BetterPHP

Posted: **Thu Dec 01, 2011 5:55 pm**

Hey guys,

I wrote a basic script that allows anybody to write a comment and post it. The comments are displayed under the post form and the number of displayed comments can be modified by the user.

I'm going to post the code because i'm kind of proud of writing it considering i'm still a PHP beginner. I'd appreciate any pointers on how to improve the code if any more experienced coders decide to have a look through.

connect.inc.php

<?php
//connect to phpmyadmin
mysql_connect('localhost','root','');
// select the database you want to work with.
mysql_select_db('wall');

//add comment
function add_comment($name, $comment) {
	$date = date("D j M Y (G:i:s)"); 
	$name = htmlentities(mysql_real_escape_string($name));
	$comment = htmlentities(mysql_real_escape_string($comment));
	mysql_query ("INSERT INTO `wall` (`user_name`, `user_comment`, `date`) VALUES ('{$name}', '{$comment}', '{$date}')");
}


?>

index.php

<?php 
include('connect.inc.php');
$display = 4;

if (isset($_POST['numofposts'])) {
	$display = $_POST['numofposts'];
}


$errors = array();

if (isset($_POST['name'], $_POST['comment'])) {
	if (!empty($_POST['name']) && !empty($_POST['comment'])) {
		add_comment($_POST['name'], $_POST['comment']);
	} else {
		$errors[] = 'Please make sure you have entered your name and a comment.';
	}
} else {
		$errors[] =  'Please enter name and comment';
}

?>


<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" "http://wwww.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/dhtml1-strict.dtd">
<html xlmns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
	<head>
		<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8" />
		<title> Basic Wall System </title>
		<style>
			body{margin: 0px; padding:0px;}
			#container {width: 1000px; margin: 0px auto; text-align: center;}
		</style>
	</head>
	
	<body>		
		<div id="container">
			<?php 
				foreach ($errors as $error) {
					echo $error;
				}
				
				if (empty($errors)) {
					echo 'Post Successful';
				}
			?>
			<form action="" method="POST">
				<p>Name:</p>
				<p><input type="text" name="name" value="<?php echo $_POST['name']; ?>"/></p>
				<p>Comment:</p> 
				<p><textarea name="comment" cols="50" rows="8" name="comment" value="<?php echo $_POST['comment']?>"></textarea></p>
				<p>Number of Posts to Display: <input style="width: 14px;" type="text" name="numofposts" value="<?php echo $display; ?>" />
				<p><input type="submit" value="Submit Comment" /> </p>
			</form>
			<hr />
			
			<?php
				$query = "SELECT `post_id`, `user_name`, `user_comment`, `date` FROM `wall` ORDER BY `date` DESC LIMIT 0, {$display}";
				$result = mysql_query($query);
				while ($row = mysql_fetch_array($result)) {
					echo '<p><strong>Date: </strong>'.$row['date'].'</p>';
					echo '<p><strong>Name: </strong>'.$row['user_name'].'</p>';
					echo '<p><strong>Comment: </strong>'.$row['user_comment'].'</p>';
					echo '<hr />';
				}
			
			?>
			
		</div>
	</body>
</html>

ps: I'd appreciate any other basic script ideas I can try and code for practice purposes.

Posted: **Fri Dec 02, 2011 12:47 am**

My comments:
- You should switch the mysql_real_escape_string and htmlentities around in your add_comment function
- You should use a function in place of that SQL in the main file.
- connect.inc.php should not exist, you should have a library file for the function definitions and the connection should be opened in init.inc.php.
- Overall, it's nice a neat

Posted: **Fri Dec 02, 2011 2:03 am**

Hey,

Thanks for the feedback Jacek. It makes sense and definitely makes the code more organised.

I've made a few modifications to the earlier script so it's a little tidier now but it's still probably not the best, because..

1. I'm echoing data from user.inc.php. (is this a problem?)
2. I removed the text input that allowed users to modify how many posts are displayed because I couldn't think of any way to do it without using cookies. So for the sake of being lazy, I decided not to add it just yet.

index.php

<?php 
include('core/init.inc.php');

$errors = array();

if (isset($_POST['name'], $_POST['comment'])) {
	if (!empty($_POST['name']) && !empty($_POST['comment'])) {
		add_comment($_POST['name'], $_POST['comment']);
	} else {
		$errors[] = 'Please make sure you have entered your name and a comment.';
	}
} else {
		$errors[] =  'Please enter name and comment';
}

?>


<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" "http://wwww.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/dhtml1-strict.dtd">
<html xlmns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
	<head>
		<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8" />
		<title> Basic Wall System </title>
		<style>
			body{margin: 0px; padding:0px;}
			#container {width: 1000px; margin: 0px auto; text-align: center;}
		</style>
	</head>
	
	<body>		
		<div id="container">
			<?php 
				foreach ($errors as $error) {
					echo $error;
				}
				
				if (empty($errors)) {
					echo 'Post Successful';
				}
			?>
			<form action="" method="POST">
				<p>Name:</p>
				<p><input type="text" name="name" value="<?php echo $_POST['name']; ?>"/></p>
				<p>Comment:</p> 
				<p><textarea name="comment" cols="50" rows="8" name="comment" value="<?php echo $_POST['comment']?>"></textarea></p>
				<p><input type="submit" value="Submit Comment" /> </p>
			</form>
			<hr />
			
			<?php
				display_comments();	
			?>
			
		</div>
	</body>
</html>

/core/init.inc.php

<?php
//connect to phpmyadmin
mysql_connect('localhost','root','');
// select the database you want to work with.
mysql_select_db('wall');

$path = dirname(__FILE__);
include("$path/inc/user.inc.php");


?>

core/inc/user.inc.php

<?php
//add comment
function add_comment($name, $comment) {
	$date = date("D j M Y (G:i:s)"); 
	$name = mysql_real_escape_string(htmlentities($name));
	$comment = mysql_real_escape_string(htmlentities($comment));
	mysql_query ("INSERT INTO `wall` (`user_name`, `user_comment`, `date`) VALUES ('{$name}', '{$comment}', '{$date}')");
}

function display_comments() {
	$query = "SELECT `post_id`, `user_name`, `user_comment`, `date` FROM `wall` ORDER BY `post_id` DESC LIMIT 0, 10";
	$result = mysql_query($query);
	while ($row = mysql_fetch_array($result)) {
	echo '<p><strong>Date: </strong>'.$row['date'].'</p>';
	echo '<p><strong>Name: </strong>'.$row['user_name'].'</p>';
	echo '<p><strong>Comment: </strong>'.$row['user_comment'].'</p>';
	echo '<hr />';
	}

}
?>

Posted: **Sat Dec 03, 2011 6:37 pm**

salrathor1 wrote:1. I'm echoing data from user.inc.php. (is this a problem?)

Not massively, the best way would be to have the function return an array of comments and then use that on the actual page though,

Posted: **Mon Feb 06, 2012 11:12 pm**

Lol,That is some good Wall.

BetterPHP

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A Basic 'Wall' Post comments.

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