[RESOLVED] need help with upgrading php! please

whitefinger

At Christmas i decided to build my first web site and after 6 weeks i had finished my PHP and mysql website that i created in dream-weaver the problem was that i never really got on with DreamWeaver it just didn't do it for me!

anyway a couple of weeks ago whilst playing with flash i found Flash Catalyst and a 180hrs later and some time with PhotoShop i had the website that i originally was trying to create in DreamWeaver 🙂

So i imported the Catalyst file into Flash Builder and was happy to find out that i could import my PHP scripts that i created with my first version of my site 🙂

But Flash builder didn't like it and gave me a version of PHP that it did and i just wonder if you could just look at my original bad PHP script which did work and also look at what Flash builder gave me and if you didn't mind just help me combine the two so its in context for what Flash builder wants but with my code so i get what i want? i haver had a go my self but flash just looks blankly at me! 🙁

my original code that i used in DreamWeaver

[CODE]$sql= mysql_query("SELECT id, fname, lname, sex, country, town, dateofbirth, monthofbirth, yearofbirth FROM clients ORDER BY id DESC LIMIT 9")or die(mysql_error()); 




While($row = mysql_fetch_array($sql)){
$id = $row["id"];
$fname = $row["fname"];
$fname = ucfirst($fname);
$fname = substr($fname,0,1);
$lname = $row["lname"];
$lname = ucfirst($lname);
$sex = $row["sex"];
$country = $row["country"];
$town = $row["town"];
$town = ucfirst($town);
$dateofbirth = $row["dateofbirth"];
$monthofbirth = $row["monthofbirth"];
$yearofbirth = $row["yearofbirth"];
$Pic_loc= "IMAGES/$id/image01.jpg";	
$user_pic = "<img src=\"$Pic_loc\" width=105 height=105\ />";
$yearofbirth = $row["yearofbirth"];
$ageyears = GetAge($monthofbirth. '-' .$dateofbirth. '-' .$yearofbirth);


function GetAge($Birthdate)
{
        // Explode the date into meaningful variables
       $Dateparts = explode("-", $Birthdate); //strip the dashes out then make an array

// Find the differences
       $MonthDiff = date("m") - $Dateparts[0]; // present month - birth month (9-6) 
       $DayDiff =   date("d") - $Dateparts[1]; // present month - birthday (6-4)
       $YearDiff =  date("Y") - $Dateparts[2]; // present year - birth year (2010-1978)

// If the birthday has not occurred this year
if ($MonthDiff < 0) $YearDiff--; // if month difference < 0 Decrement Year difference 

elseif (($MonthDiff==0) && ($DayDiff < 0)) $YearDiff--; // else if month difference = 0 AND day difference < 0 Decrement year difference.

return $YearDiff ;

}

[/code]

This is the PHP that Flash build has told me it wants to use that im find hard to merge together

[CODE]class ClientsService {

var $username = "";
var $password = "";
var $server = "localhost";
var $port = "3306";
var $databasename = "totalclients";
var $tablename = "clients";

var $connection;

public function __construct() {
  	$this->connection = mysqli_connect(
  							$this->server,  
  							$this->username,  
  							$this->password, 
  							$this->databasename,
  							$this->port
  						);

	$this->throwExceptionOnError($this->connection);
}

public function getAllClients() {

	$stmt = mysqli_prepare($this->connection, "SELECT timestamp, id, fname, lname, sex, country, town, dateofbirth, monthofbirth, yearofbirth from $this->tablename ORDER BY id DESC LIMIT 9");		
	$this->throwExceptionOnError();

	mysqli_stmt_execute($stmt);
	$this->throwExceptionOnError();

	$rows = array();

	mysqli_stmt_bind_result($stmt, $row->timestamp, $row->ID, $row->fname, $row->lname,  $row->sex, $row->country, $row->town, $row->dateofbirth, $row->monthofbirth, $row->yearofbirth);

    while (mysqli_stmt_fetch($stmt)) {
      $row->timestamp = new DateTime($row->timestamp);
      $rows[] = $row;
      $row = new stdClass();
      mysqli_stmt_bind_result($stmt, $row->timestamp, $row->ID, $row->fname, $row->lname,  $row->sex, $row->country, $row->town, $row->dateofbirth, $row->monthofbirth, $row->yearofbirth);
    }

	mysqli_stmt_free_result($stmt);
    mysqli_close($this->connection);

    return $rows;
}

[/code]

Any help anyone wants to give me many thanks

whitefinger

When i first put the post up i thought i was being a bit lazy and was quite relieved when know one answered my post but now after lost of searching on the net i realise how little i still know about php

i can see the php builder class getting my results from the database i just cant see where to put the code to change the data into the format that i want for my website!

if anyone could point me into the right direction i would be very grateful 🙂

johanafm

You would probably be best served by first reading this document on how to ask questions on the internet, or any other suitable document with information on this topic. I have no idea if the documented linked to is of decent quality. I'm too lazy to read it, but I suspect you'd gain at least some knowledge that you presently lack.

On the other hand, I'm such a good guy that I have helped you by pointing out some of the blatant misstakes in your original posts. This will be a good start for you, but reading the above document will most likely still serve you should you ever need to ask more questions.

You need to understand, that when asking questions on a forum, you really need to think about what you write. First off, posting in the appropriate forum. When there is one forum called "Coding" and another forum called "Newbies" and you claim to know almost nothing... then you are in the wrong forum if it's not called "Newbies".

Secondly, use an appropriate title. A title stating that you need help upgrading php, means that anyone who isn't comfortable upgrading from one version of php to another version of php is very unlikely to read your post.

You must understand that "upgrading php" means going from PHP 4 to PHP 5 or PHP 5.2.? to PHP 5.3 or 5.3.5 to 5.3.6 or PHP 5 to PHP 6. Since, after reading your post, there seems to be nothing concerning actually upgrading PHP, the title of your post is completely missleading.

Moreover, such a post, if it did indeed concern upgrading php, doesn't belong in either "Coding" or "Newbies" on this board, but rather the "Install" forum, which you can easily see by the text below its link

Install (18 Viewing)
Conversation regarding installation and upgrade of PHP

Now, on to more specifics in your original post...

whitefinger;10985008 wrote:
that i created in dream-weaver

(...) i found Flash Catalyst

(...) Flash Builder (...) import my PHP scripts

But Flash builder didn't like it and gave me a version of PHP that it did

(...) look at my original bad PHP script which did work and also look at what Flash builder gave me and if you didn't mind just help me combine the two so its in context for what Flash builder wants but with my code so i get what i want?

So, you have PHP code generated by two different tools, and want us to look at these, compare them, and also analyze what you want from one of the code sets to realize what it is you want and then write this code for you.
Well, I have some bad news: I am not going to do this, and it's very unlikely that anyone else would either. Code generators are terrible when it comes to writing code which is easy to read and understand.
Moreover, having to read code, line by line, statement by statement, to get to know what you want, is time consuming beyond all sense.

And finally, the people who do have the knowledge to do what you ask, are most likely unfamiliar with both tools you used. This means that as soon as they see either tool's name, they are likely to think "well, post in a forum related to [specific tool]". Sometimes they might even inform you that you should do so, but since your post is so far off from its title, the likelyhood of this happening is slimmer yet.

whitefinger;10985306 wrote:
When i first put the post up i thought i was being a bit lazy and was quite relieved when know one answered my post

... which is what happens easpecially when you are lazy, but also when using misleading titles and posting questions about tools that people may not be familiar with.

whitefinger;10985306 wrote:
but now after lost of searching on the net i realise how little i still know about php

Since you have a project to work on, you are in a good position. No way like the present and some real world problem to tackle to learn PHP.

whitefinger;10985306 wrote:
i just cant see where to put the code to change the data into the format that i want for my website!

And once again, a tip on asking relevant questions: Supply the information needed in the least time consuming way FOR THE READER.
Posting code that does what you want, and then another version not doing what you want and asking someone to make the latter into the first will get you no answer. Or someone simply saying "Copy the first version of the code and paste it over the second version of the code, and the second version will do the thing you ask for".

