Dying to get this done: Link to articles

Here is what I am trying to do, and I given my little PHP knowledge, I have already gotten so much done.

1-I run PHPmyfaq on my website (a script to crate and display FAQs on your website)

2-I have created a simple script that randomly displays a different FAQ record, everytime you load the home page.

3-Problem is, the whole FAQ article is displayed, and I don't want that. I simply want to dislpay the title of the record, then first 10 words of the article, and then a link for people to click and read the entire article. Like the following:

Digitalpoint: A webmasters and Developers forum, where you can discuss.... (click to read more)

That is it. No more, no less.

Now for the code, this is what I have, but unfortunately, I am missing the code that will limit how many words are displayed, as well as the link to the entire article.

<?php

// Create the connection and select the DB
$link = mysql_connect("host","user","password");

if ($link) {
mysql_selectdb("db",$link);

// Select records from the DB
$query = "SELECT content FROM pmf_faqdata ORDER BY Rand() LIMIT 1";
$result = mysql_query($query);


// Display records from the table
echo "<table border='1'>";
while ($row = mysql_fetch_array($result, MYSQL_NUM))


{
echo "<tr><td>$row[0]</td><td>$row[1]</td><td>$row[1]</td></tr>";
}
echo "</table>";

} else {
echo "Can't connect to the database!";
}

?> ​

I would really appreciate if someone can help me in achieving this?

 

Limit the word using this:

//replace $theword with the variable name that hold the faq content
$length_limit = 20;

if (strlen($theword) > $length_limit) {
$theword = substr($theword , 0 , $length_limit).'...';
}

PHP:

Or just simply

substr($YOUR_VARIABLE , 0 , 20).'...';

PHP:

 

Really appreciate the quick reply.

Where exactly in my code would I put this: substr($result , 0 , 20).'...';

?

 

you can put it in your query

select LEFT(content, 50) from table where condition = 'satisfied';

where 50 represents the string count of the content from left to right

 

Thanks

So far I tried plugging the following in many places in my script, but it is not working. Not even sure if I got the right query that holds the data?

//replace $theword with the variable name that hold the faq content
$length_limit = 20;

if (strlen($query) > $length_limit) {
$query = substr($query , 0 , $length_limit).'...';
}

 

try this query..

 

Bartolay, excuse my ignorance, I am newbie to PHP. Please let me know:

1-where in the code do I put that?
2-which one would be my variable name that I have to replace?

Thanks a lot

 

Make sure you replace the tags for the query

 

unfortunately it is not working for me. I have to keep trying. thanks for all the help guys

 

if $row[0] hold the title. it will be:

echo "<tr><td>".substr($row[0],0,20)."...</td><td>$row[1]</td><td>$row[1]</td></tr>";

PHP:

if $row[1] hold the title. it will be:

echo "<tr><td>$row[0]</td><td>".substr($row[1],0,20)."..</td><td>".substr($row[1],0,20)."..</td></tr>";

PHP:

because i don't know whether $row[1] or $row[0] hold the title ...

 

Thanks a lot guys,

I got the first thing done.

The only thing left, is to hyperlink it, so people can click on the topic and read it in full

Article: This is an article about something...(click here to read more)

I would appreciate if someone can finish this for me please?

// Create the connection and select the DB
$link = mysql_connect("host","name","password");

if ($link) {
mysql_selectdb("password",$link);

// Select records from the DB
$query = "SELECT content,thema FROM pmf_faqdata ORDER BY Rand() LIMIT 1";
$result = mysql_query($query);



// Display records from the table
echo "<table border='1'>";
while ($row = mysql_fetch_array($result, MYSQL_NUM)) {
echo "<tr><td>".substr($row[1],0,50).substr($row[0],0,75)."...</td></tr>";
}
echo "</table>";
} else {
echo "Can't connect to the database!";
}

 

another quick way :

echo first_ten("Problem is, the whole FAQ article is displayed, and I don't want that. I simply want to dislpay the title of the record, then first 10 words of the article, and then a link for people to click and read the");

function first_ten($basetext) {

  $words=split(' ', $basetext);

  for($i=0;$i<10;$i++) {
	 $text .= ' '.$words[$i];
  }

  return $text.'...';

}

PHP:

returns
Problem is, the whole FAQ article is displayed, and I don't...

 

for the link :

echo "<tr>
<td>".substr($row[1],0,50).substr($row[0],0,75)."...</td>
<td><a href=\"".$row[2]."\">more...</a></td>
</tr>";

PHP:

assuming you retrieve content, thema, link with your query
url would be $row[2]
(arrays are 0-based, first field is 0)

 

Thanks a lot. That didn't work for some reason.

A typical FAQ record on this section looks like this:


http://www.SiteAddress.com/faq/index.php?action=artikel&cat=3&id=5&artlang=en


How can we integrate that? Thanks a lot

 

Are you trying to mask affiliate links ? I lack all experience with that stuff so I can't help you there, but this one sounds like a viable solution : http://www.ragepank.com/articles/hide-affiliate-links/

 

I have gotten all this figured out. The only thing I am stuck with, is to display the first 100 characters , up to the last character in a word.

<?php

// Create the connection and select the DB
$link = mysql_connect("URL","db","password");

if ($link) {
mysql_selectdb("db",$link);

// Select records from the DB
$query = "SELECT content,thema,id FROM pmf_faqdata ORDER BY Rand() LIMIT 1";
$result = mysql_query($query);

// Display records from the table
while ($row = mysql_fetch_array($result, MYSQL_NUM)) {

echo "<div style=\"font-weight:bold\">" . substr($row[1],0,50) . "</div><div>" . substr($row[0],0,75) . "...</div>" .
"<div><a href=\"http://www.example.net/faq/index.php?action=artikel&artlang=en&id=".$row[2]."\">Click to read more...</a></div>";

}
} else {
echo "Can't connect to the database!";
}

?>



I was also given the following solution by someone, but I am not sure where to insert it in my script above?

$variable['abbr'] = $this->cutText($variable['description'], 175);
function cutText($string, $length) {

if($length<strlen($string)){

while ($string{$length} != " ") {

$length--;
}

return substr($string, 0, $length);

}else return $string;
}


Please advise?

Thanks a lot

 

you can paste the function anywhere in the source, and use
.cutText($row[1],50).
where it says
.substr($row[1],0,50).

i'd omit the ... in the html code and have the function add it if the textstring is bigger than the cut:

function cutText($string, $length) {
if($length>=strlen($string)) return $string;
while ($string{$length} != " ") $length--;
return substr($string, 0, $length).'...';
} 

PHP:

The function fails if the first word is longer than the cut. If you don't intend to use a cut smaller than 20 characters it should not give any problems. Otherwise you'd have to decide to cut the word (or allow a longer word than the cut).

function cutText($string, $length) {
if($length>=strlen($string)) return $string;
$newlength=$length;
while ($string{$newlength} != " ") $newlength--;
if($newlength>0) return substr($string, 0, $newlength).'...';
return substr($string, 0, $length).'...';
} 

PHP: