Lightning Shock » Crazy Ideas

How to Create and Understand a Simple Database-Driven Website

James Lewitzke — Sun, 06 Sep 2009 00:09:29 +0000

Alright, this had been driving me nuts for months, and all the online tutorials and guides sucked ass. And after hours through trial and error coding, I finally discovered the correct portions and amount of code to use.

So basically, I’m going to explain here exactly what you need to do to create a simple PHP / MySQL backed DB-driven website that draws all of the data straight from the database.

An example URL of a page we’ll create could look like this:

http://www.site.com/index.php?id=1

1) Prepare the Front-End Design and Content

First, you’ll want to make sure that you have the basic design of the site coded. You may use whatever CSS styling you want to, it won’t make any difference on the backend. (One index.html file is fine, but be sure to rename it as index.php once it goes online.) Also all the information for our website needs to be properly entered into the database. Using a tool such as phpmyadmin will work great to enter the data, however you can use SQL if you wish. For the purpose of keeping this tutorial quick, I’m going to assume that you already know how to do this.

To keep things extremely simple, we’ll only need to create one table, I decided to name mine “page”. Also include a minimum of two fields (I’m using three) and two pages to understand what’s going on. Below is an example of a DB table that you could use:

ID	Title	Content
1	Home	Welcome to the Homepage.
2	About	A brief description about the site.

ID Title Content

1 Home Welcome to the Homepage.

2 About A brief description about the site.

You can use whatever data you wish, however most sites have these pages and that’s what I have decided to use. Also be sure to set the ID to the primary key, so it’ll automatically update later when you decide to add more webpages.

2) Connect to the DB and Format the Website Structure

Alright, next step. After we get all that out of the way, we now need to interact with our database table we just created, so we need to use PHP to configure a connection. You can include this in a few different ways, what I did was create a config.php file and wrote a require_once function to include the data from the PHP file onto my main index.php page.

There’s plenty of other sites that go into more depth on this, but I’ll give you an example here. For the config.php file:

And as for the index.php page, I know this probably could have been more securely coded (aka placing the DB retrieval info before the DOCTYPE), but for simplicity’s sake, here’s an example file:

    </pre>
<pre>

Note this also includes other files, like the header, function, and footer documents, but they aren’t required to have, they’re just apart of the design structure.

3) Write the PHP Script

Now all we need to do is get the database to actually read the different DB rows as separate webpages. To do this we will be using the PHP superglobal associative array $_GET, and a mysql_fetch function. If you caught the additional function in the above index.php file, we also included a file called content.php. This is where the script will be stored. First, we need to write some PHP variables:

$id = $_GET['id'];

$query = "SELECT * FROM Page WHERE id='$id'";

$results = mysql_query($query, $link) or die(mysql_error());

If you noticed, we assigned the $id variable to the PHP superglobal $_GET, where we want it to “get” the ID from each column and return all the information in that row based upon it’s ID, and what we tell it to later, which you can tell by the SQL query I wrote for the $query variable. The $results variable basically just combines everything we want it to do and kill it in case there’s an error, (You can see what we’re getting from the $link variable in the config.php file).

The $_GET superglobal is also useful for passing variables onto the end of a URL string. Let me try to explain. Since the script is asking for the ID from the page table we created earlier, we can now apprehend a result to the end of the URL via a question mark (?). For example, say we want to fetch the data contained in the first row, we can call upon the ID to fetch us everything we ask for (which is what we’re going to write next). I know, it sounds confusing, but with more practice, you’ll eventually get the hang of it.

Now to actually display that data on the webpage, we need to write a while loop using a mysql_fetch_array PHP function:

while($row = mysql_fetch_array($results))

    echo "" . $row['title'] . "
 " . $row['content'];

    echo "
";

?>

The while loop basically tells us that “while” we are fetching the DB row info, here’s what we’re doing with it. In this instance, just echoing the data onto the page. Since the first thing we are asking for is the data contained within the title column, the PHP will display this for us via the $row variable, because it “fetches” this specific instance of the array (whatever we ask for when we type the URL address in).

You could also base the URL off of other portions of the DB table if you wanted to, like “title” for example. You’d just have to get the title data via the $_GET superglobal and ask for it when you assign the value to an array via a variable (aka $title = $_GET['title'];) along with altering the other variables appropriately. You can name your variables whatever you wish, I just used $title for convenience.

In addition to the PHP, I’ve also echoed some div elements which help style the content appropriately through the stylesheet (they’re not a portion of the tutorial, but you can use whatever CSS properties you desire to apply).

