More database fun

[Iain]

In answer to your other question, it's up to you. If you feel that having all the content in one field is the best way to go then do that. Another approach would be to have another table called item_pages which is linked to items. items stores the details about the item and item_pages stores the content for each page. This would only be of any use if your articles are going to be several pages long

[Kezzer]

ok, i can make item_pages yeh, sometimes some of the tutorials will be put on multiple pages. Only problem is getting page numbers to display at the bottom of the page. It may take some troubleshooting.

With the fact to return the info using the same page, yeh that's what i wanted to do, i just wasn't sure if it was possible. So i can query from another page and get it to display on that page? i.e. article.php?section=1&category=photoshop&ID=2

So i would catch the URL to make it display the info from the db?

Still not sure why the author won't appear, i tried changing the table name to author but this still was not the problem. I'll have to check up on it

[Iain]

If you;re going direct to an article you only need article.php?ID=2

The rest of the information should be in the database against the item anyway so you can get it when you open the page, no need to put it in the URL

[Kezzer]

Ok, so if i click on "tutorials, articles or reviews" i want the page to display the categories of that page. So far i've come up with this as i want it to display the amount of rows linked to that particular category to show how many tutorials, reviews or articles there are. This still isn't finished as i can't get my head around some stuff. I still have to link the $row['category'] yet.

$query = "SELECT ID FROM items"; $result = mysql_query ($query) 
or die ('<p>'. mysql_error() .'</p><p>'. $query .'</p>'); $sum = mysql_num_rows ($result);

$sql = mysql_query("SELECT category FROM items");
while($row= mysql_fetch_array($sql)){
print "<b>".$row['category']."</b>" . $result;
} 

Any ideas? I would imagine i would do <a href= around the $row['category'] and link it to the ID of that category but i would also need to tell it "this category in only this section" so not sure about that one.

[Iain]

Without seeing the full code and the database design and content it's impossible to say what you need. My guess is something similar to the code below. Note, if an item does not always have a category then you need a LEFT JOIN in your SQL.

$query = "SELECT count(items.ID) AS cat_count, categories.category 
    FROM items, categories
    WHERE items.item_types_ID = ".$_GET["ID"]." AND items.categories_ID=categories.ID
GROUP BY items.categories_ID";
    
    $result = mysql_query($query);
    
    while ($row = mysql_fetch_array($result))
    {
        echo $row["category"]." (".$row["cat_count"]." items)<br />";
    } 

[Kezzer]

Well i could give you access, can i trust you though?

[Iain]

yes you can trust me, but it's entirely your choice

[Kezzer]

Sure thing, i'll poke you when you're on IRC. Missed you last time i asked a question

[Kezzer]

ta for doing that az, i'll have a look over it when i'm sober

[Kezzer]

Right, i've had another good look at it. Does this mean i don't need the switch? As long as i've got the ID of the item_types then it still works fine?

[Iain]

no switch is needed, just use the code i put in the file

[Kezzer]

Right, i'm going to start working on it again, i had a break 'cause i got sick of it from working on it so much

I still need to understand how to be able to click on the categories and it take me into the list and then click on an item in the list to take me into a tutorial. Although this is the complicated way to do, it's just the way i want it done

echo "<a href=\"id=" . $line['id'] . "&category=" . $line['category'] . "\">"
 . $line['title'] . "</a> by " . $line['author'] . ", posted on the: " . $line['date'] .
 "<br><blockquote>" . $line['explanation'] . "</blockquote>"; 

So something along those lines but simpler for displaying all the tutorials in that category.

echo $row["category"]." (".$row["cat_count"]." items)<br /><br />"; 

If that's what i've got, i'll probably need to put

<href=\"id=" . $line['id'] . "&category=" . $line['category'] . "\">" 

I would then put what is to be displayed such as the category and how many items are in that category. I would have to link to a seperate file right?

It's all very confuzzling