I have another question that I hope someone can answer. Actually I have several. If you would please, take a look at <http://brethrenarchives.com/fantasy/tsr/pages/covers/2101.html>

How would I go about placing a two button setup (previous and next) in the "Placeholder for Navigation" cell so that when I click on a button it would change to the next set of images both above and below? And while I am it I would like to be able to turn the printing numbers into links that would do the same as the previous and next buttons.

I also need to change the "11th Printing (changes with selection)" line to reflect whichever set of images is being displayed. Is there anyway to turn the underlining of links off? I suspect not but the only dumb question is one not asked.

Just how in tarnation do I get the text in a shorter fashion. I see on occasion where a "more . . ." is used (of course I can't find one now) and would like to set it up so you click on the phrase and the block expands downward. Of course then an upward link is needed.

Code samples woud be MUCH appreciated. So many many questions I know and I promise I will leave you alone afterwards.<grin>

It would be interesting to see how to export directly from my book cataloging program into GoLive. The program exports a tabled html file. The best I can do at present is copy the resultant table and paste it into GoLive and massage it the way I want it. Hard workflow but it gets the job done, eventually. Only took a day or so to get to this point. I now have a template file!

I don't know what it looks like on a 1024 monitor. I use dual 24" monitors so 'tis not a fair assessment.

Also, constructive criticism of the page would be appreciated. Yes, the background is glaring but I am pleasing myself on this one. Be harsh but gentle.<grin> If the colors clash too much, like the "Printing" background block let me know. Perhaps instead an old-fashioned block from my collection of Victorian or Celtic library.

Thanks one and all.

Wayne

> How would I go about placing a two button setup (previous and next) in the
> "Placeholder for Navigation" cell so that when I click on a button it
> would change to the next set of images both above and below? And while I
> am it I would like to be able to turn the printing numbers into links that
> would do the same as the previous and next buttons.

As Len has pointed out, one way to do this would be with Ajax. Another way
to do it would be with a standard page/data combination, where the
previous/next buttons trigger a page reload and a server hit - you've seen
this a million times. The disadvantage of this technique is that the whole
page reloads, rather than just the data area. In the case of this page, it
may not be noticeable. This method would work both for the links and the
numbers. But you need server-scripting to do it. The task would be a piece
of cake in Dreamweaver - I'm not sure about GL. Sorry.

> Is there anyway to turn the underlining of links off? I suspect not but
> the only dumb question is one not asked

Certainly - use CSS:

a { text-decoration:none; **

> Just how in tarnation do I get the text in a shorter fashion. I see on
> occasion where a "more . . ." is used (of course I can't find one now) and
> would like to set it up so you click on the phrase and the block expands
> downward. Of course then an upward link is needed.

Again, server scripting is what you would use.

> Code samples woud be MUCH appreciated. So many many questions I know and I
> promise I will leave you alone afterwards.<grin>

Such things just can't be done with HTML. Either javascript or server
scripting or both are required. So code samples ain't gonna happen!

> Also, constructive criticism of the page would be appreciated

The content is hard to read. It's small dark type against a dark (and
sometimes too contrasty) background. The specialty content (Publisher,
ISBN, etc.) is also hard to read. I just thing the content color choices
are not optimal for that background.

--
Murray

Michael Ahgren has an action to show a snippet of text, click to show more, toggle to hide again. I can't lay hands on it right now, but I've used it, it works.

Len, Murray and Kath,

Thanks one and all for you insights. I think I will pass on learning Ajax. But Len's suggestions did lead me to Michael Ahlgren's PHP tutorial. Thanks Kath for reminding me of his excellent material.

Now to specifics. I swear up and down I had selected "no-decoration" in the hyperlink set-up. What I forgot to do was put in place in the "a" element. Remembered the children but not the parent. Dense!

I would not mind the server reload as on this proposed site the overhead is not too large. Your responses did entice me to watch Ahlgren's PHP tutorial and it answered the question of how to get my book cataloging program's database over into a web page. Or at least it showed me how it could be done. I would not need a query but instead a "click this button, go to this page, and display this book information."

Please correct me if I am wrong but I think I could also within a PHP page, not really all that different from a HTML page, have two database references. One listing the book info and the other showing the thumbnail covers. That would resolve the clicking on a "next cover" or "printing" link and having the appropriate thumbnail populate a cell. Problem is that when I ran Ahlgren's tutorial I had no problem in setting up WAMP. I typed everything verbatim (I checked it thoroughly) but could not get the PHP to work right. My table got blown out. I even had the wife check my typing. I will keep trying.

