Trying to teach myself

I am having to hack a Joomla module....I am doing ok but in this one component i do not undertand what the following code. i am not sure whta the a. b. c. 's are


($pagingParams['posts_sortby']) {
case "subject":
$order = "a.subject ASC, a.time DESC";
break;
case "category":
$order = "b.id ASC, a.time DESC";
break;
case "hits":
$order = "c.hits DESC,
break;

 

That's not all the code.

Anyway, it's just a snippet that builds a query.

If Sort By = Subject $order is this, if Sort By = Category then $order = that... etc.

 

Well, in response to his actual question, the a, b, c are different tables. If you look at the rest of the code you'll probably see something like this:

SELECT * FROM table1 AS a, table2 AS b, table3 AS c

Code (markup):

This method is often used when you work with table prefixes. Your code is the part that orders the results.

 

they table names are a, b, c? when i look the name of the tables are ID , etc

 

No, they are just aliases. In your query should be something like.

SELECT * FROM original_table_name1 AS a, original_table_name2 AS b, original_table_name3 AS c

Code (markup):

This is used for exaple if you want to select a lot of different fields from different tables, or if you have table pefixes, to make the query shorter.

So instead of

SELECT yourprefix_table1.name, yourprefix_table2.id, yourprefix_table3.something
FROM yourprefix_table1, yourprefix_table2, yourprefix_table3

Code (markup):

You can do:

SELECT a.name, b.id, c.something
FROM yourprefix_table1 AS a, yourprefix_table2 AS b, yourprefix_table3 AS c

Code (markup):

Might be a bad example, but it's much more simple for long queries.

 

that makes sense!

Thanks a ton

 

Here some more info

http://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.0/en/select.html

(Just scroll a little bit down)

 

i am in the process of learning but sadly i dont have many people to ask

i am hacking a joomla module and tyring to undertand. if i may pic you rmind just a bit more

i am trying to figure out why he would use $content .= so many times instead just putting what is in quotes.

// Output the document name
$content .= $doc->getData('dmname');

// If we are showing the counter or the category, do it
if ($show_counter) {
$content .= " (".$doc->getData('dmcounter').")";
}
if ($show_category) {
$content .= "<br />(".$row->cat_title.")";
}

// Add the end link and break
$content .= "</a>";

// List output
if ( $show_list == 1 ) {
$content .= "</li>";
} else {
$content .= "<br />";
}

}

I am also trying to understand what &amp means in this line

$linkText = "index.php?option=com_docman&amp;Itemid=$menuid&amp;task=doc_download

again lots of thanks

 

The dot operator infront of the equal sign adds more content to the current variable, which is $content in your case.

http://us2.php.net/manual/en/language.operators.string.php

And the &amp; is HTML for the & symbol.


And please use

 wrappers when posting PHP code. :)

PHP:

 

Hey thanks again, It like i know all of this stuff but i have never seen it actually used so i am piecing the stuff together.....

like i really cannot ever imagine where I would use a loop even though i can recreate every tutorial by memory.....

i didn't know about the tags. i will use them from now on

 

MIght these variable be defined in a global somewhere because I dont see them in the code anywhere

 

Could you post your actual code?

 

This code is shorter but illustrates the same point. This is a module for Joomla with Community Builder

<?php
defined( '_VALID_MOS' ) or die( 'Direct Access to this location is not allowed.' );
$revshare_ad_format = $params->get('revshare_ad_format');
$revshare_format = explode("-", $revshare_ad_format);
$revshare_ad_width = explode("x", $revshare_format[0]);
$revshare_ad_height = explode("_", $revshare_ad_width[1]);
$ip_safe = 1;
if ($_SERVER["REMOTE_ADDR"] == $params->get('revshare_ip_block1')) $ip_safe = 0;
if ($_SERVER["REMOTE_ADDR"] == $params->get('revshare_ip_block2')) $ip_safe = 0;
if ($_SERVER["REMOTE_ADDR"] == $params->get('revshare_ip_block3')) $ip_safe = 0;
if ($_SERVER["REMOTE_ADDR"] == $params->get('revshare_ip_block4')) $ip_safe = 0;
if ($_SERVER["REMOTE_ADDR"] == $params->get('revshare_ip_block5')) $ip_safe = 0;
//  Add another if statement here with another IP address if
//  you wish to block it as well. You can change this to use
//  an array if you have a bigger list.
//
//$ip_safe = 1; // debugging. Uncomment if you want to see the ads
if ($ip_safe) {
	global $database, $my;
	$uid = $my->id; // current user id
	$cid = intval( mosGetParam( $_REQUEST, 'id', 0 ) ); // content piece id
	$ads = $params->get('revshare_ad_client'); // site default adsense id
	$chl = $params->get('revshare_ad_channel'); //default channel
	$altAd = false;