Explaining what you want in plain text, and as simply as you can, possibly in combination with links to some web site, images and screen shots giving further details if needed is a very good start. In this case, you might want to describe what "the format that I want" means. Moreover, you should most definitely also describe what "the data" means.

Once your posts start aligning your questions with the advice above, you are a lot more likely to get an answer that will help you.

whitefinger

Thanks johanafm its been along time since someone told me off lol and im glad you did it in some long and extensive manner, it was a great read and i hope to remember it well when i create my next post 🙂

many thanks

whitefinger

well thanks again johanafm you made me get of my arse and try it my self and the funny thing is i dont know why it works but it did the answer i was looking for was this i think 🙂

class homepage {

Public function getNineClients(){
$connection = mysqli_connect("localhost", "root", "", "clients", 3306) or die (mysqli_connect);
$sql = "SELECT id, fname, lname, sex, country, town, dateofbirth, monthofbirth, yearofbirth from clients ORDER BY id DESC LIMIT 9";
$result = mysqli_query($connection, $sql) or die('Query failed');

$rows = array();

while ($row = mysqli_fetch_object($result)){
$id = $row->id;
$fname = $row->fname;
$fname = ucfirst($fname);
$row->fname = substr($fname,0,1);
$lname = $row->lname;
$row->lname = ucfirst($lname);
$row->sex = $row->sex;
$row->country = $row->country;
$town = $row->town;
$row->town = ucfirst($town);
$row->dateofbirth = $row->dateofbirth;
$row->monthofbirth = $row->monthofbirth;
$row->yearofbirth = $row->yearofbirth;

$ageyears = GetAge($row->monthofbirth. '-' .$row->dateofbirth. '-' .$row->yearofbirth);
$rows[] = $row;

}
return $rows;

the ageyears doesnt work yet which finds the age of the client but all good so far

bradgrafelman

Why on earth are you creating so many superfluous variables? This:

$id = $row->id; 
$fname = $row->fname; 
$fname = ucfirst($fname); 
$row->fname = substr($fname,0,1); 
$lname = $row->lname; 
$row->lname = ucfirst($lname); 
$row->sex = $row->sex; 
$row->country = $row->country; 
$town = $row->town; 
$row->town = ucfirst($town); 
$row->dateofbirth = $row->dateofbirth; 
$row->monthofbirth = $row->monthofbirth; 
$row->yearofbirth = $row->yearofbirth;

could simply be reduced down to this:

$row->fname = ucfirst(substr($fname,0,1));
$row->lname = ucfirst($row->lname); 
$row->town = ucfirst($row->town);

EDIT: For example, why did you do this:

$row->sex = $row->sex;

in the first place?

whitefinger

i do agree with the superfluous variables but when i was writing the code some month ago, the way you have got the code is the way i had it but it was creating errors so i simplified the process and it worked so i kept it that way 🙂

and the reason i used $row->sex = $row->sex; was that again was just going with the simple flow of code in order not to produce any errors

and it worked 🙂

But now im being drawn back to my original problem, which is you cant just pick up ur working php code and stick it in flash builder 🙁 as flash builder likes objects to work with if only i could understand the below better i think i could resolve my issue!

Flash builder php generated code takes my data from Mysql "STOP"

I THINK YOU RIGHT MAYBE I SHOULD JUST GIVE UP FOR A WHILE

johanafm

whitefinger;10985416 wrote:
i do agree with the superfluous variables but when i was writing the code some month ago, the way you have got the code is the way i had it but it was creating errors so i simplified the process and it worked so i kept it that way 🙂

and the reason i used $row->sex = $row->sex; was that again was just going with the simple flow of code in order not to produce any errors

and it worked 🙂

But it makes the code harder to read and maintain. We all write code in bad ways from time to time for various reasons. But once you get back to your code and sees things like assigning a variable to itself, you should definitely remove such a line. Sometimes the process is more complex and involves breaking out entire parts of code, wrapping them up in new functions, combining two functions doing too specific things into one function which is more generic, or perhaps one generic function doing most of the work while keeping only the small differences in the original two functions etc.
But this work must be done! It leads to cleaner code which is easier to reuse and very importantly: maintain.

While it may have simplified the process at one point, it now complicates it. Instead of you (and us) having to look at 4 lines of code, we have to go through 20 lines, and that never helps when you need to revisit the code in 2 months or someone else takes over your project.

Also, I'd recommend using string indexing when you want to reference a single character, rather than resort to substr

$fname = $row->fname; 
$fname = ucfirst($fname); 
$row->fname = substr($fname,0,1); 

/* Replace the above with this and you even avoid the function call to substr()
 * It should be evident from the variable name that fname is a string rather than an array
 */
$row->fname = ucfirst($row->fname[0]);

As for the age, the [man]DateTime[/man] class makes this very easy! It's possible that you can create them with your localized date format (m/d/Y), but I wouldn't know. I recommend sticking to the ISO-somecode format of Y-m-d, since that's the format SQL uses.
DateTimes can easily be displayed any way you like to suit your users' needs: DateTime::format('m/d/Y')

/* You can even supply DateTimeZone objects as second parameter and avoid
 * doing such calculations yourself if you have to deal with time zones.
 */
$birth = new DateTime('1960-04-13');
$now = new DateTime('now');

/* $now->diff($birth) returns an instance of DateInterval,
 * which has its year component stored in the public member y.
 */
$ageyears = $now->diff($birth)->y;

/* Should you need to use the time interval (difference between now and birth)
 * more than once, you should not calculate it each time, but rather store it
 * in a variable for reuse (but this doesn't seem to be the case for you
 */
$diff = $now->diff($birth);
$ageyears = $diff->y;
# You can also use ::format with DateIntervals, just like you can with DateTimes
echo $diff->format('y');
/* But iirc, for intervals, format('h') would only display the hour parts, rather than
 * convert years, months and days into hours
 */

whitefinger;10985416 wrote:
But now im being drawn back to my original problem, which is you cant just pick up ur working php code and stick it in flash builder 🙁 as flash builder likes objects to work with if only i could understand the below better i think i could resolve my issue!

Once again, what is this issue? In the post before this one, you said things were working, except for getting the age in years.

whitefinger;10985416 wrote:
Flash builder php generated code takes my data from Mysql "STOP"

Is it not supposed to?

whitefinger;10985416 wrote:
I THINK YOU RIGHT MAYBE I SHOULD JUST GIVE UP FOR A WHILE

No! Not unless you don't want to learn anyway. If you ever take this on at a later date, you will most likely have to relearn lots of things that you've forgotten.
The only reason for "giving up" would be if you felt that you realize that you, in general, don't like doing this, and then it's not really giving up either. It's deciding to use your time for something you like doing.

whitefinger

your right johanafm i cant give up, yeah i might be a bit slow but i feel i have come so far 🙂 i just wish i could get a greater understanding of the php code that Flash builder created i can see it retrieving my data from my mysql data base, then i think to my self that i just want to manipulate that data before it shoves it into an object ready to for flash builder but i just can see where i would do that!

The code above where i thought i resolved the issue was just to display simple data on a web site page but now i am trying to create a paging "or is it pagination" page its all getting to much lol.

I have the pagination code that i created for my php website in dreamweaver but it doesnt seem to be any good for Flash builder.

Could anyone just talk me through this little script and perhaps tell me how to interact with these objects in order to change the data that comes from my database? i have a function that turns the first name last name in to one string and another function that takes the birth dates of the client and gives me there age.

i just need to know how to interact with the below code and then stick it into Return $rows

many thanks

public function getAllClients() {

	$stmt = mysqli_prepare($this->connection, "SELECT timestamp, id, fname, lname, sex, country, town, dateofbirth, monthofbirth, yearofbirth from $this->tablename ORDER BY id DESC LIMIT 9");		
	$this->throwExceptionOnError();

	mysqli_stmt_execute($stmt);
	$this->throwExceptionOnError();

	$rows = array();

	mysqli_stmt_bind_result($stmt, $row->timestamp, $row->ID, $row->fname, $row->lname,  $row->sex, $row->country, $row->town, $row->dateofbirth, $row->monthofbirth, $row->yearofbirth);

    while (mysqli_stmt_fetch($stmt)) {
      $row->timestamp = new DateTime($row->timestamp);
      $rows[] = $row;
      $row = new stdClass();
      mysqli_stmt_bind_result($stmt, $row->timestamp, $row->ID, $row->fname, $row->lname,  $row->sex, $row->country, $row->town, $row->dateofbirth, $row->monthofbirth, $row->yearofbirth);
	}


	mysqli_stmt_free_result($stmt);
    mysqli_close($this->connection);



    return $rows;
}

whitefinger

Ok so i thought i would try a little harder to understand what is going on with the flash builder generated php code and yes my under standing is a little better but i still cant see where i could manipulate the data before it gets sent to flash builder! i know soon some one is going to tell me and i will fell so stupid yet so relieved 🙂

mysqli_prepare
Prepares the SQL query, and returns a statement handle to be used for further operations
on the statement. The query must consist of a single SQL statement.
The parameter markers must be bound to application variables using mysqli_stmt_bind_param()
and/or mysqli_stmt_bind_result() before executing the statement or fetching rows.

$stmt = mysqli_prepare($this->connection, 
"SELECT timestamp, id, fname, lname, sex, country, town, dateofbirth, monthofbirth, yearofbirth 
from $this->tablename 
ORDER BY id DESC LIMIT 9");        

$this->throwExceptionOnError();

mysqli_stmt_execute($stmt);
Executes a query that has been previously prepared using the mysqli_prepare() function.
When executed any parameter markers which exist will automatically be replaced with the appropriate data.
If the statement is UPDATE, DELETE, or INSERT, the total number of affected rows can be determined by
using the mysqli_stmt_affected_rows() function. Likewise, if the query yields a result set the mysqli_stmt_fetch()
function is used.

mysqli_stmt_execute($stmt);

mysqli_stmt_bind_result($stmt, $row->
Binds columns in the result set to variables.
When mysqli_stmt_fetch() is called to fetch data, the MySQL client/server protocol places the data for the bound
columns into the specified variables var1, ....
Note that all columns must be bound after mysqli_stmt_execute() and prior to calling mysqli_stmt_fetch().
Depending on column types bound variables can silently change to the corresponding PHP type.
A column can be bound or rebound at any time, even after a result set has been partially retrieved.
The new binding takes effect the next time mysqli_stmt_fetch() is called.

mysqli_stmt_bind_result($stmt, $row->timestamp, $row->ID, $row->fname, $row->lname,  $row->sex, 
 $row->country, $row->town, $row->dateofbirth, $row->monthofbirth, $row->yearofbirth);

while (mysqli_stmt_fetch($stmt)
Fetch the result from a prepared statement into the variables bound by mysqli_stmt_bind_result().
Note that all columns must be bound by the application before calling mysqli_stmt_fetch().

while (mysqli_stmt_fetch($stmt)) {
$row->timestamp = new DateTime($row->timestamp);
$rows[] = $row;
$row = new stdClass();
mysqli_stmt_bind_result($stmt, $row->timestamp, $row->ID, $row->fname, $row->lname,  $row->sex, $row->country, 
$row->town, $row->dateofbirth, $row->monthofbirth, $row->yearofbirth);
        }

return $rows;
I assume returns the array of objects.

whitefinger

well after a lot of playing and searching on the net i got my answer i think lol

well its a start i suppose in converting my procedural php into object originated model!

 public function getItems_paged($startIndex, $numItems) {

	$stmt = mysqli_prepare($this->connection, "SELECT id, fname, lname, sex, country, town, dateofbirth, monthofbirth, yearofbirth  from clients ORDER BY id DESC LIMIT ?, ?");
	$this->throwExceptionOnError();

	mysqli_bind_param($stmt, 'ii', $startIndex, $numItems);
	mysqli_stmt_execute($stmt);
	$this->throwExceptionOnError();

	$rows = array();

	mysqli_stmt_bind_result($stmt, $row->id,$row->fname,$row->lname,$row->sex,$row->country,$row->town,$row->dateofbirth,$row->monthofbirth,$row->yearofbirth);

    while (mysqli_stmt_fetch($stmt)) {
      $row->fname = ucfirst(substr('fname',0,1)); 
	  $rows[] = $row;
      $row = new stdClass();

      mysqli_stmt_bind_result($stmt, $row->id,$row->fname,$row->lname,$row->sex,$row->country,$row->town,$row->dateofbirth,$row->monthofbirth,$row->yearofbirth);
    }

	mysqli_stmt_free_result($stmt);		
	mysqli_close($this->connection);

	return $rows;
}

and it was quite simple i think it just was the "->" and the "mysqli statements" that was making me think it was harder than i thought 🙂

whitefinger

oops i celebrated to quick as that gave everyone the same first name! 🙁

whitefinger

ok now i got it lol

public function getItems_paged($startIndex, $numItems) {

	$stmt = mysqli_prepare($this->connection, "SELECT id, fname, lname, sex, country, town, dateofbirth, monthofbirth, yearofbirth  from clients ORDER BY id DESC LIMIT ?, ?");
	$this->throwExceptionOnError();

	mysqli_bind_param($stmt, 'ii', $startIndex, $numItems);
	mysqli_stmt_execute($stmt);
	$this->throwExceptionOnError();

	$rows = array();

	mysqli_stmt_bind_result($stmt, $row->id,$row->fname,$row->lname,$row->sex,$row->country,$row->town,$row->dateofbirth,$row->monthofbirth,$row->yearofbirth);

    while (mysqli_stmt_fetch($stmt)) {
      $row->fname = ucfirst(substr($row->fname,0,1));
	  //$row->lname = (($row->fname) + " " + ($row->lname));
	  $rows[] = $row;
      $row = new stdClass();

      mysqli_stmt_bind_result($stmt, $row->id,$row->fname,$row->lname,$row->sex,$row->country,$row->town,$row->dateofbirth,$row->monthofbirth,$row->yearofbirth);

	}

	mysqli_stmt_free_result($stmt);		
	mysqli_close($this->connection);

	return $rows;
}

i do really love programming but sometime i just doubt my self to much 🙂

whitefinger

and to my finally answer which is a fully tested code with flash builder that worked for me and has the first name and last name concatenated and the client dates converted to age is:

public function getItems_paged($startIndex, $numItems) {

	$stmt = mysqli_prepare($this->connection, "SELECT id, fname, lname, sex, country, town, dateofbirth, monthofbirth, yearofbirth  from clients ORDER BY id DESC LIMIT ?, ?");
	$this->throwExceptionOnError();

	mysqli_bind_param($stmt, 'ii', $startIndex, $numItems);
	mysqli_stmt_execute($stmt);
	$this->throwExceptionOnError();

	$rows = array();

	mysqli_stmt_bind_result($stmt, $row->id,$row->fname,$row->lname,$row->sex,$row->country,$row->town,$row->dateofbirth,$row->monthofbirth,$row->yearofbirth);

    while (mysqli_stmt_fetch($stmt)) {
      $row->fname = ucfirst(substr($row->fname,0,1));
	  $row->lname = (($row->fname) . " " . ($row->lname));
	  $row->yearofbirth = GetAge($row->dateofbirth. '-' .$row->monthofbirth. '-' .$row->yearofbirth);
	  $rows[] = $row;
      $row = new stdClass();

      mysqli_stmt_bind_result($stmt, $row->id,$row->fname,$row->lname,$row->sex,$row->country,$row->town,$row->dateofbirth,$row->monthofbirth,$row->yearofbirth);

	}

	mysqli_stmt_free_result($stmt);		
	mysqli_close($this->connection);

	return $rows;
}