display html file retrieved from MySQL

Anon

Hi all -

This may be simple but I'm stalled so I need your help!

I'm trying to retrieve an html file held in a text type column of a MySQL table and display the contents of the file ( a brief HTML page ) in a browser window.

I've been trying an approach similar to what works with calling from the db and embedding an image file in an existing HTML page without success.

I think I saw an example of how to do this but didn't make a note of it and can't find it again.

Any ideas, pointers and advice will be greatly appreciated.

Kris O.

Anon

If the HTML code is stored in a text field, why not just print that field to the browser?

Is there anything special you need to do apart from get the code into a browser?

Anon

Hi,

assuming that you have a database
"htmlpages" and a table
"tblHtmlPages" having the pages in it.
The field containing the html pages is
"txtContent". The field contains the whole page (.....). The field with the content id is named "lngContentID".

Try this:

<?PHP
$host="localhost"; // server
$login="mylogin"; // database login
$pass="mypass"; // login password
$db="htmlpages"; // database
$tbl="tblHtmlPages"; // table
$id=120; // unique content id
// not found message
$err="\n<head>\n<title>no content</title>\n</head>\n<body>\nNo html page found\n</body>\n\n";

$dblink = mysql_connect($host,$login,$pass) or die("Error connecting to mysql server");
mysql_select_db($db,$dblink) or die("Error selecting database");

$strSQL = "SELECT txtContent FROM ".$db
." WHERE lngContentID=".$id;

$result = mysql_query($strSQL,$dblink) or die("Error executing a query");

if (list($content) = mysql_fetch_row($result)) {
echo $content;
} else {
echo $err;
}

mysql_close($dblink);
?>

Anon

Hi,

the $err string wasn't transmitted correctly ... it isn't important anyway

Greetings,
T.

Anon

Vincent:

I adapted Thomas' code and a simple retrieval works fine.

The bigger picture of what I am attempting is this:

The customer enters a question into a search text box to query a FAQ table for questions with answers that match their question. I want to return a list of matching faq/answers in the form of links to the individual faq/answers held in the database in the form of html pages. The user will click on a match link to retrieve the individual page.

Next, I'm going to look into how to construct the searching.

I'm new to php and am in over my head but am finding this a good project to learn the basics even though I am at times frustrated!

I gather there is some debate about using a database as a filesystem to hold files, either graphics or text, or even pointers to files outside the db, rather than storing the files outside the db. I thought storing files in the db seemed a reasonable way to go but I would be glad to hear any thoughts on the pros and cons.

Kris O.

Anon

Thomas:

Thanks for the help! Your code is what I need to get started. Simple as I suspected it would be.

I have a lot to learn and resources like this are making it easier and quicker.

Kris O.

Anon

Your project sounds like a nice one to start learning about PHP and databases.

There are pro's and cons to storing files in a database.
pro: you can easily search in the files.
con: your database grows very quickly.
pro: you don't have to wurry about filenames or locations
con: the data must be transferred from the database to the webserver before it can be server to the client.

And these things vary for each application.
The best thing you can do is just try the different methods out,
which is a good learning experience, and see which method works best for you.