Question

Using a form I am inserting the information from 3 text fields and 2 checkboxes into a MySQL database.

The database consists of 2 tables with the following rows:

id - articletitle - articleorganization - articledate - articleurl

id - article_tags - articlid - tagid 

The checkboxes use an array and are coded thus:

<input type="checkbox" name="articletags[]" value="geology" id="articletags_0" />
<input type="checkbox" name="articletags[]" value="astronomy" id="articletags_1" />

And the MySQL statement looks like this:

mysql_query("INSERT INTO articles SET articletitle='$articletitle',
 articleorganization='$articleorganization',
 articledate='$articledate',
 articleurl='$articleurl' ")

mysql_query2("INSERT INTO articles_tags SET articletags='$articletags' ")

However, when I visit the page in a web browser it shows a blank page.

In case anyone is wondering, the reason I’m using checkboxes is because the articles will need to be tagged with a combination of tags, and this will ensure that consistency is used in the tagging. Also, I have a form used to edit the articles, and the database structure could, I believe, be used to make the checkboxes “checked” on the edit page.

Any advice is greatly appreciated.

Answer 1

The blank page is actually from a syntax error. To see syntax errors, edit the php.ini or add this line to the top of your code error_reporting(E_ALL);

Change mysql_query2() to mysql_query()

Your SQL sytax is incorrect…

If the data is already in the database you want to use UPDATE.

mysql_query("UPDATE articles SET articletitle='$articletitle',
 articleorganization='$articleorganization',
 articledate='$articledate',
 articleurl='$articleurl' ");

mysql_query("UPDATE articles_tags SET articletags='$articletags' ")

This is how you insert data:

mysql_query("INSERT INTO articles (articletitle,
 articleorganization,
 articledate,
 articleurl) VALUES ($articletitle,$articleorganization,$articledate,$articleurl) ");

Note: You should use mysql_error() to check for syntax errors.

mysql_query("INSERT INTO articles_tags SET articletags='$articletags' ") OR DIE(mysql_error());