Now after understanding the technical aspects behind the PHP code, we just need to put it all together. Save the following code as content.php:


$id = $_GET['id'];
$query = "SELECT * FROM Entry_Page WHERE id='$id'";
$results = mysql_query($query, $link) or die(mysql_error());
while($row = mysql_fetch_array($results))
    {
    echo "" . $row['title'] . "
 " . $row['content'];
    echo "
";
    }
?>
4) Place the Finishing Touches on the Site
And now upload everything to the server, all in the same folder: index.php, config.php, and content.php (also header.php, footer.php, and style.css if you bothered to edit / create them yourself, so the site doesn’t look like crap).
Now you can access the different pages you created by calling upon the MySQL database via the various URL variables, in essence “creating the webpages based upon whatever information is stored within the field’s (ID’s) row”.
And there you have it, your very first Database-Driven Website!

The Great Webmaster Puzzle Challenge

James Lewitzke — Sat, 30 May 2009 09:17:33 +0000

After spending tons of fun trying to solve different riddles over at Webmaster-Talk, I decided to take my skills to the next level, and design some puzzles of my own, specifically for website owners and developers.

The site consists of five different puzzles. Finishing each will allow you to move onto the next one. The rules are fairly simple in that respect.

You do not need to have an understanding of HTML, Javascript, or any other coding language to complete the quiz, although they can certainly help.

Take the Great Webmaster Puzzle Challenge Today!

Also, tell me how it went for you, and what you liked and didn’t like about the test:

Were there enough challenges?
Any advantages or disadvantages you could spot?
Was it simply too easy?

Comment below and tell me about your experience with this new concept I came up with over the past week.

5 Ways to Piss Off Spammers

James Lewitzke — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 21:51:04 +0000

Are you tired of receiving spam? Do you wish there was some techniques you could use to to get revenge on those mealy-mouthed punks? Here’s five ways I present to have fun at screwing with spammer’s heads:

5. Respond with false interest

Here’s something to try, if someone just sent you an email claiming you need Viagra, tell them you would like to place an order on 100 subscriptions to it. And have them send it to a false address, preferably somewhere offshore and remote, so by the time they send it out, it’ll be to late.

But make sure you don’t use your real name, credit card numbers, etc. There’s no way you’d want them to gain hold of that information.

4. Spam them back

What is the primary reason spammers choose to spam? For money and business reasons. So if you concoct a plan to re-spam them back. Here’s what to do:

If someone places a “Visit My Website” Comment on your blog or forum, first get a hold of their IP addresses to make sure it’s really the site owner or admin spamming you.
Next, do some brief research on what their site is all about
Then, visit their site and do the exact same thing, maybe even double the effort.

You should have a ball watching them work fast enough trying to clean everything up.

3. Mock them

Sometimes you may receive spam in a public place on the internet (such as a discussion forum, for example) promoting their product or website. Most of these spam messages will probably contain incoherent phrases in blog plugin posts or traffic generation posts.

Note however that this only works with the moderately intelligent spammers, as some just decide to spam and never return.

2. Locate and Destroy Social Manipulators

John Alexander uses this method on StumbleUpon and it guarantees to get some pretty nasty replies.

Some people like to spam social media sites for their own benefit with offers like “Stumble You, Stumble Me” (Which are against their Terms of Service, BTW). So why not have some fun and uncover their evil intentions to the rest of the social community?

1. Expose the Spammers for what they are

Take one of Adam’s blog posts for example. He captures the spammer’s information and finds some sick, twisted way to turn the tables on them.

This is an excellent way to obtain great thoughts on what to write about on his blog. So its a win-win situation for him, he gets to screw with spammers and have great website content at the same time.

3D Websites – Will they Happen?

James Lewitzke — Mon, 11 Feb 2008 21:03:25 +0000

We always hear about how Virtual Reality is the next step in the Videogame World, or how we all may one day experience holographic movies. But what about interacting with those three-dimensional environments to give and retrieve information?

I know I’m surely not a coding expert (at this present time). This would probably require a whole new web browser system, heck, maybe even a whole new markup language to function properly.

I could see the first phase of this project involving just adding new HTML attributes (such as “depth”), and HTML elements which could contain different “sides” of the 3D projection (like the north side “title tag” or maybe they would ad an X,Y,Z “grid position”).

One other important revolutionary function I feel would be adding a brand new “Navigation System” to the website (which could end up replacing hyperlinks, well at least internally). You’d navigate by the ways of keyboard arrows (along with four more keys to navigate vertically, and much like the ways you control character in a first-person shooter videogame. But you’d still use your mouse to click whichever links, page elements, etc. are visible.

