PHP Forum

**konetch** · 07-19-2009, 08:12 PM

I'm still extremely new to php, and am trying to become a developer instead of a designer. Right now I'm trying to conquer a huge project for my skills. I basically want to create a site where users will be able to write articles on there own local sports. I found a couple scripts on the internet and am dissecting them to figure out how they work.

I want the pages on the site to be dynamically created. (i.e. http://mysitename.com/index.php?post=1&user=sportsman )

I've found a helpful script that creates a post on the site, and to create an article you click on a link that looks like http://localhost/display.php?admin=1

I saw where they got this in the code, but when I tried to recreate with my own code, it didn't work.

Here's the files:

newarticle.php

PHP Code:


			
<?php

class simpleCMS {

  var $host;
  var $username;
  var $password;
  var $table;

  public function display_public() {
    $q = "SELECT * FROM testDB ORDER BY created DESC LIMIT 3";
    $r = mysql_query($q);

    if ( $r !== false && mysql_num_rows($r) > 0 ) {
      while ( $a = mysql_fetch_assoc($r) ) {
        $title = stripslashes($a['title']);
        $bodytext = stripslashes($a['bodytext']);

        $entry_display .= <<<ENTRY_DISPLAY

    <div class="post">
        <h2>
            $title
        </h2>
        <p>
          $bodytext
        </p>
    </div>

ENTRY_DISPLAY;
      }
    } else {
      $entry_display = <<<ENTRY_DISPLAY

    <h2> This Page Is Under Construction </h2>
    <p>
      No entries have been made on this page. 
      Please check back soon, or click the
      link below to add an entry!
    </p>

ENTRY_DISPLAY;
    }
    $entry_display .= <<<ADMIN_OPTION

    <p class="admin_link">
      <a href="{$_SERVER['PHP_SELF']}?admin=1">Add a New Entry</a>
    </p>

ADMIN_OPTION;

    return $entry_display;
  }

  public function display_admin() {
    return <<<ADMIN_FORM

    <form action="{$_SERVER['PHP_SELF']}" method="post">
    
      <label for="title">Title:</label><br />
      <input name="title" id="title" type="text" maxlength="150" />
      <div class="clear"></div>
     
      <label for="bodytext">Body Text:</label><br />
      <textarea name="bodytext" id="bodytext"></textarea>
      <div class="clear"></div>
      
      <input type="submit" value="Create This Entry!" />
    </form>
    
    <br />
    
    <a href="display.php">Back to Home</a>

ADMIN_FORM;
  }

  public function write($p) {
    if ( $_POST['title'] )
      $title = mysql_real_escape_string($_POST['title']);
    if ( $_POST['bodytext'])
      $bodytext = mysql_real_escape_string($_POST['bodytext']);
    if ( $title && $bodytext ) {
      $created = time();
      $sql = "INSERT INTO testDB VALUES('$title','$bodytext','$created')";
      return mysql_query($sql);
    } else {
      return false;
    }
  }

  public function connect() {
    mysql_connect($this->host,$this->username,$this->password) or die("Could not connect. " . mysql_error());
    mysql_select_db($this->table) or die("Could not select database. " . mysql_error());

    return $this->buildDB();
  }

  private function buildDB() {
    $sql = <<<MySQL_QUERY
CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS testDB (
title        VARCHAR(150),
bodytext    TEXT,
created        VARCHAR(100)
)
MySQL_QUERY;

    return mysql_query($sql);
  }

}

?>

display.php

PHP Code:


			
 <html><head>
    <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8" />
    
    <title>Simple CMS with PHP</title>
    
    <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="style.css" />
  </head>

  <body>
      <div id="page-wrap">
    <?php
    
      include_once('newarticle.php');
      $obj = new simpleCMS();

      /* CHANGE THESE SETTINGS FOR YOUR OWN DATABASE */
      $obj->host = 'localhost';
      $obj->username = 'username';
      $obj->password = 'db_password';
      $obj->table = 'database_name';
      $obj->connect();
    
      if ( $_POST )
        $obj->write($_POST);
    
      echo ( $_GET['admin'] == 1 ) ? $obj->display_admin() : $obj->display_public();
    
    ?>
    </div>
  </body>

</html>

I was hoping someone with a little more experience could help me out. I'm not asking for a full page of code, because I really want to learn how this works. If you could just point me in the right direction it would be great.

Thanks

**Lashtal** · 07-20-2009, 02:42 AM

so that is their script, and what did you try that didn't work?

