[RESOLVED] creating a link from a search result title to a new page

[mrelliott]

I'm trying to figure out how I can create a page link in a search engine with the title as the link (like in google or this forum). This is what I've got so far, I actually managed to turn the title of each song into a link that doesn't go anywhere or link to different sets of lyrics based on the query. I think I'm heading in the right direction, but I'm confused as to how to continue. I've edited out most of the code for readability and the code I'm working on is in red.

My album page.

 
//Default column links. Removed space between} and? this was the problem with the links.
$link1 = "{$_SERVER['PHP_SELF']}?sort=tracka";
$link2 = "{$_SERVER['PHP_SELF']}?sort=titlea";
$link3 = "{$_SERVER['PHP_SELF']}?sort=lengtha";
$link4 = "{$_SERVER['PHP_SELF']}?sort=writera";
[COLOR="Red"][B]$link5 = "{$_GET['lyrics.php']}?lyrics=song_id";[/B][/COLOR]

//sorting order determined?
if (isset($_GET['sort'])) { 

//switch conditional.
switch ($_GET['sort']) {
case 'tracka':
$order_by = 'track ASC';
$link1 = "{$_SERVER['PHP_SELF'] }?sort=trackd";
break;
case 'trackd':
$order_by = 'track DESC';
$link1 = "{$_SERVER['PHP_SELF'] }?sort=tracka";
break;
case 'titlea':
$order_by = 'title ASC';
$link2 = "{$_SERVER['PHP_SELF'] }?sort=titled";
break;
case 'titled':
$order_by = 'title DESC';
$link2 = "{$_SERVER['PHP_SELF'] }?sort=titlea";
break;
case 'lengtha':
$order_by = 'length ASC';
$link3 = "{$_SERVER['PHP_SELF'] }?sort=lengthd";
break;
case 'lengthd':
$order_by = 'length DESC';
$link3 = "{$_SERVER['PHP_SELF'] }?sort=lengtha";
break;
case 'writera':
$order_by = 'writer ASC';
$link4 = "{$_SERVER['PHP_SELF'] }?sort=writerd";
break;
case 'writerd':
$order_by = 'writer DESC';
$link4 = "{$_SERVER['PHP_SELF'] }?sort=writera";
break;
default:
$order_by = 'track ASC';
break;
}

// $sort will be appended to the pagination links.
$sort = $_GET['sort'];
} else { //use default sorting order.
$order_by = 'track ASC';  //missing single quote before semicolon.
$sort = 'tracka'; 
} 

// Make the query.
[COLOR="red"][B]$query = "SELECT track, title, TIME_FORMAT( 
length, '%i:%S') AS length, album, writer, song_id, lyrics FROM master_list WHERE album ='A Day at the Races' ORDER BY $order_by LIMIT $start, $display";[/B][/COLOR]		
$result = @mysql_query ($query); // Run the query.

// Table header.
echo '<table align="center" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="5"><tr>
<td align="left"><b><font size="-1"><a href="' . $link1 . '">Track</a></font></b></td>
<td align="left"><b><font size="-1"><a href="' . $link2 . '">Song Title</a></font></b></td>
<td align="left"><b><font size="-1"><a href="' . $link3 . '">Song Length</a></font></b></td>
<td align="left"><b><font size="-1"><a href="' . $link4 . '">Writer</a></font></b></td>
</tr>
';

// Fetch and print all the records.
$bg = '#000066'; //Background display.
while ($row = mysql_fetch_array($result, MYSQL_ASSOC)) {
$bg = ($bg=='#000066' ? '#003399' : '#000066'); //switch the bg color.
echo '<tr bgcolor="' . $bg . '">
<td align="left"><font size="-1">' . $row['track'] . '</font></td>
[COLOR="red"][B]<td align="left"><font size="-1"><a href="' . $link5 . '">' . $row['title'] . '</a></font></td>[/B][/COLOR] <td align="left"><font size="-1">' . $row['length'] . '</font></td>
<td align="left"><font size="-1">' . $row['writer'] . '</font></td>
</tr>
';
}
echo '</table>';

      

My title's linked page.

  [COLOR="Red"]<?php
	 echo
<td align="left"><font size="-1">' . $row['title'] . '</font></td>
<td align="left"><font size="-1">' . $row['length'] . '</font></td>
<td align="left"><font size="-1">' . $row['writer'] . '</font></td>
<td align="left"><font size="-1">' . $row['lyrics'] . '</font></td>
</tr>
'; 
	  ?>[/COLOR] 

[sheephat]

Do you get an error, im looking through now.

[mrelliott]

I'll have to set up to have the query print. But when you select the title of the song as a link and click it doesn't seem to go anywhere.

[mrelliott]

Well I see part of my problem. It looks like all the page is doing is reloading. I'm going to look over the code at work and see if I can figure out what to do.

[mrelliott]

So I went through some of my notes and tried the following:

$query = "SELECT track, title, TIME_FORMAT( 
length, '%i:%S') AS length, album, writer, song_id, [COLOR="Red"]lyrics AS ly[/COLOR] FROM master_list WHERE album ='A Day at the Races' ORDER BY $order_by LIMIT $start, $display";		
$result = @mysql_query ($query); // Run the query.

echo '<tr bgcolor="' . $bg . '">
<td align="left"><font size="-1">' . $row['track'] . '</font></td>
[COLOR="red"]<td align="left"><font size="-1"><a href="lyrics.php?ly='.$row['lyrics'].'">$row['title']</a></font></td[/COLOR]>
<td align="left"><font size="-1">' . $row['length'] . '</font></td>
<td align="left"><font size="-1">' . $row['writer'] . '</font></td>
</tr>
';

I get the following error on the page:
Parse error: parse error, unexpected T_STRING, expecting ',' or ';' in ................. on line 200

That line is the link in the echo section of code.

I'm at a loss.

[mrelliott]

I've tried the following and I've been able to click on the title link and get the new page to come up but it looks like the string is empty and I can't seem to fix that, I'll explain with the code.

This is what I have now on one page:

[COLOR="red"]$link5 = "lyrics.php?ly='.$row[lyrics].'";[/COLOR]

echo '<tr bgcolor="' . $bg . '">
<td align="left"><font size="-1">' . $row['track'] . '</font></td>
[COLOR="Red"]<td align="left"><font size="-1"><a href="' . $link5 . '"> '. $row['title'] . '</a></font></td>[/COLOR]

And on the new page that loads when the link is clicked:

[COLOR="red"]<?php
echo' <td align="left"><font size="-1">"' . $row['lyrics'] . '"</font></td>'; 
	  ?>[/COLOR]

This new page also has the following in the address bar:
mysiteaddress/lyrics.php?ly='..'

I'm assuming that means my string is blank?

Also when I try to change

[COLOR="red"]$link5 = "lyrics.php?ly='.$row[lyrics].'";[/COLOR]

to what I always thought to be proper:

[COLOR="red"]$link5 = "lyrics.php?ly=' . $row['lyrics'] . '";[/COLOR]

I get the following error:

Parse error: parse error, unexpected T_ENCAPSED_AND_WHITESPACE, expecting T_STRING or T_VARIABLE or T_NUM_STRING

which goes away after I remove the single quotes around lyrics in the square brackets.

Again I'm at a loss. Is it my second page that's the problem?

I'm still new at this, I was amazed I'd managed to get the new page to appear to load at all frankly. I'm thinking I should try

$link5 = "{$_SERVER['PHP_SELF']}?ly=' . $row['lyrics']";

[mrelliott]

Boy was my code way off. I need keep practicing how to do this so it will sink in.