Create dynamic category menu in PHP - php

Question

I'm new to coding and PHP and I want to create an online shop for a school project. I want simple code that selects categories in my DB shows them on a home page and when click on it select all things in that category and shows them. I wrote code that can create buttons for each category that are in my database but I have no idea how write code that when the user clicks on a button selects that category.
<?php
ini_set('display_errors', 1);
ini_set('display_startup_errors', 1);
error_reporting(E_ALL);
$servername = "localhost";
$username = "root";
$password = "123456789";
$dbname = "shopdb";
$conn = new mysqli($servername, $username, $password, $dbname);
if ($conn->connect_error) {
die("Connection failed: " . $conn->connect_error);
}
$sql = "SELECT category FROM good ";
$result = $conn->query($sql);
echo "category: ";
while($row = $result->fetch_assoc()) {
echo "<button>$row[category]</button>" ;
}
$conn->close();
?>

Answer 1

If you want to use only php you can redirect the use after he clicks the category.
while($row = $result->fetch_assoc()) {
$category = $row["category"];
echo "<a href=’?category=$category’>$category</a>" ;
}
Make the link look like a button with css.
So when the user clicks on the link it redirects him to the same page he is currently but it adds the
?category in the end of it. home.php?category=clothes.
In the same page use $_GET to get the ?category value from the url.
And make a query to get your items for the category.
if(isset($_GET[’category’])){
$category = $_GET[’category’];
$sql = mysqli_prepare(”SELECT * FROM items WHERE category = ?”);
$sql->bind_param(”ss”, $category);
$sql->execute();
while($row = $sql->fetch_assoc()) {
echo $row[”name”];
}
}
And you should do this before you close your mysqli connection.
You may need to change the query because i don’t know your tables and you could maby wrap the while loop inside a div or something. But i hope you get the basic idea.
If you want it to look more fancy you could do the same with jQuery and Ajax since you have the jQuery tag.
Make a click function for your category buttons. You should add classes on them. <button class=’category’>$row[category]</button>.
Make another file for your ajax requests to get your items for the category.
$(”.category”).click(function() {
var category = $(this).text();
$.ajax({
url: ”items.php?category=” + category,
type: ”GET”,
success: function(items) {
console.log(items);
}
});
});
In your items.php or whatever you named it you can basically do the same php code that i wrote earlier.
Get the category name from the url with $_GET[’category’] and use it to search the items from your database.
The items variable that we have as parameter in the ajax success function, now contains everything that items.php echo out.
Now continue to handle the data in the items variable and display it.

Answer 2

You must pass your php variable in your html code. After in your html code try this.
<?php while( $row = $result->fetch_assoc() ) { ?>
<button><?php echo $row[category] ?></button>
<?php } ?>