input tag and form tag within php

Question

Okay so guys, I'm new to PHP. I'm having problems adding an "Edit" button as fourth element on 4th column(Action) which is a th. I'll need to add an Edit button on each of book titles and bring the user to an Edit page so they can Edit the book information. I don't know what to do next. I don't know how to add the button and at the same time pass the edit request through POST. What should I change? How do I embed the html within php

Btw, I'm using XAMPP and notepad++

Thanks.

<?php
include('databaseConnection.php');
?>

<html>
<head>
<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="./css/librarySystem.css">
<title> Book List </title>
</head>

<div id="booklist_container">

    <table id="booklist_table">
        <?php

                $select_all_books = "SELECT * FROM booklist";
                $result = mysql_query($select_all_books);

                echo "<tr>";
                                echo "<th>" ."Title". "</th>" ;   
                                echo "<th>" ."Author". "</th>" ;
                                echo "<th>" ."ISBN" . "</th>" ;
                                echo "<th>" ."Action". "</th>";
                echo "</tr>";

                echo  "<form method="POST" action="edit.php">" ;

                    while($row = mysql_fetch_array($result))
                    {
                        $authorVar = $row['Author'];  
                        $titleVar = $row['Title'];
                        $ISBN = $row['ISBN'];

                        echo "<tr>";
                                        echo "<td>" . $titleVar. "</td>";   
                                        echo "<td>" . $authorVar. "</td>";
                                        echo "<td>" . $ISBN . "</td>";
                                            echo"<input type="button" value="Edit Info">"  ;

                        echo "</tr>"; 
                    } // end of while loop

                echo  "</form>" ;
        ?>

    </table>
</div>

</html>

`echo"";` using this http://php.net/manual/en/function.error-reporting.php would have thrown you a syntax parse error. — Funk Forty Niner, Nov 01 '15 at 16:22
@Fred-ii- What did you do that for? He had several problems in addition to his quotation errors and I just spent 10 minutes writing up a really instructive answer for him. — Jason, Nov 01 '15 at 17:02
@Jason Ok, and those other errors are what exactly? If I missed something, I'll reopen it. — Funk Forty Niner, Nov 01 '15 at 17:04
@Jason I must note though that we don't know which MySQL API he's using to connect with, so you may want to make a note about that and that they must use the same API from connection to querying. — Funk Forty Niner, Nov 01 '15 at 17:16
Since he phrased his question with "I'm having problems adding...", isn't it safe to assume that he has the proper data from the SQL query on his page already? — Jason, Nov 01 '15 at 17:21
@Jason True, yet we also don't know what's inside `edit.php` so I hope you're not in for a long haul here ;-) — Funk Forty Niner, Nov 01 '15 at 17:22

score 1 · Answer 1 · answered Nov 01 '15 at 16:22

1

You have a syntax error when you do the button. Do something like

echo '<input type="button" value="Edit Info">';

Replace outer double quotes with single quote.

answered Nov 01 '15 at 16:22

MikeWu

3,042
2
19
27

1

or escape the double quotes inside. – Funk Forty Niner Nov 01 '15 at 16:23
1

Yes, this is another solution. – MikeWu Nov 01 '15 at 16:26
you missed something. – Funk Forty Niner Nov 01 '15 at 16:33

score 1 · Answer 2 · answered Nov 01 '15 at 17:16

Remove the form tags from outside of the while loop, and try this for the body of the loop:

$authorVar = $row['Author'];  
$titleVar = $row['Title'];
$ISBN = $row['ISBN'];

echo "<form method='POST' action='edit.php'>";
echo "<tr>";
echo "<td>" . $titleVar. "</td>";   
echo "<td>" . $authorVar. "</td>";
echo "<td>" . $ISBN . "</td>";
echo "<td>";
echo "<input type='submit' value='Edit Info'>";
echo "</td>";
echo "</tr>";
echo "<input type='hidden' name='ISBN' value='" . $ISBN . "'>"; 
echo "</form>" ;

I fixed the problems with your quotation marks and set up a separate form for each book entry that submits the (unique?) ISBN number using a hidden input. You can use this ISBN id to generate your edit.php file to match the selected book. Notice I also changed your input button from type button to type submit so that it actually submits the form. Also notice that this button is now inside of td tags so that it renders properly.

thank you very much. this solved my problem and your solution is very easy to understand for someone new to php. — heisenberg, Nov 02 '15 at 04:59

input tag and form tag within php

2 Answers2