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Tutorial: How to build a poll system with PHP and mySQL
April 11, 2008,
48,309 views
6. What we need now is a way to test if there are questions or not in the poll. So now that we know we have a poll, we can begin showing its questions. So lets add some php code into our HTML. I prefer nesting PHP in html, as HTML nested in php can sometimes look very ugly. Both are ugly, but what can you do? So add the code below this line:
This:
Below this:
if($rows > 0){
$poll = mysql_fetch_array($query);
$title = $poll['name'];
} else {
$title = 'No Poll Yet';
}
?>
Yep, big nesting of HTML and PHP. Time to explain it!
Firstly we make another query to the database. The purpose of this one is to find the questions of the poll. So it asks: Give me everything that has the id of the poll we are looking for. Remember how we selected the poll title above and got the name with $poll['name']? Well we are now using the $poll['id'] column. So what is happening is we are using the id of the poll, and matching it up to any matching records in the questions table. Thats right! A series of questions belong to a single poll, one to many relationship, A+.
$questions = mysql_num_rows($query);
if($questions > 0){
We then get the number of rows and then test if the poll has any questions or not. If it doesnt then we skip the entire questions cycle and just close off the html. We then set up the HTML to display a form etc. This is not a html class. But next comes the questions cycle, where we use the response from the database.
while($question = mysql_fetch_array($query)){
This is a common way to run through an array. It executes row by row, until there are no more rows to display. All items from the array are accessible via the $question variable, much like we did above with the $poll variable. So through each look the code will display:
This prints out a radio button, with the $question id as each ones value, this is so we can later track what item was selected, and the question title itself.
A submit button is then displayed. If we didn’t have our database setup the way it is, we might have to use a hidden field here, to display the poll id number in the form somewhere, but we will just be inserting the question id’s into the database, as they are unique and an easy way to track! The loop and the number of rows test is then closed off and that is that for the interface for user input!
If this section has confused you, try to look at the PHP itself, ignore the HTML code. When programming always have the logic clear in your head, styling and design comes later. So if you don’t follow how the selection is being tracked yet, don’t worry, you will probably realise how in this next section.
Posted by VoiDeT –
70 Comments
voidet. Of course! Sent you some cash and put a link in.
Many thanks for your hard work!
Hey!
Thanks alot for the donation!
I really appreciate that! If people are using the tutorial as a learning tool i’m all for it, we both can build something up that way. But if people are going to use it for their own web apps, it’s not right to just take and not give anything back
But thanks alot for the donation! I am glad it worked out for you
Also if you need any future help with anything just let me know!
Honestly it was a learning tool for me. And I ended up using it successfully which I thought was very cool.
I am happy to give back and may call on you again. Thanks very much.
Hey Artech!
Really cool portfolio you have!
Love the graphics!
Thanks Voidet.
I enjoy working with flash. Creating with graphics in mind is usually how I approach things. But I’m getting more and more into the scripting side of things. Really appreciating the functionality and management.
You should get into the frameworks!
Just jump into CakePHP
will this code work if i want to ask a series of independant yes or no question that i want to rate separately?
This is a poll script.
To turn it into a survey type program would require some refactoring.
Not too much if you want it hardcoded, but alot if you want it to be dynamic
Hi, great tutorial, thanks man.
hi, anyone know how we get the value of $responses['total'] hmm i starter in php wondering where we get the ‘total’ from? thx for any help..
IZ please clarify here!
Do an echo $responses['total'] to output the total number of responses!
Really good tutorial!! THX!! I’m just modifying a bit to fit on my page and to my taste.
But again, thx, i learned a lot here!
Hi.. nice tutoria! i have a question
Warning: Wrong parameter count for max() in C:\wamp\www\poll\poll.php on line 17
what does it mean? and how can i solve it? thanks…
Hey Ralph,
Below “$query = mysql_query(“SELECT COUNT(`id`) as hits FROM `responses` GROUP BY `qid`”);”
Add:
$me = array();
thanks VoiDeT.. ill try it! ^__^
Hi, followed your tutorial, this is for personal learning.. im new to PHP. was a great tutorial even for those who don’t code all the time. I just had 2 questions, everything is up and working, but my main page is also called index.php, if i change the name of the index.php that you set as default would it still work fine?
also, how do i add more polls? i want to add atleast three or four questions, thanks.
Try changing the name and see what happens.
There might be references to index.php in the code, or it could just be SELF. I forget a lot of the code in this, as this desperately needs a re-write.
If you want to add more polls or questions you should do so in the database. However you will need to cycle through the polls somehow.
Thanks,
Richard
Thanks, I will try changing the name and see what happens, I basically want to have 3-4 polls running at the same time, if I cant sort it out I will have to stick to one poll
Hi Voidet,
I clicked on the link you give above but it seems to be malfunctioning…http://www.jotlab.com/tutorials/poll/index.php
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++Warning: mysql_connect() [function.mysql-connect]: Access denied for user ‘voidet_jotlab’@'localhost’ (using password: YES) in /var/www/jotlab.com/public_html/tutorials/poll/config.php on line 10
Warning: mysql_select_db() [function.mysql-select-db]: Access denied for user ‘www-data’@'localhost’ (using password: NO) in /var/www/jotlab.com/public_html/tutorials/poll/config.php on line 11
Warning: mysql_select_db() [function.mysql-select-db]: A link to the server could not be established in /var/www/jotlab.com/public_html/tutorials/poll/config.php on line 11
Warning: mysql_query() [function.mysql-query]: Access denied for user ‘www-data’@'localhost’ (using password: NO) in /var/www/jotlab.com/public_html/tutorials/poll/poll.php on line 3
Warning: mysql_query() [function.mysql-query]: A link to the server could not be established in /var/www/jotlab.com/public_html/tutorials/poll/poll.php on line 3
Warning: mysql_num_rows(): supplied argument is not a valid MySQL result resource in /var/www/jotlab.com/public_html/tutorials/poll/poll.php on line 4
Warning: mysql_query() [function.mysql-query]: Access denied for user ‘www-data’@'localhost’ (using password: NO) in /var/www/jotlab.com/public_html/tutorials/poll/poll.php on line 13
Warning: mysql_query() [function.mysql-query]: A link to the server could not be established in /var/www/jotlab.com/public_html/tutorials/poll/poll.php on line 13
Warning: mysql_fetch_array(): supplied argument is not a valid MySQL result resource in /var/www/jotlab.com/public_html/tutorials/poll/poll.php on line 14
Warning: Wrong parameter count for max() in /var/www/jotlab.com/public_html/tutorials/poll/poll.php on line 17
Warning: mysql_query() [function.mysql-query]: Access denied for user ‘www-data’@'localhost’ (using password: NO) in /var/www/jotlab.com/public_html/tutorials/poll/poll.php on line 19
Warning: mysql_query() [function.mysql-query]: A link to the server could not be established in /var/www/jotlab.com/public_html/tutorials/poll/poll.php on line 19
Warning: mysql_num_rows(): supplied argument is not a valid MySQL result resource in /var/www/jotlab.com/public_html/tutorials/poll/poll.php on line 21
Warning: mysql_query() [function.mysql-query]: Access denied for user ‘www-data’@'localhost’ (using password: NO) in /var/www/jotlab.com/public_html/tutorials/poll/poll.php on line 77
Warning: mysql_query() [function.mysql-query]: A link to the server could not be established in /var/www/jotlab.com/public_html/tutorials/poll/poll.php on line 77
Warning: mysql_num_rows(): supplied argument is not a valid MySQL result resource in /var/www/jotlab.com/public_html/tutorials/poll/poll.php on line 78
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
any help is always appreciated
rca08207 at bigpond dot net dot au
A very detailed and helpful tutorial indeed. Loved it. I made a collection of all such tutorials and scripts (including this one) at 11 PHP Voting Scripts and Tutorials. I hope it would be helpful to many.
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