[RESOLVED] Trying to call Data using both JS and PHP

eVrn

I am pretty new, but I am getting the hang of some of this. Here is what I have so far, and what I am trying to do.

First, I am building a faily simple site for a home builders. It uses Flash for the floorplans and exterior views and for the main menu as well. All of this is done with JS, and the Flash file reads some parsed variables at runtime that determines placemnt of a carat. The Flash pages of each model are dynamic and work the same way.

So here is my hump I am trying to get over. I have created the MySQL db and a form that allows the site owner to update prices and blurbs about each model. But I can't figure out how to call that information from the DB. Now .. the link for each model simple passes QueryString variables that are parsed and then call whatever Flash file is needed. So my question is, how can I pass a variable somehow through the clickable link that will ALSO allow me to call the db information for that particular model? Since the page is dynamic, I can't simply hard code the db call in the page.

Probablly fairly simple, I am just too new to get it just yet.

Thanks for any help!

--eVrn

Thora_Fan

Are you asking how to set up a link to pull up a product from the database?

<a href="whatever.php?productID=1">This Product</a>

Clicking this would pull up the product with the productID of 1? Is that what you're asking how to do?

etully

Your database is going to have a username, password, and database name. Fill those in in the code below so that you can connect to your database.

Next, I'm assuming that you have a table called "homes" that has id, description, and square footage fields. Select the description and square footage from the homes table. The "list" command will put those into variables called $description and $sq_ft.

mysql_connect("localhost","username","password");
@mysql_select_db("database_name") or die( "Unable to select database");

$query = "select description,sq_ft from homes where id=$id";
$result = MYSQL_QUERY($query);

list($description,$sq_ft) = @mysql_fetch_row($result);

print "<b>Description:</b> $description<p>";
print "<i>Square Footage:</i> $sq_ft<p>";

Of course, the code I've shown you will print the information onto the web page as HTML. If you want to pass those variables to the Flash movie, just print the variables in the <embed> parameters instead of printing them as HTML.

eVrn

OK, Thanks etully, we are on the right page. I DO have the table created, called "models" and it has fields named 'name', 'sqft', 'price'. and 'blurb' I do NOT have an ID field, not sure if I need it or not and what to do with it if I use it.

Now, I know how to use $_GET['mdl']; to print out the model name where ever I want, but how do I print out the corresponding info from the table? (mdl is the variable name that I am using to pass the value of the model name, for instance "Arlington") So my URL string looks like "dmodels.php?mdl=Arlington&ctPos=63".

The 'ctPos' tells the Flash Movie where to place the carat at runtime, not a factor here.

Hope I am making sense!

Thanks!

Thora_Fan

I recommend adding an ID field. This is the unique identifier for each record. It's also known as your primary key.

CREATE TABLE Whatever (
productID INT NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT PRIMARY KEY,
...
)

productID, of course, can be whatever you want.

If, however, there is no chance ever that you will have duplicates of the model name, then you probably don't need to bother with that. It's just something I always do, regardless of the table I am building.

Secondly, what needs to happen after you pass $_GET[mdl] is something like this (pseudo code):

Connect to the database

Create an SQL statement to pull the information about the product by using a WHERE statement. This is where you will put the $_GET[mdl] information.

Loop through your results and output them however need be.

Close the database.

If you google for MySQL Tutorials, then I'm sure you'll find a wealth of information about this subject and actual code to go by.

eVrn

Thanks for your time. I will see if I can figure it all out. I have been searching Google for a while now, but being new, it is hard to know just what search terms to use to retrieve specific results that I need.

Thanks again.

etully

Thora_Fan is right, you should have an id field. But I'll be more extreme about it. You should always have an id field for two reasons:

Even though your client is telling you right now that "Arlington" is the name of exactly one model and there will never be another model with the name "Arlington", they are lying. Someday, somehow, for some reason, it always happens. They want to have two models both named Arlington. By then, your site will have expanded to 50 complex pages and it will take you 40 hours of work to convert your site. Worse, even after the 40 hours of work, you're going to find huge headaches because some of the code can't really be converted and you're going to have to write a sloppy hack to get it to work - and it will break and stuff. I'm not making this up - please learn from my years of mistakes.
It's a good habit to get into. Put an id field in even if you don't need one. That way, the next time you write a site, you'll put one in by habit and that time you will need one.

Oh, here's a 3rd bonus reason for no extra charge. Someone is going to want to name a model the O'Leary floorplan... and the apostrophe is going to kill you. Selecting on a database where a field equals something with an apostrophe will cause you to write all sorts of ugly, unmaintainable code.

Ok, I'll stop now.

As for how to use the id field, use it exactly how you're using the model name right now. Anyplace you are building a URL and embedding the name in the URL, embed the ID number instead. When you do the $_GET['mdl']; you will be receiving a number instead of a name. Then (as Thora_Fan said), you do the query on the id field instead of the name field.

select name,sqft,blurb from models where id=$mdl

Then, once you have the name in a variable, you print that variable instead of printing $_GET['mdl']

I know it's going to be extra work to undo the code you've already written. I know that you're psyched that your code is currently working. Trust me, spending 2 hours now to fix the problem will save you 200 hours of headaches in 2008. I swear.

eVrn

He he he! I beleive you! I spent a couple of hours today ALREADY, modifying to other code (I use .inc files for a lot of this) so it will be easier to find and edit later down the road. So I will bet to it right away.

Thanks guys!

eVrn

GOT IT!!

Thanks for the direction guys, I REALLY appreciate it all!!