	if ($cid > 0) {
		// first check get author and adsense info
		$query = "SELECT a.created_by, b.cb_adsenseid, b.cb_adsensechannelid, a.hits"
			   . "FROM #__content AS a INNER JOIN #__comprofiler AS b "
			   . "ON a.created_by = b.user_id "
			   . "WHERE a.id = " . $cid; 
		//echo $query;
		$database->setQuery( $query );
		$info = $database->loadRow();

		$aid = $info[0]; // author id
		$asid = $info[1]; // google adsense id
		$ascid = $info[2]; // google adsense channel id
		$hits = $info[3]; // # of hits
		//echo ($uid==$aid);
		if ($aid != $uid) {
			// only display ad if visitor is not author, prevent TOS violation
			$modder = intval($params->get('revshare_percent'));
			if ($hits%$modder==0) {
				// only do 50% of time
				$newAds = $asid;
				if($newAds!="") {
					$ads = $newAds;
					$chl = $ascid;
					$altAd = true;
				}
			}
		}
	}

	echo '<div style="float:' . $params->get('revshare_ad_align') . ';width:' .  $revshare_ad_width[0] . 'px;height:' . $revshare_ad_height[0] . 'px;margin:auto;padding:auto;">';
	if ($altAd) echo "<!-- author's ads -->";
	echo "<script language=\"javascript\">\r\n"
	. "<!--\r\n"
	. "google_ad_client = \"" . $ads . "\";\r\n"
	. "google_alternate_ad_url = \"" . $params->get('revshare_alternate_ad_url') . "\"; \r\n"
	. "google_alternate_color = \"" . $params->get('revshare_alternate_color') . "\"; \r\n"
	. "google_ad_width = " .  $revshare_ad_width[0] . "; \r\n"
	. "google_ad_height = " . $revshare_ad_height[0] . "; \r\n"
	. "google_ad_format = \"" . $revshare_format[0] . "\"; \r\n"
	. "google_ad_type = \"" . $params->get('revshare_ad_type') . "\"; \r\n"
	. "google_ad_channel = \"" . $chl . "\"; \r\n"
	. ( $params->get('revshare_ad_in_frame') ? "google_page_url = document.location; \r\n" : "")
	. "google_color_border = [\"" . $params->get('revshare_color_border1') . "\",\"" . $params->get('revshare_color_border2') . "\",\"" . $params->get('revshare_color_border3') . "\",\"" . $params->get('revshare_color_border4') . "\"]; \r\n"
	. "google_color_bg = [\"" . $params->get('revshare_color_bg1') . "\",\"" . $params->get('revshare_color_bg2') . "\",\"" . $params->get('revshare_color_bg3') . "\",\"" . $params->get('revshare_color_bg4') . "\"]; \r\n"
	. "google_color_link = [\"" . $params->get('revshare_color_link1') . "\",\"" . $params->get('revshare_color_link2') . "\",\"" . $params->get('revshare_color_link3') . "\",\"" . $params->get('revshare_color_link4') . "\"]; \r\n"
	. "google_color_url = [\"" . $params->get('revshare_color_url1') . "\",\"" . $params->get('revshare_color_url2') . "\",\"" . $params->get('revshare_color_url3') . "\",\"" . $params->get('revshare_color_url4') . "\"]; \r\n"
	. "google_color_text = [\"" . $params->get('revshare_color_text1') . "\",\"" . $params->get('revshare_color_text2') . "\",\"" . $params->get('revshare_color_text3') . "\",\"" . $params->get('revshare_color_text4') . "\"]; \r\n"
	. "//--> \r\n"
	. "</script>\r\n"
	. "<script language=\"javascript\"  src=\"http://pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/show_ads.js\"></script>\r\n";
	echo '</div>';
} else {
	//  This is what visitors from the blocked IP addresses will see (specified above).
	//  This shows a table with the dimensions of the ad. Change as needed.
	echo '<div style="float: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 0px;">' . $params->get('ip_block_alt_code') . '</div>';
}

?>

PHP:

I am not sure where he is defining

$query = "SELECT a.created_by, b.cb_adsenseid, b.cb_adsensechannelid, a.hits"
			   . "FROM #__content AS a INNER JOIN #__comprofiler AS b "

PHP: