Hi,
I have created a website for a bookshop and have made a catalogue page that allows the user to choose what they want to search for from a drop down box. the page then links to a mysql DB and returns the chosen selection. this all works perfectly..
the problem is after the general section is made i want the user to be able to then click on any particular book and be shown a more detailed product description (that has like a image and more details..etc) all this stuff is called from the SQL DB which i have made.. but i want to dynamicly link it, not just create an individual page for each book which would take me forever to do... HHHEEEEELLLLPPPPP ive got no idea how to do it. My code for the selection page is attached below.

==================================­ ===================
<?php
//This connects to the Database & shows error if it cant connect
$con = mysql_connect("####","####","####");­
if (!$con) {
die('Could not connect: ' . mysql_error());
}

mysql_select_db("cfb", $con);

echo "<center><table border=0 cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0>";

$selected_category = $_REQUEST selection;
$result = mysql_query("SELECT * FROM books WHERE sub = '$selected_category' ");

$page = $_REQUESTpage;

$numRows = mysql_num_rows($result);

$NUM_RECS_PP = 4;

$totalNumPages = ceil($numRows / $NUM_RECS_PP) - 1;

$numPreviousPages = $page - 1;

$numNextPages = $totalNumPages - $numPreviousPages;

for ($i = 0; $i < ($page -1) * $NUM_RECS_PP; $i++) {
$row = mysql_fetch_array($result); //discard
}

$line = 0;

echo "<tr>";
echo "<td width='150'<br/><br/>I­ sbn</p></td>";
echo "<td width='100'<br/><br/>T­ itle</p></td>";
echo "<td width='100'<br/><br/>A­ uthors</p></td>";
echo "<td width='100'<br/><br/>P­ ublisher</p></td>";
echo "<td width='100'<br/><br/>P­ rice</p></td>";
echo "</tr>";

while(($row = mysql_fetch_array($result)) && ($line < $NUM_RECS_PP) ) {

echo "<tr>";
echo "<td width='150'><br /><br/><br/>" . $rowisbn. " </p>";
echo "<td width='100'><br /><br/><br/>" . $rowtitle. " </p>";
echo "<td width='100'><br /><br/><br/>" . $rowauthors. " </p>";
echo "<td width='100'><br /><br/><br/>" . $rowpublisher. " </p>";
echo "<td> <br /> <br/><br/> $" .$rowprice ." </p>";
echo "<br/><br/>" . $rowitemNo ."</p><br/><br/><­ /p></td>";

echo "<tr valign=bottom>";
echo "<td bgcolor=#ffffff background='img/strichel.gif' colspan=3><img src=img/blank.gif width=1 height=50></td>";
echo "</tr></tr>";
$line++;
}

echo "<tr><td align='center' colspan=3><br/><br/>­ </p><br/><br/><­ /p> ";

for ($i = 0; $i < $numPreviousPages; $i++) {
$pnum = $i+1;
$pnumDisplayed = $pnum;
echo "<a href=FCBCatalogue_Selection.php?pa­ ge=$pnum&selection=$selected_categ­ ory>$pnumDisplayed  ";
}

echo $page ." ";
for ($i = 0; $i < $numNextPages; $i++) {
$pnum = $i+$numPreviousPages +2;
$pnumDisplayed = $pnum;
echo "<a href=FCBCatalogue_Selection.php?pa­ ge=$pnum&selection=$selected_categ­ ory>$pnumDisplayed  ";
}

echo "</td></tr>";
echo "</table></center>";
mysql_close($con);?>
==================================­ =============

in your mysql fetch loop, you could add a link to the title like this (i assume itemNo is your unique id for each book in the table)

echo "<td width='100'><a href=\"yourbookdetailspage.php?id=­ \"" . $row["itemNo"] . "\"> . $row["title"] . "</a></td>";

You'd then create your page that you want to display the book details. You can retrieve the id by using:
$id = $_GET["id"];

then just query the database using that id, then display your book details as required.

You should clean up a lot of that html, your table row's - <td> - should be closed with </td> not with </p>. Also, instead of using line breaks - <br/> - consider using CSS to pad out the text

thesimpsons666 writes...

