[RESOLVED] Can someone please help me

mrjoeblack

Hello, I am old and not great at this but I am trying my best. I have been trying to achieve something for about 8 years and slowly take steps towards it. If you are able to help me, I'd be so grateful 🙂 Here's the project ....

I am simply (hahaha) trying to have a webpage where a code can be entered in a search and the result returned would include a url from a column in the database and this url would be clickable through to the webpage it refers to.

below I have posted the code I have so far .... this code works good but the url does not click through to the webpage. Do you know how I would sort this????

 <!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/loose.dtd">
<html>
<head>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1">
<title>Search Contacts</title>
<style type="text/css" media="screen">
ul li{
  list-style-type:none;
}
</style>
</head>

<body>
<h3>Search Details</h3>
<p>search by the Tcode</p>
<form method="post" action="search_display.php?go" id="searchform">
<input type="text" name="name">
<input type="submit" name="submit" value="Search">
</form>
<?php

if(isset($_POST['submit'])){
if(isset($_GET['go'])){
if(preg_match("/[A-Z | a-z]+/", $_POST['name'])){
$name=$_POST['name'];

//connect to the database
$db=mysql_connect ("", "", "") or die ('I cannot connect to the database because: ' . mysql_error()); 

//-select the database to use
$mydb=mysql_select_db("");

//-query the database table
$sql="SELECT ID, Tcode, Xcode, Url FROM Tickets WHERE Tcode LIKE '%" . $name . "%' OR Xcode LIKE '%" . $name ."%'";

//-run the query against the mysql query function
$result=mysql_query($sql);

//-create while loop and loop through result set
while($row=mysql_fetch_array($result)){

$Tcode =$row['Tcode'];
$Xcode=$row['Xcode'];
            $Url=$row['Url'];
$ID=$row['ID'];

//-display the result of the array




echo "<ul>\n"; 
echo "<li>" . "<a href=\"search_display.php?id=$ID\">"  .$Tcode . " " . $Xcode . " " . $Url . "</a></li>\n";
echo "</ul>";}
}
else{
echo "<p>Please enter a search query</p>";
}
}
}
?>
</body>
</html>

ixalmida

You're referring people back to the search page in your link. You can either:

1) Redirect at the top of the page...

if(isset($_GET['ID']))
  {
  $result = mysql_query("SELECT Url FROM Tickets WHERE ID = ".$_GET['ID']);
  $row = mysql_fetch_assoc($result);
  $Url = $row['Url'];
  header("location: ".$Url);
  }

Or:
2) Change this line:

echo "<li>" . "<a href=\"search_display.php?id=$ID\">" .$Tcode . " " . $Xcode . " " . $Url . "</a></li>\n";

To:

echo "<li><a href=\"$Url\">$Tcode $Xcode $Url</a></li>\n";

(Sorry, but I refuse to concatenate - it looks ugly.)

mrjoeblack

My friend for life, thank you so much for your fast and fantastic help ..... I have done your second option, reloaded the page and it works hahahaha .... YOU ARE A GENIOUS. I can't tell you how much you have helped and it is appreciated. I did try the first option also, but didn't get a successful result, so I'm not sure if I put it in the right place or not, I wasn't entirely sure where you meant me to put it when you said "at the top of the page" .... what should I have expected with using the first option????

I wonder now, if you would allow me to use your knowledge a bit more .... ok when I get my results printed out now on the screen ..... I have my url showing and when clicked it takes me to the right web page .... however, ideally I was wondering if I could actually have, instead of the url showing, I could have an image which could be clicked and then the transfer to the webpage would go.

I was thinking maybe just a small thumbnail image/icon which said "click here".

I don't know if it would be possible to have a different thumbnail image for each row which was specific to each url. Pewrhaps you could advise if that is possible????

Once again, you are very kind and I thank you immensely for now,

regards, joe 🙂

ixalmida

>>> what should I have expected with using the first option????

I should have clarified. You would need to put it AFTER the connection was made to the database (so you can run the query), but BEFORE you output anything on the page. Once you've output anything on the page, you can no longer send a redirect header.

>>> I don't know if it would be possible to have a different thumbnail image for each row which was specific to each url.

But of course you can. You can even link to images on other websites (assuming the user's browser security settings will allow it).