**DaiWelsh** · 07-20-2009, 10:18 AM

Firstly pick a different script, that one one is not going to help you learn - simple example it has a variable called table which is actually the database name, not the database table at all

Secondly as Lashtal said if you want us to debug your code, post your code, that looks like their code? Also tell us what error message you get etc. - "it didn't work" is not very helpful

**konetch** · 12:38 PM

Thanks, I guess I should have included my own script as well. I basically tried to copy the one off the internet as much as I could, but took out the unnecessary code. I have two file newlink.php and index.php

newlink.php

PHP Code:


			
<?

class newlink {

  public function displayLink () {

    $link  .= <<<PAGE_LINK

    <a href="{$_SERVER['PHP_SELF']}?post=1">Read my first page!!!</a>

  }

  public function displayPage () {
    <h2>Hello World</h2>
    <p>This is a test post</p>
  }
}
?>

index.php

PHP Code:


			
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN"
"http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
  <head>
    <title>Home</title>
  </head>

  <body>
<?

  require_once("newlink.php");

    $obj = new newlink ();

    echo ( $_GET['post'] == 1 ) ? $obj->displayLink() : $obj->displayPage();

?>
  </body>
</html>

I get a parse error on line 18 of newlink.php

Thanks

**konetch** · 07-21-2009, 07:39 PM

can anyone help?

**NullPointer** · 08:22 PM

The parse error occurs because you forget to close your heredoc string. Just so you are aware, the displayLink function has no effect. To begin with you can't append a string to $link because it is not defined within the scope of that function.

If you are trying to define it, use = not .=

If $link is a member variable of your class you will have to access it explicitly:

PHP Code:


			
$this->link .= <<<PAGE_LINK



    <a href="{$_SERVER['PHP_SELF']}?post=1">Read my first page!!!</a>

PAGE_LINK;

If $link is not a member variable, assigning it a value has no effect beyond the scope of that function.

If you provide more info on what you expect that class to do I can provide a better answer. Also, this is somewhat unrelated, but I noticed you are using short tags (ie <? instead of <?php ). Don't. It is a bad habit. Doing so reduces the portability of your application and can cause problems if you are trying to use PHP in combination with XML.

**konetch** · 07-21-2009, 08:37 PM

okay thanks nullpointer for the help I'm now getting a parse error for line 20

PHP Code:


			
<?php

class newlink {

  public function displayLink () {

$this->link .= <<<PAGE_LINK

    <a href="{$_SERVER['PHP_SELF']}?post=1">Read my first page!!!</a>
PAGE_LINK;  

  }

  public function displayPage () {
    <h2>Hello World</h2>
    <p>This is a test post</p>
  }
}

?>

Sorry for asking so many question, I'm still trying to learn and this part of php is still new. I'm trying to get as much info off google.

**NullPointer** · 07-22-2009, 01:24 AM

I overlooked it before, but your syntax is invalid in in the displayPage function. HTML and PHP are distinct, in your code you start writing HTML code in the middle of your PHP function. Try:

PHP Code:


			
  public function displayPage () {

?>

    <h2>Hello World</h2>

    <p>This is a test post</p>

<?php

  }

}

Closing the PHP tags tells PHP that it no longer needs to parse the code and it assumes all of the code, until an opening tag, is to be sent to the browser as output. Alternatively you can just store the HTML in a string and then output manually.

Also, I wasn't clear on what you expect displayLink to do. If all it needs to do is output the link code you can do it like this:

PHP Code:


			
public function displayLink () {

?>

    <a href="<?php echo $_SERVER['PHP_SELF']; ?>?post=1">Read my first page!!!</a>

<?php

}

This is somewhat unrelated, but personally I am not a fan of the heredoc syntax. If I have a large string that I need to store I prefer to use an output buffer. Not for any particular reason, I just don't like heredoc.

**konetch** · 04:33 PM

Any other way you would suggest getting the link I'm looking for. Maybe not a full string of code but just a tutorial?

Thanks. You're right I need to look at my PHP syntax better.

EDIT: I got it working. If anyone ever runs accross this post in the future this is how you do it

index.php

PHP Code:


			
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN"
"http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
  <head>
    <title>Home</title>
  </head>

  <body>
<?php

  require_once("newlink.php");

    $obj = new newlink();
if (isset($_GET["post"]) && $_GET["post"] == 1) {
    echo $obj->displayPage();
} else {
    echo  $obj->displayLink();
}
?>
  </body>
</html>

newlink.php

PHP Code:


			
<?php

class newlink {

  public function displayLink () {

?>
    <a href="<?php echo $_SERVER['PHP_SELF']; ?>?post=1">Read my first page!!!</a>
<?php
  }

  public function displayPage () {
?>
    <h2>Hello World</h2>
    <p>This is a test post</p>
<?php
  }
}
?>

Thanks everyone for the help