Web Hosting Talk : Web Hosting Main Forums : Programming Discussion : Help with simple form to page script...

[Chaps]

Hi,

I need a little help here with something that I know should be fairly easy.

I have a guy writing an article for my site...instead of me downloading, formatting, coding, copying and pasting every week to update the article...I want to create a form that will have different text areas (about 10) which he can fill in the differetn sections of his article in all the text areas, hits submit, and the entered info is written to a php file...that's easy enough except...how do I get it to stay there? Like I want it so once he submits his article and it writes to the file...everyone can see it and it will stay there UNTIL he writes a new article...and hits submit, then the new info will overwrite the last article.

Anyone have an easy way to do this???

[prosayist]

<form action="<?=$PHP_SELF?>"><textarea name="stufftosubmit" rows="7" cols="77"></textarea><input type="submit" name="submit"></form><a href="page.html">page.html</a>

<?
if($submit){$updatedpage=fopen('page.html','w');
fputs($updatedpage, stripslashes($stufftosubmit));
fclose($updatedpage);
}?>

[EDIT]wrong attributes; this is a textarea, not an image [/EDIT]
[EDITAGAIN]added stripslashes(), otherwise y'get those nasty \s all over the place with quotes [/EDITAGAIN]

[Chaps]

could you be more specific as to what to do with that?

thanx

[prosayist]

yeah;
-make a page called (for example) "formpage.php"
-put all that code in it
-repeat "about 10" times
-load it to your server/browser
-type something in the textarea
-submit
-click the link to 'page.html'
it's very simple and prob'ly you'll wanna make it better but I think it'll get you goin'
anything else?

[Chaps]

I put that code into the text area's page...there will be multiple textareas does that change anything?

Then it writes to page.html or page.txt, whatever...

Then to I want to have a <?php require ("page.txt"); ?> in the page that I want the article to appear? Is that how this will work in full?

[Chaps]

okay that works...but one question...the stuff he submits...I want html tags around the stuff he submits...and also some text he won't be submitting like headings.

For example:

OFFENSE:
Quarterbacks: The Riders have great depth, yada yada yada.
EDGE: Riders

K so in that example...he will be submitting the "The Riders have great..." paragraph. I want it to that it also writes the offense and quarterbacks lines...and the Edge line (he will submit 'Riders' in a text box)...and I also want to have it so when he submits it...his submission will have <p> tags (paragraph tags in case it accepted the html and u can't read the tag) around it.

How do I accomplish this?

[Chaps]

Oh and this might be too much work...but is there any way to archive the current article before its written over? Possibly have it so that when he enters a new article, it will rename the current one, and then use the original name for the updated one?

[prosayist]

YEAH, of COURSE there's a way! (with PHP, there's always a way)
I'm not gonna write the whole script for ya 'cause, as you said, it's simple..
All ya' gotta do is add <input type="text" name="OFFENSE" (or whatever your variable name is) and make a new variable so

PHP Code:

$formattedOFFENSE=<h3>$OFFENSE</h3>;
/*same for your other things you want formatted, then, using the same syntax as before*/
fopen('page.txt','w');
print '$formattedOFFENSE' 


it's a quite a bit more complicated than what I've explained but quite a bit easier than what you'd expect..
just do a little research, check out the manual at php.net, look on PHP Builder, do a google search; somebody's prob'ly already got something written for what you're tryinna do

[Chaps]

actually don't worry about the file renaming archive thing...I can do that a different way...no worries.

[prosayist]

like this (for example).. add other <input name="?"> for your other variables;

PHP Code:

<form action="<?=$PHPSELF?>">
<h3>HEADER:
<br>
<input type="text" name="header"></h3>
<p>CONTENT:
<br>
<textarea name="stufftosubmit" rows="7" cols="77">
</textarea>
<input type="submit" name="submit">
</p>
</form>
<a href="page.html">page.html</a>

<?
if($submit){
$updatedpage=fopen('page.html','w');
$header='<h3>'.$header.'</h3>';
$content=stripslashes($stufftosubmit);
fputs($updatedpage,($header.'<br><p>'.$content.'</p>'));
fclose($updatedpage); 
}?>

[Chaps]

Okay thats cool...

sorry to keep bugging ya...

But I tried putting styles sheets on the page I have that calls the page.txt and now nothing comes up at all...?

[Chaps]

but hey don't worry about that...cuz I'm an idiot and firgure it out as soon as I posted that...

hehe...

Thanx a ton for your help anyways!!!

[prosayist]

hey, Welx a ton back at ya

[Chaps]

hope you see this...

actually that worked...but...

I must have too much information to submit because when i fill out all my form fields with about as much info as would be entered normally...it won't work...it justs clicks and nothing happens. If I only put a couple things in...it works perfect.

This is no doubt due to the query string right?

I mean when you submit...there is a huge query string of EVERYTHING that was submitted right in the address bar...likely with the amount of info I am putting in...it's too much?

Anyways...do you know how to fix this?

Currently the script is sitting at http://www.riderfans.com/myphp/myphp.php

[prosayist]

try adding this;
"<form method="post">"
(if you're not using the 'action' attribute, you don't even need to put it there)