[RESOLVED] switching title of story to title-to-story

[msimonds]

I have a variable from coming from the database that I am trying to change the title from:

NFL Opens This Weekend

To

nfl-opens-this-weekend

$title is the variable

I have this code:

$title  = strtolower(trim($title));

If I wanted to get the "-" into $title, can i implode on the spaces in between the words in the title and replace them

like this:

$title  = strtolower(trim($title));
$title  = implode(" ", $title);

for some reason this is not working but from reading implode at php.net, I thought and it looks correct!

HELP!

Thanks
Mike

[void_function]

If you're trying to replace spaces with "-", what's wrong with str_replace (' ', '-', $title)? Btw, implode joins array elements into string, did you mean explode?

[msimonds]

yes i did, I had it backwards!! sorry

[devinemke]

$var = 'NFL Opens This Weekend';
echo strtolower(str_replace(' ', '-', $var));

[Installer]

If you really want to use "implode()";

$title = 'NFL Opens This Weekend';
$title = strtolower(trim($title)); 
$title = split(' ', $title); 
$title = implode('-', $title);
echo $title;

🙂(Not a serious suggestion)

[msimonds]

okay that works just fine but now I want to use the mod_rewrite to replace the $id with title in the url structure and I am totally new to this

the htaccess has this entry:

RewriteEngine On
RewriteRule ^(.*).html$ fullstory.php?id=$1

the code in the index.php is this:

if (is_numeric ($_GET['id']) )
    {

	// Define the query.
	$query = "SELECT blog_id, title, entry, DATE_FORMAT(date_entered, '%M %e, %Y') AS formatted_date FROM blog_entries WHERE blog_id={$_GET['id']}";
	if ($r = mysql_query ($query)) // Run the query.
    {

		$row = mysql_fetch_array ($r); // Retrieve the information.

		// Make the form.
                            list($id, $title, $entry, $date) = $row;
                            //$date = date("F d, Y");
                            $title    = htmlspecialchars($title);
                            $entry = nl2br($entry);
                            echo "<h2>{$title}</h2>{$date}<br />
                    		<p>{$entry}<br /></p><br />

                            ";

	}
    else  // Couldn't get the information.
    {
		echo "<p>Could retrieve the entry because: <b>" . mysql_error() . "</b>. The query was $query.</p>";
	}

}
else    // No ID set.
{
	echo '<p><b>You must have made a mistake in using this page.</b></p>';
}

$title  = strtolower(trim(str_replace(' ','-',$title)));

maybe I am asking this wrong, but what i want to do is switch:

http://www.littlesaints.net/14.html

to

http://www.littlesaints.net/saddam-judge.html

Sorry if I am confusing anyone

[void_function]

msimonds wrote:

RewriteEngine On
RewriteRule ^(.*).html$ fullstory.php?id=$1

To be on the safe side, and if you have only numerics, use:

RewriteEngine On
RewriteRule ^([0-9]+).html$ fullstory.php?id=$1

And use + instead of * to enforce at least 1 character.

maybe I am asking this wrong, but what i want to do is switch:

http://www.littlesaints.net/14.html

to

http://www.littlesaints.net/saddam-judge.html

Sorry if I am confusing anyone

This change is not visible in your code, but I assume you need to change spaces in the title with "-" signs, right?

[msimonds]

I will swich that, thanks!!!

Here is the code, i had it in a test script

if (is_numeric ($_GET['id']) )
    {

	// Define the query.
	$query = "SELECT blog_id, title, entry, DATE_FORMAT(date_entered, '%M %e, %Y') AS formatted_date FROM blog_entries WHERE blog_id={$_GET['id']}";
	if ($r = mysql_query ($query)) // Run the query.
    {

		$row = mysql_fetch_array ($r); // Retrieve the information.

		// Make the form.
                            list($id, $title, $entry, $date) = $row;
                            //$date = date("F d, Y");
                            $title    = htmlspecialchars($title);
                            $entry = nl2br($entry);
                            //$title  = strtolower(trim($title));
                            $title  = strtolower(trim(str_replace(' ','-',$title)));
                            echo $title;

                            echo "<h2>{$title}</h2>{$date}<br />
                    		<p>{$entry}<br /></p><br />

                            ";

	}
    else  // Couldn't get the information.
    {
		echo "<p>Could retrieve the entry because: <b>" . mysql_error() . "</b>. The query was $query.</p>";
	}

}
else    // No ID set.
{
	echo '<p><b>You must have made a mistake in using this page.</b></p>';
}

    ?>

but I still don't understand how to switch the $id to $title in the url rewrite!

Thanks for all the help!!

[void_function]

I don't understand what you're trying to do, your code apparently does react to numeric ID and outputs some title of the content.

Except, it appears you have double echos:

                            $title  = strtolower(trim(str_replace(' ','-',$title)));
                            echo $title;

                            echo "<h2>{$title}</h2>{$date}<br />
                    		<p>{$entry}<br /></p><br />

                            ";

[msimonds]

yeah it does, that is for testing only!!!

What I am trying to do is get the title into the URL structure:

http://www.littlesaints.net/14.html

to

http://www.littlesaints.net/saddam-judge.html

it is not in my code at the current time, I really don't know how to do this

Does that make sense?

[void_function]

msimonds wrote:

Does that make sense?

