Member Avatar for dmkc

Hi guys,

I'm pretty much self taught, and I'm working on a site that stores mysql data using php.

In the site I previously did, I used separate pages with a query relating to what I wanted to show, eg. a page called Manchester.php that displayed all records with an area of Manchester.

This meant I had 300 separate pages though, and yes, I know it's a messy way of doing it!!

Can someone point me towards a tutorial where I can learn how to code my query so it only uses a single page, eg.

index.php?query=manchester or index.php?id=213 etc

I'm not asking for anyone to do this for me, as I'll never learn otherwise, but if someone can tell me the correct term for what I want to do and where I can read more then that would be very ace of you all

Thanks :)

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  • Latest Post Latest Post by Hangfire

Dani AI

Generated

As describes, the solution is to stop creating static pages and use a single dynamic page that reads parameters and runs the appropriate query. That pattern is usually called a front controller or routing using query strings (e.g., index.php?id=213) or path-based routing (clean URLs). As hinted, a form or links can drive the parameter, but the important parts are input validation, safe queries, and friendly routing.

A minimal, safe approach:

  • Use GET parameters for bookmarkable URLs (or route the path to index.php with mod_rewrite for pretty URLs).
  • Validate and sanitize inputs with filter_input (or strict whitelist checks for known area names).
  • Use PDO or MySQLi prepared statements to avoid SQL injection.
  • Escape all output with htmlspecialchars to avoid XSS.

Example pattern (conceptual):

<?php
$pdo = new PDO(..., [PDO::ATTR_ERRMODE => PDO::ERRMODE_EXCEPTION]);

$id   = filter_input(INPUT_GET, 'id', FILTER_VALIDATE_INT);
$area = filter_input(INPUT_GET, 'area', FILTER_SANITIZE_STRING);

if ($id) {
  $stmt = $pdo->prepare('SELECT * FROM items WHERE id = :id');
  $stmt->execute([':id' => $id]);
} elseif ($area) {
  $stmt = $pdo->prepare('SELECT * FROM items WHERE area = :area');
  $stmt->execute([':area' => $area]);
} else {
  $stmt = $pdo->query('SELECT * FROM items LIMIT 50');
}

foreach ($stmt->fetchAll(PDO::FETCH_ASSOC) as $row) {
  echo htmlspecialchars($row['title'], ENT_QUOTES, 'UTF-8');
}

If you want cleaner URLs, route all requests to index.php with a simple .htaccess:

RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule ^ index.php [QSA,L]

Troubleshooting tips: validate inputs and use whitelists for non-numeric fields; add DB indexes on columns used in WHERE; paginate large result sets; show a friendly 404 or message when no records are found; log DB errors but never display raw errors to users. Avoid the old mysql_* API (it is removed in later PHP versions) and prefer PDO or MySQLi prepared statements.

Recommended Answers

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Member Avatar for Hangfire

Are you using ajax?

Member Avatar for dmkc

no, just basic php and mysql

Member Avatar for Hangfire

How are you directing your users to each page?
i.e. a select box, or table of links ?

Member Avatar for dmkc

yeah I was using a drop down which was populated from another table in the mysql db

Member Avatar for Hangfire

http://www.tizag.com/phpT/forms.php

These should see you right. Once you're comfortable with this method of using forms and redirecting learn Ajax.

I left it too long before I read about Ajax and it would have made my life so much easier.

HTH

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