Need advice on updating a database from a form - php

I am not sure how to word the question because I don't really know what exactly I'm even asking for. Basically I have built a small sales portal that puts info in a database and then spits it back out in various ways. Occasionally the records need to be updated, but I need a way to update them from the web page where the records are displayed (without going to a completely different page) so that the sales people do not have to go into the database to change the records. I know how to use the UPDATE function with PHP, what I would like to do is have an "Edit" button at the end of each row and have the information become changeable when the button is clicked. What programming language would I need to do this in? How would that code be structured? I am really only familiar with PHP, HTML, and CSS.
Thanks for your help!

You're going to need javascript to handle the form fields the way you mentioned.
Each record row wil have the original value and a hidden input
Javascript will hide the original value and show the input
You could either have a save button at the end of each record row or a master "save all" button". Having multiple at the end of each record will be easier but from a users point of view maybe a bit cumbersome.
Use AJAX to send the updated data to the server - this should be handled in the "save record" javascript function.
Then you'll need PHP or some other server side language to actually update the record.

Related

How to execute mysql_fetch_row() upon a button click

I am tying to put some user data from the database using php.
The database contains so many record and i am displaying it using mysql_fetch_row() and this gives me the fields of first row.
Now the problem is a have two buttons namely next and previous. And when a click next the fields in the next row has to be obtained the they should be inserted into page without loading the page once again. I am facing problem with this.
I am using php for server side programming and html, css for client side programming.
I think that no one will give you the answer. Too many to write. You need to read about ajax (this is the technology that will allow you to do some action without page reloading).
You need to write javascript(you can use some library like jquery) function which will open some php page with the data that you want and then update your site.
Here you have some nice tutorial:
http://www.w3schools.com/jquery/jquery_ajax_intro.asp

PHP on a site with dynamic content

SO FAR I have made a website which is connected to a MYSQL database. On the website I have many buttons, each button corresponds to a table in my database. When I click the button, a javascript function opens my php file in this form
xmlhttp.open("GET", "addPoint.php?q=" + name, true); Where name is the name of the table
Back to the html. I have a div with an ID that will update with whatever the PHP echos.
The div is now populated with table, reflecting the table in mysql. This all works fine.
Here is the problem: I am trying to implement a voting system, where you vote by clicking on one of the elements of the newly created table. AFAIK the MYSQL updating which will need to happen for the vote to work, will need to be done in PHP, which means that I need to tell the PHP file
The name of the table
The name of the element
I am reluctant to use forms because I would like to just be able to click some text, NOT have to fill in a form or click a radio button.
So how do I get these 2 bits of info to a PHP file? Is the structure which I am doing this any good or should I step back and redesign?
Thanks for reading please let me know if I have been ambiguous.
Familiarize yourself with JQuery. It's great for projects like these.
http://www.w3schools.com/jquery/default.asp
As Norse already alluded to, use javascript to submit a "form" request for you. The javascript can populate the table and element values for you based on the button which was clicked. It is up to you whether this is a GET/POST.
JQuery would be a great way to help make this easier, but you don't need it if you don't want it.

What technology use to make a webpage to update in real time?

I want to make a webpage where an user can add the title from a book he has read. These changes are reflected in real time on a list that contains all books he has introduced on the database, without the need to press any "reload" button. By example: there is no need to refresh (F5) the page to see the last book added.
I don't know if I can do this in PHP or in any other language, so I would like to know which is the best suited for something like this.
Thank you.
I think you are looking for Ajax. Would be able to asynchronously update the section of the page (the post in this case) without the need for page refresh.
You will want to do this with javascript, using the onchange event, and for a discussion on this you can look at: Call Javascript onchange event by programatically changing textbox value.
Basically, you react to the data being changed, then just send it immediately over using ajax to the server, but, you need to be aware of two things.
First, how will you handle errors, such as there is no book with that title, or the length is too long. I tend to put the error message in or by the place where they had the bad data.
The other is that you need to pass back the id when the data was inserted, so that when they change it again you can just do an update, so you will need to store that. I tend to put the database id I need in the element id, but you can keep it in an array in javascript, since it will maintain state for you.