The basic HTML syntax is:

<a href="http://www.domain.com"><img src="wherever_the_image_is" height="24" border="0" /></a>

Note that I specified a height of 24 pixels. Width will scale (and vice versa). This will ensure even line spacing. You may want to adjust the image size based on your font. Make sure you set the border to zero or the link will create a blue border around the image.

You'll probably want a new column in the Tickets table to store the image URL:

$sql="SELECT ID, Tcode, Xcode, Url, ImageURL
    FROM Tickets WHERE Tcode LIKE '%$name%' OR Xcode LIKE '%$name%'";
$result=mysql_query($sql);
while($row=mysql_fetch_array($result))
{
  $Tcode =$row['Tcode'];
  $Xcode=$row['Xcode'];
  $Url=$row['Url'];
  $ID=$row['ID'];
  $ImageURL = $row['ImageURL'];
  echo "<li><a href=\"$Url\">$Tcode $Xcode $Url
      <img path=\"$ImageURL\" height=\"24\" border=\"0\" /></a></li>\n";
}

mrjoeblack

many thanks, I got it working great. I have a couple of other things for you if I may .... firstly, when the information prints out on the screen, it is underlined. Is it possible to remove the underline???

second ... as a final step to what would be my perfect scenario for this .... is it possible to have, instead of the information returning onto the screen, the page just tranfers to the URL in the database after the search submit is clicked?? Thereby missing out the middle stage/page.

So just to go over that again ... a search is submitted and the result is a "directed to a new webpage" ... hope that's clear ok.

look forward to hearing from you on this 🙂

regards, joe

mrjoeblack

Hi again, ok I figured out how to remove the underlines using "text decoration none" in the html code ... so hey I'm getting good hahahah.

The second question is yours hahahaha

cheers 🙂)

mrjoeblack

sorry, another thing ..... is it possible for me to space out the row results, they seem to be quite close together, so

instead of ... one two three four

I'd like ... one two three four

how is this done???

mrjoeblack

dang it didn't space more in my example....but i mean more spaces lol

johanafm

Wrap each of your 1, 2, 3 and 4 in a span element, set a class for this purpose, and then use CSS and the "adjacent sibling selector" (+)

<style type="text/css">
.wideSpace + .wideSpace {
	margin-left: 20px;
}
</style>
</head>
<body>
<span class="wideSpace">1</span> <span class="wideSpace">2</span> <span class="wideSpace">3</span>

Why use .wideSpace + .wideSpace and not simply...

.wideSpace {
    //...
}

Because then you'd get a 20px leading margin before the first span element which you probably do not want. And if you instead go with margin-right, your last element would have a 20px trailing margin, which means it may not fit on the same line with the margin, while the text in the span would fit if there was no margin.

Note: IE6 does not support the adjacent sibling selector.

mrjoeblack

Johanafm thanks for that ... I'll try it.

Main query is ...

... as a final step to what would be my perfect scenario for this project .... is it possible to have, instead of the information returning onto the screen, the page just tranfers to the URL in the database after the search submit is clicked?? Thereby missing out the middle stage/page.

So just to go over that again ... a search is submitted and the result is a "directed to a new webpage" ... hope that's clear ok.

johanafm

mrjoeblack;10964214 wrote:
So just to go over that again ... a search is submitted and the result is a "directed to a new webpage" ... hope that's clear ok.

Yes. If I understand your question correctly, you should modify your code like this

$sql="SELECT ID, Tcode, Xcode, Url, ImageURL
    FROM Tickets WHERE Tcode LIKE '%$name%' OR Xcode LIKE '%$name%'";
$result=mysql_query($sql);

/* Showing links still makes if several rows are returned, so that the user can choose
    which one is relevant */
if (mysql_num_rows($result) > 1) {
    while($row = mysql_fetch_array($result))
    {
        $Tcode =$row['Tcode'];
        $Xcode=$row['Xcode'];
        $Url=$row['Url'];
        $ID=$row['ID'];
        $ImageURL = $row['ImageURL'];
        echo "<li><a href=\"$Url\">$Tcode $Xcode $Url
            <img path=\"$ImageURL\" height=\"24\" border=\"0\" /></a></li>\n";
    }
}
# only one row found - redirect
elseif ($row = mysql_fetch_array($result)) {
    # location header needs an absolute url. I.e. $Url must be on the form http://example.com/...
    # this will redirect user
    header('HTTP/1.1 302 Found');
    header("Location: $Url");
    exit;
}
else {
    # nothing found
}

mrjoeblack

Johanafm, ok thanks for that, but I still dont have it working for me. This is the full code I have, can you see anything wrong .....

