Duplicate Articles appearing on website - php

Question

I have recently noticed on my website that a news page is repeating news articles from all "May"'s in the database (you will notice by looking here: www.darlingtontowntwinning.co.uk/news_&_events)
I know that the coding is messy and possibly out of date, however, the website was built for us, and I don't have the skills (yet - I am learning!) to change the entire website at this time.
Is there a way to stop this from occuring - since I believe I have already got a limit of one of each record to display:
<div id="right" class="news">
<h3>Archive</h3>
<? $news=$session->getNews("","","",1);?>
<? while($article=mysql_fetch_array($news)){?>
<?
$date = $article['thedate'];
$year = date('Y', $date);
$month = date('F', $date);
?>
<h4><?=$month." - ".$year;?></h4>
<nav class="small">
<? $innernews=$session->getNews("",$month,$year);?>
<? while($innerarticle=mysql_fetch_array($innernews)){?>
<a href="/news/<?=$innerarticle['ftitle']?>" <? if($title==$innerarticle['ftitle']){?> class="active"<? }?>><?=$innerarticle['title']?></a>
<? }?>
</nav>
<? }?>
</div>
Get news function is:
function getNews($title,$month,$year,$group){
global $database;
return $database->getNews($title,$month,$year,$group);}
$database->getNews function is:
//get news
function getNews($title,$month,$year,$group){
if($title){
$q=$this->query("SELECT * FROM ".TBL_NEWS." WHERE ftitle = '$title'" );
return mysql_fetch_array($q);
}else if($year && $month){
$q=mysql_query("SELECT * FROM ".TBL_NEWS." WHERE (FROM_UNIXTIME(thedate, '%Y') = '$year') AND (FROM_UNIXTIME(thedate, '%M') = '$month') ORDER BY thedate DESC");
return $q;
}else if($group){
$q=$this->query("SELECT * FROM ".TBL_NEWS." GROUP BY (FROM_UNIXTIME(thedate, '%Y')),(FROM_UNIXTIME(thedate, '%M')) ORDER BY thedate DESC" );
return $q;
}else{
$q=$this->query("SELECT * FROM ".TBL_NEWS." ORDER BY thedate DESC" );
return $q;
}
}

Answer 1

The code appears to be working
//get news from group 1
$news=$session->getNews("","","",1);
// for each article work out the date
while($article=mysql_fetch_array($news))
$date = $article['thedate'];
$year = date('Y', $date);
$month = date('F', $date);
...
// then select everything again after working out the date (odd way of doing it)
$innernews=$session->getNews("",$month,$year);
// and output each
So, because there are two event in May, it's outputting the header twice. Let me go over that...
Get news grouped by date (allegedly)
June, just 1 article
1:
Output the header
Select the articles
Output the article
May, 2 articles
1:
Output the header
Select the articles
Output the article
2:
Output the header
Select the articles
Output the article
This group by SELECT * FROM ".TBL_NEWS." GROUP BY (FROM_UNIXTIME(thedate, '%Y')),(FROM_UNIXTIME(thedate, '%M')) ORDER BY thedate DESC is not behaving as expected and is returning two results for May
Try this code
<div id="right" class="news">
<h3>Archive</h3>
<?
$news=$session->getNews();
$bydate=array(); // articles by date
while($article=mysql_fetch_array($news)){
$k=date('YF', $date);
if (!isset($bydate[$k])) $bydate[$k]=array(); // create sub array
$bydate[$k][]=$article; // push article to this sub array
}
foreach ($bydate as $date->$articles){ // run through top array
?><h4><?= substr($date,4) . " - " . substr($date,0,4); ?></h4><nav class="small"><?
foreach ($articles as $innerarticle){ // now each article within this date
?><a href="/news/<?=$innerarticle['ftitle']?>" <? if($title==$innerarticle['ftitle']){?> class="active"<? }?>><?=$innerarticle['title']?></a><?
}
?></nav><?
}
?></div>
and please change
function getNews($title,$month,$year,$group){
to
function getNews($title=NULL, $month=NULL, $year=NULL, $group=NULL){

Answer 2

Welp. There's your problem.
Your function says, if($title). Since $title comes in as a required parameter in the function, I think PHP is registering it as, yes, that's a variable that is set. So, basically what happens, then, is you're getting back a mysql_fetch_array result, which you are then running mysql_fetch_array for a second time.
Try:
//in your function getNews()
if($title){
$q=$this->query("SELECT * FROM ".TBL_NEWS." WHERE ftitle = '$title'" );
return $q;
}
//rest of function down here
That could work. The issue I see is, doing that, you WILL CAUSE ISSUES ANYWHERE ELSE THAT FUNCTION IS CALLED. So be careful! The fix above is the fix to ensure you get code into a better state. If you want a hack, try this:
<? $innernews=$session->getNews("",$month,$year);?>
<? foreach($innernews as $innerarticle) {?>
<a href="/news/<?=$innerarticle['ftitle']?>" <? if($title==$innerarticle['ftitle']){?> class="active"<? }?>><?=$innerarticle['title']?></a>
<? }?>
The foreach loop should give you what you want!