Nope, sorry. WHERE do you want this change? I mean, when someone types

littlesaints.com/14.html

.htaccess rewrites that into fullstory.php?id=14 (internally, users don't know this)

Your fullstory.php then outputs the title, date and entry of the story with ID 14. So, where do you want littlesaints.com/saddam-judge.html to appear?

[msimonds]

What I need to do is add code or change the code so that the URL STRUCTURE and totally get rid of the 14.html so that it will be the $title

maybe this will show:

http://www.littlesaints.net/$title.html

instead of

http://www.littlesaints.net/$id.html

So I know that I need to change the .htaccess and the code, but I dont know what to add/change

better? lol

Sorry for being confusing!

[void_function]

I understand WHAT you want to achieve, but I don't understand WHERE you want it? Where do you want the new URL to appear? On a page?

Or do you want when someone comes to 14.html that he is (visibly!) redirected to saddam-judge.html? Well, if saddam-judge.html physically exists, then you need to:

$title= trim(strtolower(str_replace(' ', '-', $title)));

header("Location $title.html");
exit;

[msimonds]

okay if you go to http://www.littlesaints.net and you see the full story link on the top story:

http://www.littlesaints.net/14.html

I want that to switch to

http://www.littlesaints.net/saddam-judge.html and when someone clicks on that, it will render http://www.littlesaints.net/sadam-judge.html

so like the htaccess would look something like this:

RewriteEngine On
RewriteRule ^$title.html$ fullstory.php?id=$1

I want to get rid of the $id totally and replace it with $title

and not have it redirect via header() as you showed

[msimonds]

Go to the homepage now,

http://www.littlesaints.net

look at the fullstory link, it is now

http://localhost/school/saddam-judge.html

but it does not work

[void_function]

Well, changing the DISPLAYED url is simple, just follow the advices already given in the thread, with str_replace for example.

But what happens when someone clicks the rewritten url? Which script receives saddam-judge.html and outputs correct story? You will need to:

RewriteRule ^{([a-z-]+).html$} fullstory.php?id=$1

In which case fullstory.php receives "saddam-judge" in id. Then you have to look up the story according to the title, not the ID number, correct? Like this:

SELECT blog_id, title, entry, DATE_FORMAT(date_entered, '%M %e, %Y') AS formatted_date FROM blog_entries WHERE title={$_GET['id']}

[msimonds]

That clairifies it much more

I made these changes:

index.php

<a href=\"$title.html\">View full story</a>

htaccess:

RewriteEngine On
#RewriteRule ^([0-9]+).html$ fullstory.php?id=$1
RewriteRule ^([a-z-]+).html$ fullstory.php?id=$1

and it is not working as you suggested, now maybe you were just showing an example:

here is the fullstory.php:

<?php
if (is_numeric ($_GET['id']) )
    {

	// Define the query.
	//$query = "SELECT blog_id, title, entry, DATE_FORMAT(date_entered, '%M %e, %Y') AS formatted_date FROM blog_entries WHERE blog_id={$_GET['id']}";
    $query = "SELECT blog_id, title, entry, DATE_FORMAT(date_entered, '%M %e, %Y') AS formatted_date FROM blog_entries WHERE title={$_GET['id']}";
	if ($r = mysql_query ($query)) // Run the query.
    {

		$row = mysql_fetch_array ($r); // Retrieve the information.

		// Make the form.
                            list($id, $title, $entry, $date) = $row;
                            //$date = date("F d, Y");
                            $title    = htmlspecialchars($title);
                            $entry = nl2br($entry);

                            echo "<h2>{$title}</h2>{$date}<br />
                    		<p>{$entry}<br /></p><br />

                            ";

	}
    else  // Couldn't get the information.
    {
		echo "<p>Could retrieve the entry because: <b>" . mysql_error() . "</b>. The query was $query.</p>";
	}

}
else    // No ID set.
{
	echo '<p><b>You must have made a mistake in using this page.</b></p>';
}

    ?>

void_function, I really appreciate all the help and time you are taking to help me try and resolve this, really! Thanks! 😃

[void_function]

Sure, remove the if (is_numeric()). $id is now textual, right?

And, of course, you'll need to turn back "-" into spaces (use str_replace, just switch places of first two args). But:

1. this works only if you don't have two SAME titles
2. I hope you know that you need to filter id from XSS and SQL injection, in other words, don't put $_GET['id'] directly into SQL, but clean it out first.

[msimonds]

void_function wrote:

Sure, remove the if (is_numeric()). $id is now textual, right?

And, of course, you'll need to turn back "-" into spaces (use str_replace, just switch places of first two args). But:

1. this works only if you don't have two SAME titles
2. I hope you know that you need to filter id from XSS and SQL injection, in other words, don't put $_GET['id'] directly into SQL, but clean it out first.

okay now I am lost 😕 😕

Can you show me!! i removed the numeric check and I am getting this error on clicking on the story:

Could retrieve the entry because: Unknown column 'saddam' in 'where clause'. The query was SELECT blog_id, title, entry, DATE_FORMAT(date_entered, '%M %e, %Y') AS formatted_date FROM blog_entries WHERE title=saddam-judge.

[msimonds]

void_function wrote:

1. this works only if you don't have two SAME titles
2. I hope you know that you need to filter id from XSS and SQL injection, in other words, don't put $_GET['id'] directly into SQL, but clean it out first.

What would it take for you to clean this up and get it working for me! I am just trying to finish this up and get this site live for the school

Sorry to ask that