MySQL Cookbook, 2nd Edition

Introduction

The previous chapter describes how to retrieve information from MySQL and display it in web pages using various types of HTML constructs such as tables or hyperlinks. That’s a use of MySQL to send information in one direction (from web server to user), but web-based database programming is also useful for collecting information sent in the other direction (from user to web server), such as the contents of a submitted form. For example, if you’re processing a survey form, you might store the information for later use. If the form contains search keywords, you’d use them as the basis for a query that searches the database for information the user wants to see.

MySQL comes into these activities in a fairly obvious way, as the repository for storing information or as the source from which search results are drawn. But before you can process input from a form, you have to create the form and send it to the user. MySQL can help with this, too, because it’s often possible to use information stored in your database to generate form elements such as radio buttons, checkboxes, pop-up menus, or scrolling lists:

• You can select a set of items from a table that lists countries, states, or provinces and convert them into a pop-up menu in a form that collects address information.

• You can use the list of legal values for an ENUM column that contains allowable salutations (Mr., Mrs., and so forth) to generate a set of radio buttons.

• You can use lists of available colors, sizes, or styles ...