<form action='action.php' method='post'>

Name: <input type='text' name='name' size='20'><br>

Comment:<br>

<textarea name='comment' rows='5' cols='40'></textarea><br>

<input type='submit' name='submit' value='submit'></form>

<?php

$db = mysql_connect("localhost", "username", "password") or die("Could not connect.");

if(!$db) 

	die("no db");

if(!mysql_select_db("mysql_name",$db))

 	die("No database selected.");

if(!get_magic_quotes_gpc())

{

  $_GET = array_map('mysql_real_escape_string', $_GET); 

  $_POST = array_map('mysql_real_escape_string', $_POST); 

  $_COOKIE = array_map('mysql_real_escape_string', $_COOKIE);

}

else

{  

   $_GET = array_map('stripslashes', $_GET); 

   $_POST = array_map('stripslashes', $_POST); 

   $_COOKIE = array_map('stripslashes', $_COOKIE);

   $_GET = array_map('mysql_real_escape_string', $_GET); 

   $_POST = array_map('mysql_real_escape_string', $_POST); 

   $_COOKIE = array_map('mysql_real_escape_string', $_COOKIE);

}



?>

<?php

include "connect.php";

if(isset($_POST['submit']))

{

   $name=$_POST['name'];

   $comment=$_POST['comment'];

   if(strlen($name)<1)

   {

      print "You did not enter a name.";

   }

   else if(strlen($comment)<1)

   {

      print "You did not enter a comment.";

   }

   else

   {

      $insert="Insert into visitordata (name,comment) values('$name','$comment')";

      mysql_query($insert) or die("Could not insert comment);

      print "Comment added. <A href='display.php'>Click here</a> to see all comments.";

     }

  }

?>

<?php

include "connect.php";

$getdata="SELECT * from visitordata order by entryID desc";

$getdata2=mysql_query($getdata) or die("Could not get data");

while($getdata3=mysql_fetch_array($getdata2))

{

  $getdata3[name]=strip_tags($getdata3[name]);

  $getdata3[comment]=strip_tags($getdata3[comment]);

  print "Name: $getdata3[name]<br>";

  print "Comment:<br>";

  print "$getdata3[comment]<br>";

  <hr>

  }

?>

  Ok, this is a tutorial on how to write a form, insert the data into a mysql database and then display the data. This can be the start of a simple guestbook.



You need 3 files, form.php for the html form, action.php to post the data to the database and display.php to display the data. You also need a connect.php file to connect to the database.



First lets create the sql table in the database.

You need:

1 table called visitordata with:



1 field called entryid of type bigint, make it the primary field of the table and make it auto-increment



1 field called name of type varchar, length 255



1 field called comment of type mediumtext



Next we have the form.php code:

Code:


<form action='action.php' method='post'>

Name: <input type='text' name='name' size='20'><br>

Comment:<br>

<textarea name='comment' rows='5' cols='40'></textarea><br>

<input type='submit' name='submit' value='submit'></form>





This is a pretty basic html form. It tells the form to act on action.php when submitted and accepts name and comments as the data passed to action.php.



Before we interact with the database, we have to make a connect.php file to connect to the database:

Code:


<?php

$db = mysql_connect("localhost", "username", "password") or die("Could not connect.");

if(!$db) 

	die("no db");

if(!mysql_select_db("mysql_name",$db))

 	die("No database selected.");

if(!get_magic_quotes_gpc())

{

  $_GET = array_map('mysql_real_escape_string', $_GET); 

  $_POST = array_map('mysql_real_escape_string', $_POST); 

  $_COOKIE = array_map('mysql_real_escape_string', $_COOKIE);

}

else

{  

   $_GET = array_map('stripslashes', $_GET); 

   $_POST = array_map('stripslashes', $_POST); 

   $_COOKIE = array_map('stripslashes', $_COOKIE);

   $_GET = array_map('mysql_real_escape_string', $_GET); 

   $_POST = array_map('mysql_real_escape_string', $_POST); 

   $_COOKIE = array_map('mysql_real_escape_string', $_COOKIE);

}



?>



This is pretty easy to understand, the first few lines are necessary as they tell you to connect to the mysql and select a database.



The lines after:

if(!get_magic_quotes_gpc())



Are not necessary and may not work on older mysql extensions, but they are there to parse out mysql injections.



Now we go to action.php

Code:


<?php

include "connect.php";

if(isset($_POST['submit']))

{

   $name=$_POST['name'];

   $comment=$_POST['comment'];

   if(strlen($name)<1)

   {

      print "You did not enter a name.";

   }

   else if(strlen($comment)<1)

   {

      print "You did not enter a comment.";

   }

   else

   {

      $insert="Insert into visitordata (name,comment) values('$name','$comment')";

      mysql_query($insert) or die("Could not insert comment);

      print "Comment added. <A href='display.php'>Click here</a> to see all comments.";

     }

  }

?>



This is fairly simple. Includeing connect.php includes our connector file and lets our file access the database. The next line says simply states that if it detects that a Post variable called "submit" was passed. then follow through with the rest of the file, if not, it will just display a blank page.  



The next few lines after that are simply data validators. They name if the name data is smaller than 1 character(its not there), then display the message that a name was not entered. The next line after that does the same validation for the comment data.



Now the final step, display the data that was inserted into the database in display.php:



Code:


<?php

include "connect.php";

$getdata="SELECT * from visitordata order by entryID desc";

$getdata2=mysql_query($getdata) or die("Could not get data");

while($getdata3=mysql_fetch_array($getdata2))

{

  $getdata3[name]=strip_tags($getdata3[name]);

  $getdata3[comment]=strip_tags($getdata3[comment]);

  print "Name: $getdata3[name]<br>";

  print "Comment:<br>";

  print "$getdata3[comment]<br>";

  <hr>

  }

?>





Ok, this is a basic mysql select query, which tells it to pull all the fields from the table using SELECT * and order the data by entryID descending.  Since your entryID auto increments, this means it will ordered them by the comments that were submitted the latest. The while loops says that as long as there are more elements in the array, keep looping. So it will loop from the beginning to the end of the data table.



Then for each time it loops, we simply print, the name and datafields of that element of the array.

The strip_tags function parses out html injections.



Thats a simple guestbook!

  You can't access mysql at all if that function doesn't work. Make sure your mySQL extensions are functioning right.

Hi...please help...I am a newbie...



I have installed the Guestbook script on my website http://www.thislifenextlife.co.uk and when I click on the 'submit' button on the guestbook, I can view the message "Comment added. Click here to see all comments".  However, when I click on the this link, it takes me to a blank web page.



Do I need to make any changes to the 'display.php' file or is there something else I need to do? I can see the entries in the SQL database on my web host admin panel, I just cannot get the results displayed. Many thanks.

  print "Comment:<br>";

  print "$getdata3[comment]<br>";

  <hr>

  }

?>

  print "Comment:<br>";

  print "$getdata3[comment]<br>";

  print "<hr>";

  }

?>