Filling a table with details from a file?

Hi Everyone,

I'm using dreamweaver CS5, i have a form and in that form is a table of 2 columns and 32 rows

I want to fill the left hand column using the details from a file (in this case a list of students names) BUT with a twist.....i want it to fill the left hand column with the student names each time the page loads, for example if that particular file is changed or updated i want the names in that column to change with it.

Is there any way to do this? I'd prefer a method that works in php/html, no asp etc

Cheers


EDIT:

Found this online, no idea how it works or if it would be suitable for my needs? can someone explain what it is doing on each line and wether it would work (or be adapted to work) for my requirements?

Code:

---

<?php

$file = file("data.txt");

print "<table>
<tr><td>Field 1</td><td>Field 2</td><td>Field 3</td></tr>";

foreach($file as $line){
$line = trim($line);
$split = split("\t",$line);
print "<tr><td>$split[0]</td><td>$split[1]</td><td>$split[2]</td></tr>";
}

print "</table>";

?>

---

This is not difficult at all...

Simply read the list of names from the file when the page loads and create the table on the fly...

Or am I missing something that makes this harder??

What makes it harder is that im a web coding novice :p so i've no idea how to do it

Basically what i have is a form, this form has a 2 column table, the right column teachers are going to fill details into the left column i want to be automatically generated from a file every time the page loads

The reason for this is i want one member of staff to be able to update the names in the list when students change tutor groups etc without relying on me to go into the code and have to change it that way.

Once teachers have filled the right column in with details they submit it and that then gets emailed to that member of staff who will also be updating the names lists

The code you posted will work as long as your file is tab separated.

If it uses a different separator then change the "\t" to whatever you use ("," for CSV for example)

The harder part is what happens when the form is submitted...should the data file be updated?

Ok that's working, cheers, i've got two more problems now though, the first of which is that the table is created by php which is lovely and wonderful except now i don't know how to make the second column text boxes for the user to enter data into which will eventually be submitted by the forms submit button. My second problem is that previously i was generating the email using the variables of the text box names etc but now that they are also gone thanks to this lovely bit of php i no longer know how to take the information generated by the php as well as the information i want from problem one and put that into an email :p

I'll admit straight away I've skim read this thread so far so excuse me if I'm missing the point, but wouldn't it be easier to use XML and a transform file? If your list of student names is being generated from SIMS/CMIS it won't be difficult to make it output XML rather than CSV, then the page will read the XML file each time and populate the table accordingly.

Have a look at W3Schools if you're unsure about XSLT: XSLT Tutorial

I'd do it whatever way is simplest, im not bothered in how i implement it so long as i can do it with minimal knowledge required on how to implement it

My final goal is as i say a column in which i can get a staff member to update without ever needing to access the server or go through any code
Second column with text boxes that teachers can type into
a submit button to submit the information contained in both columns once the information has been entered via email

That's all i need, don't really care how i do it, at the moment my sites are all standard html or php so it's easiest for me if they are kept as such

Try the attached...

You should be able to use the POSTed data to build your email...

Thanks CESIL i'll give that a go :)

That seems to have worked perfectly CESIL, only bit i need help with now is how do i make the second column of the table editable? is there a bit of code i can put into that PHP to make them writable?

EDIT: actually i have a slightly different problem now, this is the code i have for the page:

Code:

---

</head>
        <body>
                <h1 align="center"><u>7B Praise Points</u></h1>
                <div id="contact-wrapper">
                          <form method="post" action="<?php echo $_SERVER['PHP_SELF']; ?>" id="contactform">
<?php

$file = file("7B.txt");
$count = 0;
print "<table cellspacing='2'>\n
<tr><td>Student Name</td><td>Number of Praise Points</td></tr>\n";

foreach($file as $line){
$line = trim($line);
$split = split("\t",$line);
print "<tr>\n<td>$split[0]<input name='name$count' type='hidden' value='$split[0]'></td>\n<td>$split[1]<input name='points$count' type='hidden' value='$split[1]'></td>\n</tr>";
$count++;
}

print "</table>";

?>
  <p>
    <input name="submit" type="submit" value="Submit">
  </p>
</form>
                </div>
        </body>
</html>

---

That's the bit that generates the page, so i need something in there so that the second column can be edited and then submitted along with the email

This is then the code i've got for the email which is held within the same page at the top (as you can see i changed your form line at the top)

Code:

---

<?php
if(isset($_POST['submit'])) {
                $name = trim($_POST['Student']);               
                $emailTo = 'mothj@archwayschool.net';
                $subject="7B Praise Points";
                $headers = "From: " . $emailTo . "\r\nReply-To: " . $emailTo;
                $headers .= 'MIME-Version: 1.0' . "\r\n";
                $headers .= 'Content-type: text/html; charset=iso-8859-1' . "\r\n";
                $message = '
        <html>
                <head>
                        <title>7B Praise Points</title>
                </head>
                <body>
                        <h1 align="center"><strong>7B Praise Points</strong></h1>
                        <pre> </pre>
                                <p>&nbsp;</p>
                </body>
        </html>
';

                mail($emailTo, $subject, $message, $headers);

                $emailSent = true;
        }
?>

---

So i also need something in the email section to take the information from the first set of PHP to formulate it in the email the same as it is displayed on the page as well as the information which i want to have been inputted into the text boxes

Between the two bits of code is a load of css code which isn't important

Code:

---

for($i=0;$i<xx;$i++){
        echo "<tr><td>" . $_POST['name'.$i] . "</td><td>" . $_POST['score'.$i] . "</td></tr>\n";
}

---

where xx is the number of rows+1

to calculate the number of rows use (count($_POST)-1)/3

Thanks CESIL, though i've no idea where im putting that or what it does :p

Does this help :)

Code:

---

<?php
if(isset($_POST['submit'])) {
                $name = trim($_POST['Student']);               
                $emailTo = 'mothj@archwayschool.net';
                $subject="7B Praise Points";
                $headers = "From: " . $emailTo . "\r\nReply-To: " . $emailTo;
                $headers .= 'MIME-Version: 1.0' . "\r\n";
                $headers .= 'Content-type: text/html; charset=iso-8859-1' . "\r\n";
                $message = '
        <html>
                <head>
                        <title>7B Praise Points</title>
                </head>
                <body>
                        <h1 align="center"><strong>7B Praise Points</strong></h1>
                <table>'

//++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

for($i=0;$i<xx;$i++){
        $message .= "<tr><td>" . $_POST['name'.$i] . "</td><td>" . $_POST['score'.$i] . "</td></tr>\n";
}


//++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

                $message .= '</table>
                </body>
        </html>';

                mail($emailTo, $subject, $message, $headers);

                $emailSent = true;
        }
?>

---

that helps a lot :D

EDIT: syntax error on the "for($i=0;$i<xx;$i++){" line, did you intend on me changing that to: for($i=0;$i<(count($_POST)-1)/3;$i++){ as that doesn't appear to work either, im probably just doing something silly wrong

I missed a ";" after <table>'...

oops...