$con = mysql_connect(###, ###,###);

DUDE!
You really might want to edit that post and remove the details from the database connection line!

opps... thanks heaps man..

thanks for the reply, i put that line in however i get an Parse error:
Parse error when i try to run it

echo "<td width='150'><br /><br/><br/>" . $rowisbn. " </p>";
echo "<td width='100'><a href=\"FCBCatalogue_Indiv_Selectio­ n.php?id= \"" . $rowitemNo . "\"> . $rowtitle . "</td>";
echo "<td width='100'><br /><br/><br/>" . $rowtitle. " </p>";
echo "<td width='100'><br /><br/><br/>" . $rowauthors. " </p>";
echo "<td width='100'><br /><br/><br/>" . $rowpublisher. " </p>";
echo "<td> <br /> <br/><br/> $" .$rowprice ." </p>";
echo "<br/><br/>" . $rowitemNo ."</p><br/><br/><­ /p></td>";

Is there something wrong with my syntax?
The \"" and "\"> you use are new to me.. what do they actually do? (sorry i am a bit of a newb with php)

sorry the echo "<td width='100'><br /><br/><br/>" . $rowtitle. " </p>"; should be incased in /*....*/ (but it still doesnt work) :)

sorry the echo "<td width='100'><br /><br/><br/>" . $rowtitle. " </p>"; should be removed (but it still doesnt work) :)

thesimpsons666 writes...

<a href=\"FCBCatalogue_Indiv_Selectio­ n.php?id= \"" . $rowitemNo . "\">

I'm no PHP guru but isnt it
<a href=\"FCBCatalogue_Indiv_Selectio­ n.php?id= " . $rowitemNo . "\"> .......

thanks for reply. it is however this doesnt work ether... what do the \ do? ive not used them before to hyperlink stuff?

Xception writes...

I'm no PHP guru but isnt it
<a href=\"FCBCatalogue_Indiv_Selectio­ n.php?id= " . $rowitemNo . "\"> .......

Oops yep! Unnecessary quotation there..

\ is the general escape character. It lets you insert a double quotation mark into a string (being already enclosed by quotes) as well as other special characters that can't be represented textually, like a new line (\n) etc.

How isnt it working with the change? Any particular error?

hey thanks for the reply, um i am getting an Parse error: and it says it was expecting T_String...

echo "<td width='150'><br/>" . $rowisbn. " </p>";
echo "<td width='100'><a href=\"FCBCatalogue_Indiv_Selectio­ n.php?id= "\ . $rowitemNo . "\"> . $rowtitle . "</td>";
echo "<td width='100'><br/>" . $rowtitle. " </p></td>";
echo "<td width='100'><br/>" . $rowauthors. " </p></td>";
echo "<td width='100'><br/>" . $rowpublisher. " </p></td>";
echo "<td width='100'><br/>" . $rowpublisher. " </p></td>";
echo "<td width='100'><br /> $" .$rowprice ." </p></td>";

not sure if its a syntax error... do i have to declare id before i use it here?

If you have to put both HTML and PHP in the same file, you're much better off escaping out of PHP back into HTML rather than echoing all of your HTML.

Your code is horrendous! You'll find it much easier to follow if you clean it up.

For example instead of this:

$line = 0;

echo "<tr>";
echo "<td width='150'<br/><br/>I­ sbn</p></td>";
echo "<td width='100'<br/><br/>T­ itle</p></td>";
echo "<td width='100'<br/><br/>A­ uthors</p></td>";
echo "<td width='100'<br/><br/>P­ ublisher</p></td>";
echo "<td width='100'<br/><br/>P­ rice</p></td>";
echo "</tr>";

while(($row = mysql_fetch_array($result)) && ($line < $NUM_RECS_PP) ) {

echo "<tr>";
echo "<td width='150'><br /><br/><br/>" . $rowisbn. " </p>";
echo "<td width='100'><br /><br/><br/>" . $rowtitle. " </p>";
echo "<td width='100'><br /><br/><br/>" . $rowauthors. " </p>";
echo "<td width='100'><br /><br/><br/>" . $rowpublisher. " </p>";
echo "<td> <br /> <br/><br/> $" .$rowprice ." </p>";
echo "<br/><br/>" . $rowitemNo ."</p><br/><br/>­ </p></td>";

echo "<tr valign=bottom>";
echo "<td bgcolor=#ffffff background='img/strichel.gif' colspan=3><img src=img/blank.gif width=1 height=50></td>";
echo "</tr></tr>";
$line++;
}

Do this:

<tr>
<td width='150'<br/><br/>I­ sbn</p></td>
<td width='100'<br/><br/>T­ itle</p></td>
<td width='100'<br/><br/>A­ uthors</p></td>
<td width='100'<br/><br/>P­ ublisher</p></td>
<td width='100'<br/><br/>P­ rice</p></td>
</tr>

<?php
$line = 0;
while (($row = mysql_fetch_array($result)) && ($line < $NUM_RECS_PP) ) {
?>