Is there a way I can change where a PHP page selects from a MYSQL database by using a form?

I have a website and I want to make it easier for someone to change certain information being shown without them having to edit the HTML/PHP and using FTP.
At the moment I have this information in a php file which is included in the MYSQL query.
It would be a lot easier if this was done using a form, say a text field where a person can type the table name and it updates on the main page and starts displaying that table instead.
Sorry if I haven't explained this well. :(
I have a good news for you.
Every php/mysql-driven site in the world is made this exact way - to edit site contents using HTML form.
Even first PHP version name was PHP/FI, stands for Form Interpreter.
Even better, a site user doesn't have to deal with mysql - it's all being done in PHP. No need to type table names into form field - all table names already written in PHP code.
Usual PHP application being connected to just one mysql database - so, no need to choose.
As for the tables, it's being done this way: a user selects some human-readable matter, like "Latest news" and being redirected to the PHP script called, say, news.php. this script runs a query for the news table in the database and outputs some HTML formatted news highlights!
Even more, you don't even need to program! There are plenty of ready-made programs, such as Wordpress
store what you want to be editable in a mysql text field.
remove tags you dont want him to see
in the form echo the editable information in a textarea
have him edit
add tags
update the mysql
note depending on the users knowledge depends on how many tags you would like to remove/add. the less per a field the easier.
on more complicated things i like to have the person log in. if he has permission then all the editable fields have an edit button. if he clicks it it goes to a page with a form that he can use to edit that 1 field

Editable table in PHP

In a PHP application I'm building, I'd like to have an 'editable' table. The idea is that each row will have an edit button, which, when clicked, will replace certain fields with text fields and select lists and change to a save button. When the user clicks save, the data data should be validated and changed if appropriate.
I'm mainly tackling this as a learning project (I'm aware there's a ton of stuff already out there) and to see if I can get anything 'cool' working. I've created a PHP table-generating class that can take an array of objects as a datasource, and can have columns created based on those class methods.
e.g.
$table = new Table($dataSource);
$table->addColumn('Name', 'getName');
$table->addColumn('Amount Due', array('getOrdersManager', 'getTotalAmountDue')); //First calls getOrdersManager() on each data item and then calls the getTotalAmountDue() on the result
I'd like to try my hand at extending this to be able to the table row and have those changes reflect on the corresponding object in the data source.
I don't really have very much experience with AJAX although it's clearly going to play a very important role in getting this to work correctly.
Any tips on how I should approach such a task?
Edit: I'm not really interesting in looking at Ajax libraries at this point (I do have some experience with jQuery). I'm more interested in learning the basics of Ajax at this point.
my tip is to use jquery(does most of the heavy lifting for you and is easy to learn).
The idea is that each row will have an
edit button, which, when clicked, will
replace certain fields with text
fields and select lists and change to
a save button
http://api.jquery.com/click/
When the user clicks save, the data
data should be validated and changed
if appropriate.
http://api.jquery.com/jQuery.post/
Some things to be aware of/think about:
Are you going to send every field change to the server, or only the whole row (the latter is more resource efficient, but not necessarily as accurate)
How are you going to ensure the data displayed stays accurate even if the update to the server fails for some reason (either a network failure or a DB/validation error)
How will you ensure the user has permission to update the record and that you don't open a security hole by allowing the AJAX responder just to update whatever record it is told to. My approach has been that if a record is shown in the interactive table then the user has the permission to update it, so a cache of record IDs is held in the session when the table is created
Are you going to load options dynamically? If you don't, then a long table can end up containing a lot of HTML because of repetition of the select controls, but again it is more resource efficient not to have a request every time a user clicks into a dropdown. One compromise might be to put the options into a hidden HTML field and load them dynamically into the correct place when a user clicks a dropdown

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