Yes Murray, the site is "contrasty" and perhaps you are correct in that I should tone it down. At least a wee bit.<grin> I do want it to stand out and really like the background. Perhaps a different set of colors for the background. Actually the content colors were the best across the spectrum I came up with. Some of the colors I used for the text really made my eyes cry and gave me a headache.

I did notice one thing. If I un-maximize my browser window and then horizontally resize my window smaller everything stays perfectly centered to a point. And then things start to get blown away. At present everything is centered. Perhaps I should set everything left aligned and then manually set the horizontal offset. I think that would resolve that issue.

I think I will keep plugging seiously at the design process and get Dreamweaver in a month or two and then learn it. It would seem that it has PHP built into it which should make that aspect easier to learn. I do already have a DW CS3 "Bible" and have been reading it every night before lights out.

Again thank you one and all. If you can find that action snippet of Michael's I would appreciate it Kath.

And one other thing. I sure wish Adobe had kept the GoLive Exchange going. There was a lot of good material on it and I used it as an idea base. I did support the contributors and purchased several items that I actions that I enjoyed.

Wayne

OK folks, what did I do wrong in accordance with Michael Ahlgren's tutorial>

<?php require 'connect.php'; mysql_select_db("tutorial",$connection); $result=mysql_query("SELECT * FROM people", $connection); ?>







Firstname
Lastname
Phone#


<?php while ($row=mysql_fetch_array($result) { print "
{$row["firstname"]**
{$row["lastname"]**
{$row["phone"]**


";
**
?>





Thank you,
Wayne

Wayne,

Rather hard to answer the "what's wrong" question from afar...

If you are running this from your locaal machine there are three
questions that you must be able to answer Yes to:

Do you have:

1. A working copy of Apache Server or IIS on the machine?
(Type http://localhost/ into the browser address bar to check)

2. A working copy of PHP installed
(In a text editor create the following <?php phpinfo(); ?> and save as
phpinfo.php in the server root directory. http://localhost/phpinfo.php
will then check it is working.

3. A Working copy of MySQL and a MySQL database called `tutorial`
containing a table named `people` populated with three columns named
`firstname`, `lastname` and `phone`.

Try changing:

$result=mysql_query("SELECT * FROM people", $connection); ?>

To:

$result=mysql_query("SELECT * FROM people", $connection) or
die(mysql_error($connection); ?>

That will return any error message that MySQL generates.

Morning Len,

I followed the suggestions of Michael Ahlgren in his online PHP tutorial and downloaded WAMP and installed it. I then followed

After starting up WAMP I performd Test 1 as you suggested. It loaded. The resultant WAMP5 page shows Apache Ver. 2.2.8, PHP Ver. 5.2.6, and finally MySQL Ver. 5.0..51b. I think that satisfies Tests 1 and 2.

Using WAMP's interface I checked and there is a database called "tutorial" with a table called "people".

Turning to your suggestions for Test 3. I changed the line to include "or die(mysql_error)); ?>" as you suggested with the same results.

I am posting a ZIP file with the three PHP files from the \wamp\www\ directory at <http://brethrenarchives.com/test/connection.zip>. Would you please take a look and tell me where the blankety-blank I screwed up. I would appreciate it.

I don't mind trying to learn something new but at least give me something to work and I can figure out how to manipulate it with my own data.<grin>

Thanks once again.

Wayne

Hi Wayne,

Line 2 of tutorial.php:

require 'connect.php';


Should read:

require("connection.php");

See if that solves all your problems!

AJAX would be overkill since you don’t need anything Asynchronous or XML, plain ol’ JavaScript would do.

In JavaScript there is a super cool feature called “.innerHTML()” which allows you to switch the content of a HTML tag (usually a DIV tag with an ID).

Since everything between the start and end tag (including HTML code!) is replaced there are no limitation of what you can do, switch text, have a SWF replaced by a GIF, change links, etc, etc.

Here is a short and simple introduction to how it’s done… <http://www.golivecentral.com/pages/txttut/jstut/innerhtml.shtml>

That's what I was thinking of, thanks! It's very nice.