First of all my PHP skills are kinda limited, Hence my question to you here. I have built a fairly complex form with multiple inputs(text boxs and drop downs) which are stored in a MYsql DB. When the form is submitted it displays on a new page as completed reports. These completed reports display one under the next every time the form is submitted. My question is, How can i get the reports displayed to show as a list of links to the individual reports rather then a list of complete reports. I hope i've explained the situation well enough.
Code snippit from viewpage.php
<html>
<head>
<body>
<?php
mysql_connect("localhost","user","passwrd");
mysql_select_db("dtbase");
$order = "SELECT * FROM jobrequest" ;
$result = mysql_query($order);
while ($row=mysql_fetch_array($result)){
?>
<link rel="stylesheet" href="css/style.css" type="text/css" />
</head>
<body>
<div style="padding:15px 0px 0px 100px;">
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" border="0" style="vertical-align:middle;width: 1139px; background-color:#213568; height:36px;">
<tr>
<td class="topbar">Client Request Form</td>
<td style="width:900px;"></td>
<td class="topbar"><a style="color:#ffffff;" href="logout.php?logout">Logout</a></td>
</tr>
</table>
<div class="main-wrap">
<div class="content">
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" border="0" style="width: 1137px; background-color:#ffffff; height:5px;">
<tr>
<td></td>
</tr>
</table>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" border="0" >
<tr>
<td style="vertical-align:top; width:5px;"></td>
<td style="vertical-align:top;"><?php include("includes/clientchoices.php"); ?></td>
<td style="vertical-align:top; padding:0px 5px 15px 5px;">
<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0">
<tr>
<td style="vertical-align:top; width:1002px;"> <h1> Dashboard</h1></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="vertical-align:top; background-color:#f5f5f5;"><h2>Job Request Form</h2></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="vertical-align:top; background-color:#ffffff; height:5px;"> </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<div class="form">
<table cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" border="0" style="width:998px">
<tr>
<td style="width:1002px; border:solid 1px #000000; padding:10px 0px 10px 0px;"><center><img src="../../images/spectra_logotop.jpg" alt="Spectra" title="Spectra" width="735" height="120" style="padding:5px;"></center>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<div style="padding:10px 0px 10px 0px;">
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0">
<tr>
<td class="headingsa">Project Leader:</td><td class="answersa"><div class= "typesectiona"><?php echo ($row['project_leader'] ); ?></div></td>
<td class="headingsb">Contact Number:</td><td class="answersb"><div class= "typesectionb"><?php echo ($row['contact_number'] ); ?></div></td>
<td class="headingsc">Company Details:</td><td class="answersc"><div class= "typesectionc"><?php echo ($row['company_details'] ); ?></div></td>
</tr>
</table>
</div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0">
<tr>
<td class="headings5">Contact Person On Site:</td><td class="answers5"><div class= "typesection5"><?php echo ($row['contactperson_onsite'] ); ?></div></td>
<td class="headings6">Contact Details:</td><td class="answers6"><div class= "typesection6"><?php echo ($row['contact_no'] ); ?></div></td>
<td class="headings7">Date:</td><td class="answers7"><div class= "typesection7"><?php echo ($row['date'] ); ?></div></td>
</tr>
</table>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0">
<tr>
<td class="headings1">Job/Order Number:</td><td class="answers1"><div class= "typesection1"><?php echo ($row['job_order_number'] ); ?></div></td>
<td class="headings2">Document Number:</td><td class="answers2"><div class= "typesection2"><?php echo ($row['doument_number'] ); ?></div></td>
<td class="headings3">QCP:</td><td class="answers3"><div class= "typesection3"><?php echo ($row['qcp'] ); ?></div></td>
<td class="headings4">Page No:</td><td class="answers4"><div class= "typesection4"><?php echo ($row['pageno'] ); ?></div></td>
</tr>
</table>
</td>
</tr>
<table cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" border="0">
<tr>
<td width="15px"></td>
<td><a class="othersubmitsLink" href="actionpdf.php">Email to Spectra</a></td>
</tr>
</table>
</div>
</td>
</tr>
</table>
</td>
</tr>
</table>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<?php
}
?>
</body>
</html>
You will need a separate PHP script for displaying a report based on a supplied ID. This separate script would look something like this:
Using mysqli
<?php
$conn = new mysqli("localhost", "user", "passwrd", "dtbase");
$jrQry = $conn->prepare("SELECT * FROM jobrequest WHERE jobrequest_id = ?");
$jrQry->bind_param('i', $_GET['jobrequest_id']);
$jrQry->execute();
$jobrequestResult = $jrQry->get_result();
$jobrequest = $jobrequestResult->fetch_assoc();
// At this point, $jobrequest will contain the jobrequest record you want to display.
?>
<!-- HTML FOR REPORT GOES HERE, USING $jobrequest VARIABLE TO SHOW THE DATA -->
Note that I have used mysqli in this example, if this is unsuitable you can use the old-style mysql commands, but for many many reasons (security chief among them) I would strongly suggest against this.
