Begginers Help to update a database

[cjt]

Firstly I'm completely new to this game so bare with me please! I've installed easy php and using phpMyAdmin I have setup a database for a list of employees in an office, I have managed to get some help to return this information to a webpage using some php and sql, but now I want people to be able to go on the site and update their status (either in or out), any help would be great.

Here is my code (which is basically an example I used, not fully understanding!) for displaying the information from the database on the website. The information from the database can be viewed and is formatted in two ways either in a simplified verision on the home page or a detailed way if the user clicks on the link.

// Connect to MySQL
require("../mysql.php");

$QUERY = mysql_query("SELECT ID, Name, Email, Extension, DirectDial, Status FROM contacts ORDER BY Name ASC");

if(isset($_GET['detailed']))
{

echo("<tr style=\"padding:3px;\">\n\n");
echo("<td class=\"contact_field\">\n");
echo("<b>Name</b>");
echo("</td>");
echo("<td class=\"contact_field\">\n");
echo("<b>Email</b>");
echo("</td>");
echo("<td class=\"contact_field\" align=\"center\">\n");
echo("<b>Extension</b>");
echo("</td>");
echo("<td class=\"contact_field\" align=\"center\">\n");
echo("<b>Direct</b>");
echo("</td>");
echo("<td class=\"contact_field\">\n");
echo("<b>Status</b>");
echo("</td>");
echo("</tr>");

while($row = mysql_fetch_array($QUERY, MYSQL_ASSOC))
{
echo("<tr style=\"padding:3px;\">\n");
echo("<td width=\"150px\" class=\"contact_field\">\n\n");
echo($row['Name'] . "\n\n");
echo("</td>\n");
echo("<td width=\"300px\" class=\"contact_field\">\n");
echo("<a href=\"mailto:" . $row['Email'] . "\">" . $row['Email'] . "</a>\n\n");
echo("</td>\n");
echo("<td width=\"100px\" align=\"center\" class=\"contact_field\">\n");
echo($row['Extension'] . "\n\n");
echo("</td>\n");
echo("<td align=\"center\" class=\"contact_field\">\n");
echo($row['DirectDial'] . "\n\n");
echo("</td>\n");
echo("<td align=\"center\" class=\"contact_field\">\n");
echo($row['Status'] . "\n\n");
echo("</td>\n");
echo("</tr>\n");
}

}

else
{

echo("<tr style=\"padding:3px;\">\n\n");
echo("<td class=\"contact_field\">\n");
echo("<b>Name</b>");
echo("</td>");
echo("<td class=\"contact_field\" align=\"center\">\n");
echo("<b>Extension</b>");
echo("</td>");
echo("<td class=\"contact_field\" align=\"center\">\n");
echo("<b>Status</b>");
echo("</td>");
echo("</tr>");

while($row = mysql_fetch_array($QUERY, MYSQL_ASSOC))
{
echo("<tr style=\"padding:3px;\">\n");
echo("<td width=\"180px\" class=\"contact_field\">\n\n");
echo("<a href=\"mailto:" . $row['Email'] . "\">" . $row['Name'] . "</a>\n\n");
echo("</td>\n");
echo("<td class=\"contact_field\" align=\"center\">\n\n");
echo($row['Extension'] . "\n\n");
echo("</td>\n");
echo("<td class=\"contact_field\" align=\"center\">\n\n");
echo($row['Status'] . "\n\n");

echo("<a href=\"http://www.intertraffic.com" . $row['Status'] . "\">" . $row['Name'] . "</a>\n\n");


echo("</td>\n");
echo("</tr>\n");
}

}

?>

[Guest]

Hi CJT.

You basically wrote a script to show data from a database on your website.

To allow users to modify the data, you will have to learn about HTML forms and how PHP access this data from the HTML form.  There are good tutorials out there for beginner PHP programmers.  That is how I starter.

Once you have that knowledge, you can write an update function to simplify the update process:  Here is the function I use in all my applications:

function update($tablename, $id, $field, $nuwewaarde)
{
//global
global $con; //connection to the database

//kry ou waarde
$sql = "SELECT * FROM $tablename WHERE id = $id";
$result = qu($sql);
$row = mysqli_fetch_array($result);
$ouwaarde = $row[$field];
$savefield = addslashes($field);
$savenuwewaarde = addslashes($nuwewaarde);
$sql = "UPDATE $tablename SET $savefield = \"$savenuwewaarde\" WHERE id = $id";
qu($sql);
$ret = array("field" => $field, "ouwaarde" => $ouwaarde, "nuwewaarde" => $nuwewaarde);
return $ret;
}