AlbumDB

DescriptionAlbumDB is an example of simple PHP scripts that make entering data into the AlbumDB easier. The scripts start with AlbumDB.cgi, and then go to BandMembers.cgi, Songs.cgi, and Summary.cgi.

These scripts are a bit messy, so I would look at some of the other examples before trying to tackle this one.

There are two include files, DBFunctions.inc and VarFunctions.inc that contain functions related to the database and passing variables between scripts, repsectively. I do this so I can reuse the functions, and because it makes the main script code easier to read. These are also written in PHP, but since they are included in other scripts and do not run on their own, I use the inc extension.

Everything you need to know about connecting to a database and running queries with PHP is included in this example.

A few technical notes that are not critical, but some may be curious about.

You will notice that although I say these are PHP scripts, they have a cgi extension. This is because it allows me to run the scripts without the files being world-readable, which is important so you cannot see the "real" password for the database (in the DBFunctions.inc file). To convert back to regular PHP, you would rename the files with the php extension, and take out the first line in the file (#!/usr/local/bin/php). You could also make them non-executable, since this is not needed if they are not CGI.