I'm getting an error as follows:
Parse error: syntax error, unexpected $end in E:\domains\g\gmts.info\user\htdocs\dbasetest\search2\search_display.php on line 65

<html>
<head>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1">
<title>Search Contacts</title>

<STYLE>
A {
text-decoration: none;
}
</STYLE>

</head>

<body>
<h3>Search Details</h3>
<p>search by the Tcode</p>
<form method="post" action="search_display.php?go" id="searchform">
<input type="text" name="name">
<input type="submit" name="submit" value="Search">
</form>

<?php
if(isset($POST['submit'])){
if(isset($GET['go'])){
if(preg_match("/[A-Z | a-z]+/", $POST['name'])){
$name=$POST['name'];

//connect to the database
$db=mysql_connect ("", "", "") or die ('I cannot connect to the database because: ' . mysql_error());

//-select the database to use
$mydb=mysql_select_db("");

$sql="SELECT ID, Tcode, Xcode, Url, ImageURL
FROM Tickets WHERE Tcode LIKE '%$name%' OR Xcode LIKE '%$name%'";
$result=mysql_query($sql);

/ Showing links still makes if several rows are returned, so that the user can choose
which one is relevant /
if (mysql_num_rows($result) > 1) {
while($row = mysql_fetch_array($result))
{
$Tcode =$row['Tcode'];
$Xcode=$row['Xcode'];
$Url=$row['Url'];
$ID=$row['ID'];
$ImageUrl = $row['ImageURL'];
echo "<li><a href=\"$Url\">$Tcode $Xcode $Url
<img path=\"$ImageUrl\" height=\"24\" border=\"0\" /></a></li>\n";
}
}
elseif ($row = mysql_fetch_array($result)) {
header('HTTP/1.1 302 Found');
header("Location: $Url");
exit;
}
else {
}
?>
</body>
</html>

bradgrafelman

When posting PHP code, please use the board's [noparse]

..

[/noparse] bbcode tags as they make your code much easier to read and analyze.

As for your error, the three '{' opening braces here:

if(isset($_POST['submit'])){
if(isset($_GET['go'])){
if(preg_match("/[A-Z | a-z]+/", $_POST['name'])){

are never closed.

mrjoeblack

brad ....sorry dont understand that

bradgrafelman

mrjoeblack;10964288 wrote:
brad ....sorry dont understand that

It's simple: if you have an opening '{', then it must be matched by a closing '}'. This:

if($foo) {
  echo "hi!";

is not correct. This, however, is correct:

if($foo) {
  echo "hi!";
}

The three '{' braces in the lines I posted are never closed with a matching '}'.

mrjoeblack

1) ok, well another version of the page works without them closed, so how is that??

2) does that have anything to do with the rror I mentioned?

3) do you know how I can space out result on the page echoed, instead of them being jammed together??

cheers

bradgrafelman

mrjoeblack wrote:
1) ok, well another version of the page works without them closed, so how is that??

I don't know what you mean by "another version," but the "version" you posted has parse errors caused by unclosed '{' opening braces, and a PHP script with parse errors won't run anywhere.

mrjoeblack wrote:
2) does that have anything to do with the rror I mentioned?

Does the parse error have anything to do with the parse error message? Um... yes?

mrjoeblack wrote:
3) do you know how I can space out result on the page echoed, instead of them being jammed together??

Sure, by using HTML and CSS. How? Well that depends on what you mean by "space out". Since this is a client-side layout/design question, however, that's probably best left for a separate thread.

mrjoeblack

Johahnafm please come back, I still cant get your code working.... how do i get the click on the submit button to redirect the page to a Url ????

johanafm

If I understood you correctly, the code I showed would do just that. Get rid of your parse errors by following Brad's suggestions and things just might work. Unless of course there are more errors to deal with after the parse errors.

mrjoeblack

sorry for taking so long ... BUT just to say thanks to you guys, very much .... I finally got this all sorted out and working nicely 🙂))

appreciate you all being there.