show image if new record since users last visit - php

Question

Is it possible to have a image that will change if an sql record is created since the last visit of that registerd user and another image if criteria not met.
The record table is matningar with a date field datum.
Maybe the below code something close to achieving this?!
<?php
$stmt = "SELECT * FROM matningar WHERE `datum` > date("F j, Y, g:i a", $database- >getLastUserRegisteredDate()";
$result=mysql_query($stmt);
foreach($result as $rec){
echo "<img src=\"images/somepicture.png\" />";
}
?>
Would really appreciate some input on how to proceed!

Answer 1

I believe the best approach to this would be to store the updated record time using this method when creating your table.
updated TIMESTAMP DEFAULT CURRENT_TIMESTAMP ON UPDATE CURRENT_TIMESTAMP
This way when you SELECT records from the database and you're displaying them on the page, you can do something like so to display separate images based on current users last visit:
foreach($results as $record) {
if($record['updated'] > $currentUser->getLastVisited()) {
echo "<img .... />"; // Has been modified since last visit
} else {
echo "<img .... />"; // Not been modified since last visit
}
// Display rest of this record
}

Answer 2

You could count the records returned and use conditional statements to determine what image you want to display. For example using your code:
/* Using a mysql query which is discouraged and will be depreceated in future */
// declare variables
$i = 0;
$lastRegisteredDate = date("F j, Y, g:i a", $database->getLastUserRegisteredDate());
// declare statement string
$stmt = "SELECT * FROM matningar WHERE `datum` > $lastRegisteredDate";
// execute query
$result=mysql_query($stmt);
// make sure query executed properly
if (!$result) {
die('Invalid query: ' . mysql_error());
}
// manually count the number of results
while ($row = mysql_fetch_assoc($result)) {
$i++;
}
// display image based on conditions
if($i == 0) {
// display one image
}
else {
// display another image
}
Just as a side note mysql functions are going to be depreceated in upcoming PHP releases so I would start looking at using the PDO or mysqli libraries for mysql queries.
/* Using the PDO library */
// declare variables
$i = 0;
$lastRegisteredDate = date("F j, Y, g:i a", $database->getLastUserRegisteredDate());
// declare database handler
$DBH = new PDO( "mysql:host=$host;dbname=$dbname", $user, $pass );
// prepare query
$STH = $DBH->prepare( "SELECT * FROM matningar WHERE `datum` > ?" );
// execute query
$STH->execute( array( $lastRegisteredDate ) );
// set fetch mode
$STH->setFetchMode( PDO::FETCH_OBJ );
// manually count the number of results
while ( $row = $STH->fetch() ) {
$i++;
}
// display image based on conditions
if($i == 0) {
// display one image
}
else {
// display another image
}