Using mysql
<?php
mysql_connect("localhost","user","passwrd");
mysql_select_db("dtbase");
$order = "SELECT * FROM jobrequest WHERE jobrequest_id = " . (int)$_GET['jobrequest_id'];
$result = mysql_query($order);
$jobrequest = mysql_fetch_array($result);
// At this point, $jobrequest will contain the jobrequest record you want to display.
?>
<!-- HTML FOR REPORT GOES HERE, USING $jobrequest VARIABLE TO SHOW THE DATA -->
Save this page as "viewjobrequest.php" and you will be able to load a given job request's report by supplying the jobrequest ID as a parameter in the URL, like so:
http://address_of_site/viewjobrequest.php?jobrequest_id=X
Now you can automatically generate a list of links to these pages by looking up your complete set of jobrequests and iterating over them, but instead on outputting a full report, just output a link:
Using mysqli
<?php
$conn = new mysqli("localhost", "user", "passwrd", "dtbase");
$jrQry = $conn->prepare("SELECT * FROM jobrequest WHERE jobrequest_id = ?");
$jrQry->bind_param('i', $_GET['jobrequest_id']);
$jrQry->execute();
$jobrequestResult = $jrQry->get_result();
?>
<ul>
<?php
while ($jobrequest = $jobrequestResult->fetch_assoc())
{
?>
<li>
<a href="viewjobrequest.php?jobrequest_id=<?php echo $jobrequest['jobrequest_id']; ?>">
View job request #<?php echo $jobrequest['jobrequest_id']; ?>
</a>
</li>
<?php
}
?>
</ul>
Using mysql
<?php
mysql_connect("localhost","user","passwrd");
mysql_select_db("dtbase");
$order = "SELECT * FROM jobrequest WHERE jobrequest_id = " . (int)$_GET['jobrequest_id'];
$result = mysql_query($order);
?>
<ul>
<?php
while ($jobrequest = mysql_fetch_assoc($result))
{
?>
<li>
<a href="viewjobrequest.php?jobrequest_id=<?php echo $jobrequest['jobrequest_id']; ?>">
View job request #<?php echo $jobrequest['jobrequest_id']; ?>
</a>
</li>
<?php
}
?>
</ul>
Note: I have deliberately omitted large portions of your HTML, you can add as much extra HTML as you need, I've just offered the bare bones to get you started.
BY looking at your code, I can say, it's not problem with PHP, it's more like HOW you are showing the result after fetching from database,
you are running loop, started from here
<?php while ($row=mysql_fetch_array($result)){ ?>
and ends here
<?php}?>
So everything inside loop or in easy words inside these brackets {} repeating again and again with new row of result fetched from database, if you take view source of viewpage.php you will see that style css file <link rel="stylesheet" href="css/style.css" type="text/css" /> repeating, Imagine if you are fetching 10 rows of result, you are also loading css file 10 times.
So the answer (most probably the solution) of your question is;
Your mysql query
<?php
mysql_connect("localhost","user","passwrd");
mysql_select_db("dtbase");
$order = "SELECT * FROM jobrequest" ;
$result = mysql_query($order);
$totalrows = mysql_num_rows($result); //Check Total Number of Rows To Check if Data Exist or Not
?>
and then in your HTML, First check if there are any rows exist in database which match your WHERE clause in mysql query.
//Set an if else statement here so incase if no data exist.
<?php if($totalrows > 0) {
//If row(s) exist run your while loop here
<?php while ($row=mysql_fetch_array($result)){ ?>
//Show the result here from database
//Close your loop
<?php } ?>
//Close your if condition
<?php } else { ?>
//Display a message here if there is no data to show
//Close your else bracket
<?php } ?>
With above explaniation I adjusted your HTML to show the result in desired way;
<table cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" border="0" style="width:998px">
<tr>
<td style="width:1002px; border:solid 1px #000000; padding:10px 0px 10px 0px;"><center><img src="../../images/spectra_logotop.jpg" alt="Spectra" title="Spectra" width="735" height="120" style="padding:5px;"></center></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<?php if($totalrows > 0) {
<div style="padding:10px 0px 10px 0px;">
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0">
<tr>
<td class="headingsa">Link to Report</td>
</tr>
<?php while ($row=mysql_fetch_array($result)){ ?>
<tr>
//You have to replace `nameoffile.php` with file in which you want to display report and correct this (as i assumed it) if it's wrong `$row['id']`
<td><a href="nameoffile.php?id=<?php echo $row['id'];?>">Open Report</a></td>
</tr>
<?php } ?>
</table>
</div>
<?php } else { ?>
<div style="padding:10px 0px 10px 0px;">
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0">
<tr>
<td>There is No Result To Show</td>
</tr>
</table>
</div>
<?php } ?>
</td>
</tr>
</table>
Note: MySQL will soon be deprecated, consider start using MYSQLi or PDO