How to run different sql queries with hyperlinks connecting to a mysql database

[Agreaves]

Im creating a catalog of products for sale and I would like to dynamically pull information from a mysql database and display it on a seperate webpage instead of creating different webpages for each product category.

[KevinM1]

Entirely possible.  Do a Google search on 'query string' and look at $_GET.

[Agreaves]

So I would use the GET string with all hyperlinks to accomplish this?

[KevinM1]

Let's say you have a URL like:

 

www.example.com/index.php?cat=news

 

In your PHP you'd need to check if:

 

1. 'cat' is present in the URL

2. that it's set to a value you'd accept

 

If so, then load that data:

 

$cat = strtolower($_GET['cat']);

switch ($cat) {
    case "news":
        // SQL to retrieve news from the db
        break;

    // other cases based on whatever you need 

    default:
        // normal home page
}

 

Keep in mind, that's just one way to do it, and it doesn't take security into account.  Without knowing exactly what you want to do, I can't give a better answer.

[Agreaves]

Lets say I have a link to take the customer to a particular called "Ashtrays", whenever they click the link I want it to run a specific query based on ashtrays and output Picture and description of all the ashtrays in the database. However the respose you gave earlier did give me some ideas. Thank you. I hope this information was more specific.