Posted by Lars Eighner on 06/17/07 00:22

In our last episode,
<1182022780.799807.299250@q69g2000hsb.googlegroups.com>,
the lovely and talented Cigar2011
broadcast on comp.lang.php:

> I will try to be short and to the point.(good Luck) I have a form
> written in HTML. I have a Mysql database. I am using a linux server
> and I would like to use php to write the following code:

> After the user inputs their name, address, email, phone, etc. in my
> html form. They will hit the submit button. I need for the information
> they entered to go into my database.

> I have looked now for about 12 hours and haven't been able to find an
> answer.

What answer? It seems you want the whole thing done for you, like it
is homework. What is the problem you are having? Are you unable
to get the data to your form handler? Funny because although this
has a few more variables, it is exactly like "A simple tutorial,"
which is in section I of the PHP Manual. Yes some manuals bury an
introductory lesson like that way down after all the installation and
configuration stuff, by PHP puts it right on top. Did you spent 12 hours
without finding the very first thing in the Manual? Do you even have the
Manual?

Is your problem with MySQL? If you have the data, can you enter it from the
mysql prompt (creating the table if you need to)? If you can't get the data
into your database from a mysql client prompt, you have no hope of getting
it in with PHP because you have to be able to write valid MySQL commands to
use PHP to send those commands to MySQL. Is the problem that you don't know
MySQL?

If you are past that, what is the problem? Can you connect to the MySQL
server? Can you connect to your MySQL database or not? Can you select a
table? Where is the problem? Which PHP mysql_* functions have you tried?
The manual has detailed examples of most of them. Look them up in the
function index at the bottom of the manual. In 12 hours you must have
found a few of them. What did you try? What went wrong?

> I know I must be missing something since I've been to the w3
> site, codewalkers, phpfreaks,php.net(?), and many more.

> If there is an easier way of doing this I would love to hear it.

People get paid for doing this stuff. Here are some hints if you hope
to get paid for it --- or at least hope to avoid having to pay someone
else to do it for you:

1. Use a text browser to get things to work. Lynx is one, there are
others. Don't worry about making pretty-pretty until you have valid markup
that works. This is a heck of a lot easier, especially if you tend to get
distracted by shiney objects in GUIs.

2. If you are stuck, divide the problem into little parts. In your case,
a way of dividing the parts would be a) make the form, b) get (actually
probably POST --- thats a little joke) the form data to a handler, c)
figure out how the handler will know the data is valid, d) connect to the
database, e) insert the data, and (until you are certain you have it right,
at least) f) figure out how to verify that what you did to the database was
what you intended to do.

3) When you are stuck, try things out by hand. Use PHP CLI to see if you
are getting the markup you think you are getting and pipe it through a
validator. Use the MySQL command-line client (conveniently called mysql on
many systems) to get your MySQL commands right --- because if you cannot
talk intelligently to MySQL from mysql, there is no hope you can talk
intelligently to MySQL through PHP.

4) When something works, save it --- save it some place you won't mess with
it. You can copy it and fill in the blanks to perform a task that is just a
little different. When you are copying something from your saved snippets
for the third or fourth time, it time to consider making a function of it.

5) When you are read to make pretty-pretty, use stylesheets as much as
possible. If you use CSS, learn to use context so you don't have to have
a class or id attribute on every little element.


> If somene could point me in the right direction I could stop banging
> my head and pulling my hair.

> THANK YOU in advance for your advice.

--
Lars Eighner <http://larseighner.com/> <http://myspace.com/larseighner>
Countdown: 583 days to go.
An amazing thing about Christians: people who doubt being related to monkeys,
but are certain they belong to the same species as Paris Hilton or Karl Rove.

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