best way to approach this? - php+mysql

I don't have much experience with mysql so this one has me stumped. I'll try to describe the situation.

I have a database of (call me a traditionalist ) Widgets.

Table : widgets.
Columns: widget_id,widget_name
Sample data:
1,SnazzyWidget
2,SleepyWidget

Table: widget_attributes
Columns: attribute_id, attribute_name
Sample data:
1, Can fly
2, Can talk
3, Multi-coloured
4, Executive class

Table: attribute_map
Columns: widget_id, attribute_jd
Sample data:
1,1
1,4
1,3
2,3


I hope you get the picture. attribute_map maps the two other tables together. A widget can have more than one attribute, as in the sample SnazzyWidget can fly, is multi-coloured and is Executive class.

So in the widget product page I want to print a list of all the attributes the particular widget has according to the database. I can do this (yeah! ). So the next step is in the Admin pages, I want to print a list of checkboxes and the box is checked if the widget has that particular attribute.

EG. for Snazzywidget the output would be:
Can fly | CHECKED
Can talk | NOT CHECKED
Multi-coloured | CHECKED
Executive class | CHECKED

The user can then check or uncheck the boxes as needed and resubmit the form, updating the database.

Could someone tell me how I can code this (PHP + mysql)?

 

Could you show us the code you're already using to show the attributes? If it's a function, it will be possible to add just a few lines of code and the function will serve both purposes!

 

Thanks sketch but I just figured out how to do it. I used a LEFT JOIN to join the attribute map, and selected map_attribute_id, attribute_name and attribute_id. So then the map_attribute_id is null when no mapped value exists for it.

Then all I had to do was put in a statement like

if(!map_attribute_id == null) 
print('<input type=checkbox selected="selected" name=$attribute_id value=$attribute_name>')

Code (markup):

And it prints out the checkboxes with the appropriate values (checked/unchecked).