Scabby

My apologies for my curt reply. I have found someone now who can help. It was just that I have been trying to find someone who can help with this non-profit idea for some time!, I mean about 18 months. There just is NO script out there that does this task and I'm amazed there isn't! With the web the way it is you would think there would be a more universal sort of access between mobile and web, with a sprinkle of SQL the possibilities are endless. Rock on lads!

I have now written to ClickTell asking if they could help me with this poblem. Thing is I would think a 'general SQL query' script would be valuable to so many, I thought someone would take up this idea because it has sooo many uses.! perhaps I was wrong! ???

This is something I have tried and tried to get help with and still it doesn't happen!!! I search for this and nothing, I would think folks could find numerous applications for this and yet I still cannot find anyone who could help with this, I'm confused? Why isn't this feasible?, it surely isn't that difficult for someone with the php skills to do? Request comes in, check query is valid, pull record/s, compile into one message, send to requester! I pay for outgoing message asking for donations.! This will help at least 40 thousand people in the UK alone and that is for just one voluntary organisation. HELP! Phil

Right, I had to go away and find this out, it's been a little time since I paid much thought to this, however its one of those ideas that just will not go away. The two gateways I looked into were, http://www.clickatell.com/ or more specifically; http://www.clickatell.com/developers/api_http.php and the second supplier I know does this is http://www.mysmsaddress.com/ or more specifically; http://www.mysmsaddress.com/index.jsp?KEY=TOOLS I'm sure there are more however I have seen a module using these, this module didn't have any ability to return SMS to sender or look up data in the MySQL database unfortunately, but at least these sites do provide the requirements and sample codes I would need to use. As my CMS (Joomla) uses PHP and MySQL database support, I think all the ingredients are there for the job.

I pulled a website together for them, it had forums and various methods for people to use but it ultimately failed because I failed to take into account the level with which most target people could understand, so I retired to re-think and not one to give up I hatched out another fail safe plan that would. All the people have mobile phones and THE most requested information is small offerings of information such as day, time, venue. So if I could marry the two together this would be a workable solution. ie They text (town) to the website, it responds by querying the database for the town and returning the info for that town as a message to the sender, I looked into errr two I think at the time and they used an API available as .php and I could (or should) be able to integrate this into my existing php site with its own SQL database. However I'm not a php programmer, I can edit code but that's it. I'm using a popular CMS to do the site. Now I know I'm asking a bit for someone to look into this but surely this would be a universal idea (the ability to query a SQL database by Mobile Phone, yes?) and yet I look in vain! all the SMS providers will do is give you the API

I have a great idea to help a charitable organisation but I need a script to make it happen. I don't think this would be too difficult. I do some work for a Mental Health Charity in which one of their main requirements is to have their clients drop in to meetings whenever they may be in a new Town. The information the clients would need would be the number of venues, Venue, Town, Street and Time and computers/internet access would not be any good as most clients would not have that access or maybe the skills. What I would need is a php script that when an incoming SMS(to a pre-paid service I set up using their API) with the query of a town, would then collect the relevant information records and return them to the SMS senders Mobile. From the Clients point of view they would Send an SMS with say Birmingham and they would recieve back a SMS from my site with the number of venues, Venue, Town, Street and Time. If someone can point me to some sort of solution for this or an existing script I would be very very thankful.

Hi Frost, thanks for the reply. This really cannot be that difficult. I'm not sure I can do this but from my knowledge of php this really souldn't be that hard. for example the CLICKTEL network has full instructions and samples here http://www.clickatell.com/solutions/developers.php The DB query is simple enough oh a I found this, http://www.clickatell.com/solutions/developers/php.php

hi all, could someone please give me directions My knowledge of php is limited and I have been trying to get this idea of the ground for an organisation I help out. They have meetings all over the country in different towns, people often need to find the nearest meeting. I want to give them an alternative. The meetings, towns, times and address could be stored in an online SQL database and retriving this information is, from what I can see not too difficult. What I want to do is to allow these people to be able to enter into their mobile the name of a town, say London, SMS this to the site where the website would query the database and then send a message back to the sender with the meetings for that town. Now I have looked into the the mobile side and again this doesn't seem out of my ability. The 'SMS service provider' provide the php version of the script (API layer) for me to recieve and return sms messages I just need the rest of the code to knit it together. Is there a suitable code available for this, or . . . . . Is there some tutorials available for this, . . . or . . . . Could someone (please please) assist me as I write this code for myself . .. The organisation is voluntary and heavily involved in providing help to people with this serious life threatening condition. This idea would benefit these people immensely to the point that I'm prepared to pay for the return messages myself if I can get the idea working. Please, anyone. I used to programme in basic and Hex opcodes so I'm not thick, I just need some guidance.

[PS] I have looked extensively for beginners tutorials that do not assume some degree of knowledge, When I start reading I know I'm missing something ???

Yes a stupid request $query= states itself doesn't it. I move slowly but I always get there. Thanks for the replies, they are very much appreciated. I got my head around Joomla a while back and when I started to teach myself that I was held up for quite a while on simple things. Things that you could get answered in a few mins over a coffee with someone. Thats why I say thanks for what may seem to some a stupid question.

Thanks for the reply papface. So what is returned exactly from the line $query= "SELECT Town,Address_time FROM customers WHERE Town='{$rq}'"; what does $query contain

Hey folks, Ok so I programmed when I was young and now I would like to brush up on php but I'm having problems kick starting. I have set myself the task of a simple database query and I cannot get moving with this. <?php //Open a connection to the mysql server $link=mysql_connect("localhost","scabby","scooby"); if(!$link) { print("Failed to establish connection to mysql server!"); exit(); } //Select the database $status=mysql_select_db("scabby"); //Get town from User *************to do***************** //Temporary Measure, Town inserted here! $rq="Dudley" //Run query $query="SELECT Town,Address_time FROM customers WHERE Town=$rq"; $rs=mysql_query($query); if(!$rs) { print("Query Error: ".mysql_error()); } $numrows=mysql_num_rows($rs); print("Number of rows returned: $numrows <br /> "); $customer=mysql_fetch_assoc($rs); print($customer['Town']); print($customer['Address_time']); ?> This is where I have got to but I think where I'm getting stuck here is the relation between the variables. take the line $query="SELECT Town,Address_time FROM customers WHERE Town=$rq"; It will not accept this and I don't know why. What I'm trying to achieve is to retrieve the records whos town is contained in the query variable. I think I'm missing something in the fundamentals as I dragged myself through Basic and Opcode programming, this seems to handle variables differently. Anyone some help here, or some nifty little reading that will iron over the foundations of what you need to know to get your head around this.!! cheers Guys

I'm using PHP Designer 2007 personal but being new I'm finding the help file a bit cumbersome to use so . . . What php Editor would YOU recommend?

in truth I changed this around so many times i forgot to change that line back! what a nob head! soon as I changed that back it worked! Thank Corbin!! I'm new to this but VERY determined to clue myself up on php and MySQL. Can you recommend some sites for learning this correctly. What I mean by correctly is they give the reasons rather than simply examples as you have done in your amended script. Also which editor would you recommend? I'm using php Designer 2007 but I find the reference help cumbersome. once again thanks for your help Scabby