Home arrow PHP arrow Page 4 - Building A Quick-And-Dirty Guestbook With patGuestbook (part 2)

Bringing In The Database - PHP

In this concluding article of our two-part series on rapid guestbook implementation with patGuestbook, find out how to tweak patGuestbook a litle more by controlling the viewable entries, customizing the user interface, and protecting access to the administration module.

TABLE OF CONTENTS:
  1. Building A Quick-And-Dirty Guestbook With patGuestbook (part 2)
  2. Adopting A Moderate Approach
  3. If Looks Could Kill...
  4. Bringing In The Database
  5. A Well-Formed Plan
  6. When Things Go Wrong
  7. Locking It Down
  8. Over And Out
By: Harish Kamath, (c) Melonfire
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Rating: starstarstarstarstar / 76
March 11, 2003

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At this point, I have identified the layout for the pages, and also shown you the menu that will be displayed on each page. Now for the most important item - connecting all this up to the patGuestbook database.

Here's the code: 
<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0">
<tr>
<td class="textinvert" 
colspan="3">
Welcome to {GB_NAME}!<br><br>
</td>
</tr>
</table> 
<pattemplate:tmpl 
name="entry">
<pattemplate:tmpl name="displayName" visibility="hidden" varscope="entry"
type="simpleCondition" 
requiredVars="ENTRY_NAME">
<table width="550" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="1" 
border="0">
<tr>
<td>
<table width="100%" cellpadding="6" cellspacing="0"
border="0">
<tr>
<td 
class="head" >By
<b>{ENTRY_NAME}</b> on {ENTRY_DATE}</td>
</tr>
</table>
</td>
</tr>
</pattemplate:tmpl>
<tr>
<td 
class="text">
<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"
width="100%">
<tr>
<td>
<br>
<table border="0" cellpadding="0"
cellspacing="2">
<pattemplate:tmpl 
name="displayEmail"
visibility="hidden" varscope="entry" type="simpleCondition"
requiredVars="ENTRY_EMAIL">
<tr valign="top">
<td class="text"
nowrap><b>{LABEL_EMAIL}</b></td>
<td
class="text"> : </td>
<td class="text"><a
href="mailto:{ENTRY_EMAIL}">{ENTRY_EMAIL}</a></td>
</tr>
</pattemplate:tmpl>
<pattemplate:tmpl 
name="displayHomepage"
visibility="hidden" varscope="entry" type="simpleCondition"
requiredVars="ENTRY_HOMEPAGE">
<tr valign="top">
<td class="text"
nowrap><b>{LABEL_HOMEPAGE}</b></td>
<td class="text"> : </td>
<td class="text"><a href="{ENTRY_HOMEPAGE}"
target="_blank">{ENTRY_HOMEPAGE}</a></td>
</tr>
</pattemplate:tmpl>
<pattemplate:tmpl 
name="displayEntry"
visibility="hidden" varscope="entry" type="simpleCondition"
requiredVars="ENTRY_ENTRY">
<tr>
<td colspan="3"><img
src="skins/melonfire/img/px.gif" 
width="1" height="5" alt=""
border="0"></td>
</tr>
<tr valign="top">
<td class="text"
nowrap><b>{LABEL_ENTRY}</b></td>
<td class="text"> : </td>
<td class="text">{ENTRY_ENTRY}</td>
</tr>
</pattemplate:tmpl>
<pattemplate:tmpl name="ratings"
visibility="hidden">
<tr>
<td colspan="3"><img
src="skins/melonfire/img/px.gif" 
width="1" height="5" alt=""
border="0"></td>
</tr>
<tr valign="top">
<td class="text"
colspan="3"><b>Ratings</b></td>
</tr>
<pattemplate:tmpl
name="ratingEntry">
<tr valign="top">
<td class="text"
nowrap><b> 
· {RATING_LABEL}</b></td>
<td
class="text"> : </td>
<td
class="text">{RATING_VALUE}</td>
</tr>
</pattemplate:tmpl>
</pattemplate:tmpl>
</table>
<img src="skins/melonfire/img/px.gif" width="1"
height="5" 
alt="" border="0"><br>
</td>
</tr>
</table>
</td>
</tr>
</table>
<img src="skins/melonfire/img/px.gif" 
width="1" height="20" alt=""
border="0"><br> </pattemplate:tmpl>
<table 
width="550" cellpadding="1" cellspacing="0" border="0">
<tr>
<td>
<table 
width="100%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="0"
border="0">
<tr>
<pattemplate:tmpl 
name="previouspage"
type="condition" conditionvar="URL_PREVIOUSPAGE">
<patTemplate:sub
condition="default">
<td 
class="text" nowrap width="33%">
<a href="{URL_PREVIOUSPAGE}"
style="text-decoration:none"><< 
previous page</a>
<br>
</td>
</patTemplate:sub>
<patTemplate:sub 
condition="empty">
<td width="33%"><img
src="skins/melonfire/img/px.gif" 
width="1" height="1" alt=""
border="0"></td>
</patTemplate:sub>
</pattemplate:tmpl>
<td align="center" class="text" width="33%"><a
href="{URL_ADDENTRY}" 
style="text-decoration:none">add entry</a></td>
<pattemplate:tmpl 
name="nextpage"
type="condition" conditionvar="URL_NEXTPAGE">
<patTemplate:sub
condition="default">
<td 
class="text" align="right"
nowrap width="33%">
<a href="{URL_NEXTPAGE}"
style="text-decoration:none" 
>next page >></a>
<br>
</td>
</patTemplate:sub>
<patTemplate:sub 
condition="empty">
<td width="33%"><img
src="skins/melonfire/img/px.gif" 
width="1" height="1" alt=""
border="0"></td>
</patTemplate:sub>
</pattemplate:tmpl>
</tr>
</table>
</td>
</tr>
</table>
Chaos, you're thinking...and rightly so. But let me help make some sense of it.

