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Willim Samplonius Joe's used
auto sales, an average sized car yard of around 150 cars has decided to make the
big leap into the new millennium. First of all they had to get themselves a nice
new computer, with that new computer came the "Internet". After a few weeks of
searching the internet they decided to go all out, now they wanted a web site of
their own. And it just so happens that Joe's good friend knows a little HTML,
three days later Joe's used
auto sales was online and ready for business.
It wasn't long before
they realized they were not going to get very far with that site. They needed
something where they could add, modify and delete listings in a database. Well,
to make a long story short they ended up contacting me. And of course I said I
could do it. So, that day I had to find out what type of database to use. After
asking a few questions I decided to create a database using
PHP and
MySQL
I didn't know how to create an actual MySQL database, so I contacted
support at my hosting company, next thing I know I had a database called
"joesauto" and a few basic Telnet and MySQL commands.
Now I needed to
open up telnet for the first time and enter my login name and password. Before I
could go any further I had to learn a little about
MySQL.
OK, now that we all know the basics, its time to connect to the server.
If you have any problems email support, they like answering these questions.
shell> mysql -h localhost -u joesauto -p
Enter password: ********
Welcome to the MySQL monitor. Commands end with ; or g.
Your MySQL connection id is 459 to server version: 3.22.20a-log
Type 'help' for help.
mysql>
After successfully connecting to the server we need to access the database
(joesauto) that I got support to create for me. If you don't have a database yet
now is the time to create one. To see what databases are on this server type
show databases; if your database is there select it by typing use
joesauto if you can't access the database contact support. This tutorial
could take days if your support is slow.
mysql> use joesauto
Database changed
mysql>
Ok, after a lot of reading
I figured out how to create a table for all the important data (year, make,
model, price and picture), the picture part took alot of time to figure out, I
found out that it was best to just store the picture filename in the database
and store the actual picture in a specified directory on my server. Below is
what I used to create the table. (I am sure there are other ways of creating
this table but, this is what worked for me.)
mysql> CREATE TABLE joesauto(
-> year INT(4),
-> make CHAR(20),
-> model CHAR(20),
-> price CHAR(15),
-> picture_name CHAR(25),
-> );
At this stage we don't need to worry about loading data into the table, we
will do that next using PHP and simple HTML forms. You can shut down Telnet now
and open up your favorite HTML editor, I would recommend Homesite 4.0.
Now it was time for me
to learn the PHP basics, which wasn't
that difficult, then I subscribed to the PHP mailing list and took a quick look
through the PHP manual. If you
can try to find somebody on ICQ that knows PHP, it sure does help having instant
support.
The idea here is to be able to insert all the data into the
database via the internet using forms, I have created forms several times before
so that was no problem at all. I am assuming that you have used forms before, if
you have no idea how to create forms, find a tutorial on the net and come back
when your ready.
Create a page and call it add_data.php3, and then cut
and paste the following.
add_data.php3
First of all we need to add a little PHP in the action
attribute, this is used to display all the data once the submit button is
pressed.
action="
The name attribute within the
input element will be used to pass the information to PHP, these names should be
the same as the columns in the database.
Now its time to add the stuff
that makes it all work. I can't really explain what we are using below, so I
suggest you go to the PHP website and study the main elements used below,
mysql_connect() and
mysql_select_db(). It may be a good idea
to go to the MySQL site and learn how to insert, delete, modify and anything
else you want to fill your brain with.
\n";
echo "make: $make
\n";
echo "model: $model
\n";
echo "price: $price
\n";
echo "temp file: $picture
\n";
echo "file name: $picture_name
\n";
echo "file size: $picture_size
\n";
echo "file type: $picture_type
\n";
echo "
n";
echo "
\n";
}
?>
After you add the above code to the add_data.php3 page,
(right below the closing form tag would work great) you need to change a few
things to work with your database. It should all be pretty straight forward, you
just need to change
$your_username,
$your_password and you'll
need to specify the full path to where your images directory is. You also need
to make sure that the image directory is CHMOD 777.
Now everything
should be set and your ready to upload it to the server to see if everything
works. The next lesson in this tutorial will show you how to view the data, and
I will show you how to do more stuff in lessons to follow.
My name is William Samplonius
and I am web designer for e n d u r a d e z
i n e. I hope this helped you, don't email me your questions because I
know just as much as you do.