET NAME=RESET VALUE="clear all">

</FORM>


</BODY>  </HTML>

shows.php:

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
<head><script>
self.resizeTo(500,700);
</script>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1" />
<title>Untitled Document</title>
</head>
<style type="text/css">
<!--
.style1 {color: #000000}
body,td,th {
	font-size: 10px;
	color: #FFFFFF;
	font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;
}
body {
	background-color: #000000;
}
.style7 {color: #DA1E40; font-size: 12px; }
-->
</style>
</head>

<body>
<table width="400" border="0" align="center" cellpadding="5" cellspacing="0" bordercolor="#DA1E40" bgcolor="#000000">
  <tr>
    <th scope="col"><span class="style7">date</span></th>
    <th scope="col"><span class="style7">venue</span></th>
    <th scope="col"><span class="style7">time/price/guests</span></th>
  </tr>
  <tr valign="middle">
    <td><?php print "$date<BR>\n";?></td>
    <td> <?php print "$venue<BR>\n";?>
   <?php print "$address<BR>\n";?><?php print "$city<BR>\n";?> </td>
    <td align="center"><p><?php print "$time_amount<BR>\n";?><?php print "$guests<BR>\n";?></p>      </td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
    <td colspan="3" align="center"><img src="file:///the_hols/t361/eero_ecard/shows_line.png" width="418" height="12" /></td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
   <td><?php print "$date_2<BR>\n";?></td>
    <td> <?php print "$venue_2<BR>\n";?>
   <?php print "$address_2<BR>\n";?><?php print "$city_2<BR>\n";?> </td>
    <td align="center"><p><?php print "$time_amount_2<BR>\n";?><?php print "$guests_2<BR>\n";?></p>      </td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
    <td colspan="3" align="center"><img src="file:///the_hols/t361/eero_ecard/shows_line.png" width="418" height="12" /></td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
    <td><?php print "$date_3<BR>\n";?></td>
    <td> <?php print "$venue_3<BR>\n";?>
   <?php print "$address_3<BR>\n";?><?php print "$city_3<BR>\n";?> </td>
    <td align="center"><p><?php print "$time_amount_3<BR>\n";?><?php print "$guests_3<BR>\n";?></p>      </td>
  </tr>

   <tr>
    <td colspan="3" align="center"><img src="file:///the_hols/t361/eero_ecard/shows_line.png" width="418" height="12" /></td>
  </tr>

  <td><?php print "$date_4<BR>\n";?></td>
<td> <?php print "$venue_4<BR>\n";?>
   <?php print "$address_4<BR>\n";?><?php print "$city_4<BR>\n";?> </td>
    <td align="center"><p><?php print "$time_amount_4<BR>\n";?><?php print "$guests_4<BR>\n";?></p>      </td>
  </tr>
 <tr>
    <td colspan="3" align="center"><img src="file:///the_hols/t361/eero_ecard/shows_line.png" width="418" height="12" /></td>
  </tr>

<td><?php print "$date_5<BR>\n";?></td>
<td> <?php print "$venue_5<BR>\n";?>
   <?php print "$address_5<BR>\n";?><?php print "$city_5<BR>\n";?> </td>
    <td align="center"><p><?php print "$time_amount_5<BR>\n";?><?php print "$guests_5<BR>\n";?></p>      </td>
  </tr>

 <tr>
    <td colspan="3" align="center"><img src="file:///the_hols/t361/eero_ecard/shows_line.png" width="418" height="12" /></td>
  </tr>
    <td><?php print "$date_6<BR>\n";?></td>
    <td> <?php print "$venue_6<BR>\n";?>
   <?php print "$address_6<BR>\n";?><?php print "$city_6<BR>\n";?> </td>
    <td align="center"><p><?php print "$time_amount_6<BR>\n";?><?php print "$guests_6<BR>\n";?></p>      </td>
  </tr>
   <tr>
    <td colspan="3" align="center"><img src="file:///the_hols/t361/eero_ecard/shows_line.png" width="418" height="12" /></td>
  </tr>
      <td><?php print "$date_7<BR>\n";?></td>
    <td> <?php print "$venue_7<BR>\n";?>
   <?php print "$address_7<BR>\n";?><?php print "$city_7<BR>\n";?> </td>
    <td align="center"><p><?php print "$time_amount_7<BR>\n";?><?php print "$guests_7<BR>\n";?></p>      </td>
  </tr>
 <tr>
    <td colspan="3" align="center"><img src="file:///the_hols/t361/eero_ecard/shows_line.png" width="418" height="12" /></td>
  </tr>

<td><?php print "$date_8<BR>\n";?></td>
<td> <?php print "$venue_8<BR>\n";?>
   <?php print "$address_8<BR>\n";?><?php print "$city_8<BR>\n";?> </td>
    <td align="center"><p><?php print "$time_amount_8<BR>\n";?><?php print "$guests_8<BR>\n";?></p>      </td>
  </tr>


</table>
<span class="style1"></span>
</body>
</html>

kpowning

That page will always be blank unless you submit the form.html page information that is collected to a database table that will hold all the information for the venue, schedule, times and so forth. The shows.php page only shows the information on it when you click submit, because the information only for what you type in in the form.html is being printed. So if you don't use form.html and go directly to shows.php there is no information being submitted to it therefore there will be a blank page.

Read up on inserting form information into databases and building tables. You must have mysql in order to use it how you are looking to do with .php.