How do URLs in PHP work in relation to the database?

[shizknight]

Ok i'm completely new to PHP and MySQL, and I'm making a site with a friend just as a fun project to learn something new. In my mysql database, there is a db called "cat", for categories, and tables named "movies", "shows", "cartoons" and so on - at this point you may have deducted it was a streaming media site.

 

Anyway on to the question - I don't understand how in php I can get it to display what I wish based on the url.

In the link, site.com/index.php?cat=movies - how can I get it to display the list of movies in the movies table?

 

Thanks in advance, and sorry if this is in the wrong forum.

[Sangha-08]

Ok i'm completely new to PHP and MySQL, and I'm making a site with a friend just as a fun project to learn something new. In my mysql database, there is a db called "cat", for categories, and tables named "movies", "shows", "cartoons" and so on - at this point you may have deducted it was a streaming media site.

 

Anyway on to the question - I don't understand how in php I can get it to display what I wish based on the url.

In the link, site.com/index.php?cat=movies - how can I get it to display the list of movies in the movies table?

 

Thanks in advance, and sorry if this is in the wrong forum.

 

lol, I'm also working on a project like that one... but i hardly get any time to do stuff with it... http://www.media2c.com/ (my bro's for random stuff on it atm)

 

erm, btw, to show everything in the table, you've got to loop it...

[Stooney]

Here's an example in it's most basic form.  Of course you will need to change 'movie_name' to whatever you named your column.

 

<?php
if(isset($_GET['cat'])){
$cat=mysql_real_escape_string($_GET['cat']);
$movies=mysql_query("SELECT * FROM $cat");
while($row=mysql_fetch_array($movies)){
	echo $row['movie_name'].'<br />';
}
} else{
echo 'no category selected';
}
?>