1. First, the page header, displaying the name of the guestbook. 
<tr>
<td class="textinvert" colspan="3">
Welcome to {GB_NAME}!<br><br>
</td>
</tr>
{GB_NAME} is a special patGuestbook template variable that will be replaced by the name of the guestbook specified at run time - in this example, "Voice of the People".

2. Next, I have to define the template used for display of each field in the guestbook. In this example, I would like to display the name of the user along with the time at which the entry was saved. 
<pattemplate:tmpl name="displayName" visibility="hidden" varscope="entry"
type="simpleCondition" 
requiredVars="ENTRY_NAME"> <table width="550"
cellpadding="0" cellspacing="1" 
border="0">
<tr>
<td>
<table width="100%" cellpadding="6" cellspacing="0"
border="0">
<tr>
<td 
class="head" >By
<b>{ENTRY_NAME}</b> on {ENTRY_DATE}</td>
</tr>
</table>
</td>
</tr>
</pattemplate:tmpl>
Once I am done with the user's name via the {ENTRY_NAME} and {ENTRY_DATE} variables, I can proceed to the user's email address and URL. 
<pattemplate:tmpl name="displayEmail" visibility="hidden" varscope="entry"
type="simpleCondition" 
requiredVars="ENTRY_EMAIL">
<tr valign="top">
<td 
class="text"
nowrap><b>{LABEL_EMAIL}</b></td>
<td
class="text"> 
: </td>
<td class="text"><a
href="mailto:{ENTRY_EMAIL}">{ENTRY_EMAIL}</a></td>
</tr>
</pattemplate:tmpl>
<pattemplate:tmpl 
name="displayHomepage"
visibility="hidden" varscope="entry" type="simpleCondition"
requiredVars="ENTRY_HOMEPAGE">
<tr valign="top">
<td class="text"
nowrap><b>{LABEL_HOMEPAGE}</b></td>
<td class="text"> : </td>
<td class="text"><a href="{ENTRY_HOMEPAGE}"
target="_blank">{ENTRY_HOMEPAGE}</a></td>
</tr>
</pattemplate:tmpl>
Once again, two special patGuestbook variables -{ENTRY_EMAIL} and {ENTRY_HOMEPAGE} - are used to retrieve the information entered by the user. I can also display the appropriate labels for each field via the {LABEL_EMAIL} and {LABEL_HOMEPAGE} variables.

How about displaying the heart of the guestbook - the user's comments? 
<pattemplate:tmpl name="displayEntry" visibility="hidden" varscope="entry"
type="simpleCondition" 
requiredVars="ENTRY_ENTRY"> <tr> <td colspan="3"><img
src="skins/melonfire/img/px.gif" 
width="1" height="5" alt=""
border="0"></td> </tr> <tr valign="top"> 
<td class="text"
nowrap><b>{LABEL_ENTRY}</b></td>
<td 
class="text"> : </td>
<td class="text">{ENTRY_ENTRY}</td>
</tr>
</pattemplate:tmpl>
Finally, the rating field, which is also fairly straightforward. 
<pattemplate:tmpl name="ratings" visibility="hidden">
<tr>
<td colspan="3"><img 
src="skins/melonfire/img/px.gif"
width="1" height="5" alt="" border="0"></td>
</tr>
<tr valign="top">
<td class="text" 
colspan="3"><b>Ratings</b></td>
</tr>
<pattemplate:tmpl 
name="ratingEntry">
<tr valign="top">
<td class="text"
nowrap><b> 
· {RATING_LABEL}</b></td>
<td class="text"> : </td>
<td class="text">{RATING_VALUE}</td>
</tr>
</pattemplate:tmpl>
</pattemplate:tmpl>
One of the configuration variables in the guestbook is the number of entries to be displayed on a single page. So, I also need to add paging logic, and a link to add new entries to the system. 
<table width="550" cellpadding="1" cellspacing="0" border="0">
<tr>
<td>
<table 
width="100%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="0"
border="0">
<tr>
<pattemplate:tmpl 
name="previouspage"
type="condition" conditionvar="URL_PREVIOUSPAGE">
<patTemplate:sub
condition="default">
<td 
class="text" nowrap width="33%">
<a href="{URL_PREVIOUSPAGE}"
style="text-decoration:none"><< 
previous page</a>
<br>
</td>
</patTemplate:sub>
<patTemplate:sub 
condition="empty">
<td width="33%"><img
src="skins/melonfire/img/px.gif" 
width="1" height="1" alt=""
border="0"></td>
</patTemplate:sub>
</pattemplate:tmpl>
<td align="center" class="text" width="33%"><a
href="{URL_ADDENTRY}" 
style="text-decoration:none">add entry</a></td>
<pattemplate:tmpl 
name="nextpage"
type="condition" conditionvar="URL_NEXTPAGE">
<patTemplate:sub
condition="default">
<td 
class="text" align="right"
nowrap width="33%">
<a href="{URL_NEXTPAGE}"
style="text-decoration:none" 
>next page >></a>
<br>
</td>
</patTemplate:sub>
<patTemplate:sub 
condition="empty">
<td width="33%"><img
src="skins/melonfire/img/px.gif" 
width="1" height="1" alt=""
border="0"></td>
</patTemplate:sub>
</pattemplate:tmpl>
</tr>
</table>
</td>
</tr>
</table>
The {URL_PREVIOUSPAGE} and {URL_NEXTPAGE} variables are used to display the links to the previous and next page, if required. the {URL_ADDENTRY} variable contains the URL that allows users to add a new entry to the guestbook.


 
 
>>> More PHP Articles          >>> More By Harish Kamath, (c) Melonfire
 

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