<tr>
<td width='150'><br /><br/><br/><?ph­ p echo $rowisbn ?></p>
<td width='100'><br /><br/><br/><?ph­ p echo $rowtitle ?></p>
<td width='100'><br /><br/><br/><?ph­ p echo $rowauthors ?></p>
<td width='100'><br /><br/><br/><?ph­ p echo $rowpublisher ?></p>
<td> <br /> <br/><br/> $<?php echo $rowprice ?></p>
<br/><br/><?php echo $rowitemNo ?></p><br/><br/>­ </p></td>

<tr valign=bottom>
<td bgcolor=#ffffff background='img/strichel.gif' colspan=3><img src=img/blank.gif width=1 height=50></td>
</tr></tr>
<?php
$line++;
}
?>

I would normally go much further than this, but in the interest of keeping it easy to understand basically just don't ever echo HTML unless you really really think you need to.

thesimpsons666 writes...

hey thanks for the reply, um i am getting an Parse error: and it says it was expecting T_String...

echo "<td width='150'><br/>" . $rowisbn. " </p>";
echo "<td width='100'><a href=\"FCBCatalogue_Indiv_Selectio­ n.php?id= "\ . $rowitemNo . "\"> . $rowtitle . "</td>";

Need to remove the backslash after the id="

thanks heaps man... didnt know you could do that, will change it

to khorne... thanks man il try it when i get near a computer that has xampp n get back to u

hey man . i removed the backlash so it looks like this:
echo "<td width='100'><a href=\"FCBCatalogue_Indiv_Selectio­ n.php?id=".$rowitemNo ."\">.$rowtitle. </td>";

but i am still getting this error.

Parse error: syntax error, unexpected '"', expecting T_STRING or T_VARIABLE or T_NUM_STRING in C:\Program Files\xampp\htdocs\info316\S000479­ 02\week8\assignment\FCBCatalogue_S­ election.php on line 90

khorne,
i worked it out (it was so silly), <td width='100'>
<a href=\"FCBCatalogue_Indiv_Selectio­ n.php?id=".$rowitemNo."\> ".$rowtitle. "</td>"; just needed to move the " mark .. thanks heaps for your help man your a life saver

Mark had good advice. You really need to clean this up, it will be much easier to work with.

It's also worth pointing out that your HTML is completely hidously broken, and you'd see that clearly if you formatted it right (though I'm surprised Mark didn't comment on it).

The HTML here is bad enough that it simply won't work. Be very careful with HTML in PHP. It's very easy to make a small mistake 1000 times. (And no, I couldn't be bothered fixing the whirlcoded variables.)

<?php
$line = 0;
while (($row = mysql_fetch_array($result)) && ($line < $NUM_RECS_PP) ) {
?>

<tr>
<td><?ph­p echo $rowisbn ?></td>
<td><?php echo $rowtitle ?></td>
<td><?php echo $rowauthors ?></td>
<td><?php echo $rowpublisher ?></td>
<td>$<?php echo $rowprice ?></td>
<td><?php echo $rowitemNo ?></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td bgcolor=#ffffff background='img/strichel.gif' colspan=6><img src=img/blank.gif width=1 height=50></td>
</tr>
<?php
$line++;
}
?>

Matt AustralianGamer writes...

though I'm surprised Mark didn't comment on it

I have a decent in built 'noise filter' these days.

Looking at that code was like staring at fresh vomit. The first thing I needed to point out was to regulate your intake of carrots. After that I became nauseous and could not comment on the spaghetti :)

to Marks... thanks both for your advice i will clean that code up so it reduces vomitting symtoms

Haha no worries. If you need any help with the best ways to clean up let me know.

Hey I do have a question about java if you know anything about it. I am trying to validate a page using Strict DTD but it doesnt like the line

else if (username.indexOf ("@")<0) {

It says character "<" is the first character of a delimiter but occurred as data.

i know i could use Transitional but i would like to understand why it doesnt like this

thesimpsons666 writes...

java

I think you mean JavaScript

Strict DTD

I assume you mean XHTML STRICT in which case, you need to wrap your JavaScript within CDATA tags, ie

<script type="text/javascript">
  //<![CDATA[
  function someFunc() {
  ...
  ..
  .
  //]]>
</script>

Another solution would be to place your JavaScript into a separate JS file, ie

<script type="text/javascript" src="myscript.js"></script>­

Edit: See developer.mozilla.org/en...tead_of_Comments
My preference is still to use external files.

thanks heaps.. yeah externally placing them works and looks abit cleaner.. cheers !!