Potential Advantages I can see:

Much more space to store, view and access information
It Gives users a whole new perspective (current 2D sites seem a bit plain and boring now, don’t they?)
Number of options are greatly increased, more freedom to choose what and how you want to design your site
It would be on the “Cutting-Edge” of technology
More business opportunities are created (like new advertising venues and fresh ways to communicate with one another)

Disadvantages of this Design concept:

Very difficult to code and design (from a web developer’s standpoint, but hey, everyone can learn, right?)
Choosing just how to implement this sort of idea will result in many conflicting ideas (Consistency is important)
Probably tons of wasted space (if we’re designing in a cube format), most probably won’t need everything a 3D Website has to offer
Navigation may seem difficult and unnatural for the first few months (or years) of use, new browser applications and improvements would have to be created for them to run properly

I realize this idea is kind of “out there”, but I still think they’d be a cool thing to see.

7 Future “Star Wars inspired” Inventions I’d Like to See

James Lewitzke — Wed, 23 Jan 2008 03:13:25 +0000

As I was having trouble getting, I decided to get my creative juices flowing. Here’s seven (possibly crazy) ideas I have to improve our lives and / or entertain everyone:

1. Force Powers

How cool would it be to learn different powers? Maybe nothing too extreme, but say we could go on adventures to find ancient books that would teach us things about the force we cannot comprehend.

The power I’d like to learn the most would definitely have to be “Death Field”. This power was common throughout the KOTOR video game series. Basically what would happen is that when you are near a few enemies, you’d cast “Death Field” and it would deplete your enemies health while simultaneously recharging your own, very neat.

2. Medical Packs

Whenever I would become sick, I could just pull out a medkit, inject the antibodies (or whatever medical resources they’d contain) into my body and become instantly cured.

You would probably have to carry around more than one, because most medkits probably wouldn’t heal you completely in one use.

3. Revamped Currency System

Anybody playing KOTOR would know what “Credits” are. It’s a simplified currency system where everything is bought and sold using them. No pointless multiple forms like “Pennies”, “One Dollar Bills”, “Five Dollar Bills”, etc. One standard for the entire galaxy.

4. Personal Shuttle Transport

I’ve always wanted my own personal air-transportation vehicle. It would make flying over traffic a breeze, be a perfect getaway vehicle (not that I’m implying you should do anything illegal), and not to mention they’d be super-cool to fly!

It wouldn’t have to be too big, maybe something Millennium Falcon-sized, probably a tad smaller. This way I could infiltrate through enemy defenses virtually undetected, I could explore uncharted worlds with the craft’s lightspeed hyperdrive, and I could bring a small party to travel with me.

5. (Obedient) Droid Servants

Having dirty houses, smudgy windows, and is not something people like to have, but unfortunately, most people have to deal with them due to time constraints in their lives. I’m also implying “forever obedient” machines here because I don’t want them to turn on us Terminator-Style.

I’ve dreamed about having my own personal assassin droid like HK-47 from the Knights of the Old Republic Series. He’d love carnage, obey my every word, and be my own bodyguard. (not like I’d need one though, due to these following inventions…….)

6. A Lightsaber

I had a dream a while back that I was a lightsaber wielding jedi (or Sith, probably the latter ), and I was a master dualist, no one could match against my skills and prowess. But then I realized, in this universe that we live in, our guns don’t shoot “laser beams” like the blasters in the Star Wars Galaxy do, they shoot actual metal bullets, which leads me to my final invention…..

7. A Personalized Energy Shield

If I had an invisible metallic energy shield (to protect myself from bullets, swords, etc.) surrounding myself, along with a lightsaber (the only weapon that would theoretically be able to slice through my shield), I’d be virtually invincible .

If you haven’t noticed, I’ve been playing Knights of the Old Republic 2 lately, great game.

Does Metallica equal America?

James Lewitzke — Wed, 02 Jan 2008 06:30:03 +0000

There are many similarities between the Heavy Metal Band and the United States of America.

Here is an interesting article I came across that outlined the Rise and Fall of Metallica, and compared it to the Rise and Fall of American Liberties.

Have the glory days of America really passed, along with reaching the point of bloviating corruption, as some say Metallica has already?

By no means do I believe that our old society is perfect (Slavery, technology, etc.), however Americans during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries did have much less restrictions and more freedom than we do now.

Whether or not both of these bodies have really “changed” is debatable in and of itself. As the title of the article states, don’t take the readings TOO seriously, because both Metallica and America have good parts and bad parts. Not to mention I can go on record and say Metallica is my favorite Band.