Exporting data to HTML file

nealvey

Hi all, I have a database with about 400 records where a number is they primary key. I need to convert each record into a separate HTML file and save it on the server.

For example (very basic), suppose my fields were ID, Name, Category, Desc.
ID, Name, Category, Desc
1,Fred,Admin,His name is Fred
399,Don,Co-op,His name is Don

Assuming I have all permissions, etc. correct on the server, is there a somewhat decent way to do this? I figure I can use fopen and fwrite's, however I'm a bit concerned with formatting. The HTML file will consist of a table to display the data and I'm a bit concerned with all of the special symbols inteferring with each other (" ' > <, etc).

My plan is to have a button on the "Add/Edit" backend page where I can click "Export Data" and it will run the code to do the above. The end product should be 400 HTML files - 1.html, 2.html, 3.html, etc. etc. (after clicking the button on each ID).

Thanks in advance for any ideas! It's been a solid year since I've done any hardcore PHP...Thanks again!

EDIT:
I should also point out I know how to export the data normally and I already have an HTML page that pulls the data from the database and populates correctly. I'm just trying to create a button that will essentially create and save the page permanently.

Also, everything is located on a remote server...I am unable to install anything or run anything on my local PC to do this. I'm needing something that is independent and can be run anywhere by any admin.

And yes, I know this sounds stupid. This is the best way for us to get a set of uniform static pages.

4TH EDIT:
I've been searching the forum for a while now and some ideas have sprung into my head. The main one...it would kind of be a pain, but would it be possible to create a "Preview button" that runs my current code, then have an "Export" button that would save the page? Is there a way to capture all of the HTML source from a page?

Gonwee

<?php

// Put this before the loop
ob_start();

// Put the script you want to capture here

// $num is whatever the numeric file name is
$filename = $num.".html";

// Grab output
$content = ob_get_contents();

// Write to file
$handle = fopen($filename, 'w');
fwrite($handle, $content);

// Will clean the output buffer so you can reiterate the loop without carrying over the old file.
ob_clean();

?>

What this does it create a new file, open it runs threw whatever script you want, then outputs the results from the script(which would normally be sent to the browser) and sends them to the file.

You'll want to make changes to make sure it works just right, but thats a basic idea of how it should work.

Weedpacket

Well, it's no different from generating any other HTML from a database. You've got things like [man]htmlspecialchars[/man] to deal with HTML special characters, you can use [man]fopen[/man] to open a file and [man]fwrite[/man] to write in it (and PHP has had [man]file_put_contents[/man] for three years now, so you don't even need to use fopen/fwrite). You can use a loop to loop through all the records and create and write a file for each one.

nealvey

Thanks guys! I'll try them out this afternoon. This would be a HUGE boost if it works! This is for a page my dad runs. He's limited with his HTML so he does everything through Word but we also have this large database. I thought if I could have him enter as much into the database as possible, he could export the data and have a uniform looking page.

I'll let you know how it works out!

nealvey

Gonwee wrote:
<?php

// Put this before the loop
ob_start();

// Put the script you want to capture here

// $num is whatever the numeric file name is
$filename = $num.".html";

// Grab output
$content = ob_get_contents();

// Write to file
$handle = fopen($filename, 'w');
fwrite($handle, $content);

// Will clean the output buffer so you can reiterate the loop without carrying over the old file.
ob_clean();

?>
What this does it create a new file, open it runs threw whatever script you want, then outputs the results from the script(which would normally be sent to the browser) and sends them to the file.

You'll want to make changes to make sure it works just right, but thats a basic idea of how it should work.

WOW, this worked like a dream! Thank you very much!!