Preview
Building the Book List
12:02The core of the application will require a book list. We will create a general listing of books with title and description.
Additional Courses
- Dependency Management with Composer
- Bootstrap 4 Basics: Building Forms with Bootstrap
- Integrating PHP with Databases: Getting Started with PDO
- CRUD Operations with PHP
- Build a Basic PHP Website: Adding a Basic Form
Or if you want to get even more into SQL databases, try our Beginner SQL Track
Other Ways of Doing Things
Your can also access the global $db variable using the "super global"
$GLOBAL['db'];
You can redirect using the builtin header() function, but the HTTP Foundations redirect fails gracefully and we'll be adding cookies to this redirect a little later.
header('location: /books.php');
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[MUSIC]
0:00
Welcome back.
0:04
Now that we have an understanding of
some of the key features that we'll
0:05
be implementing,
0:08
we're ready to start building
the functionality into our website.
0:09
We'll start with the ability
to add books to our database.
0:13
I've already set up the basic formm as
well as the connection to the database.
0:16
But you'll need to add the functionality
to take the form data and
0:20
add it to the database.
0:23
After our form is processed, we'll need to
send the user back to the book list and
0:25
display the list of
books from the database.
0:30
We'll be using a package called
HTTP foundations from symphony for
0:32
the HTTP requests and redirection.
0:37
We'll use Composer to manage this package.
0:40
For more information on forms,
databases or composer,
0:43
check the notes associated to this video.
0:46
For this project,
we'll be using Workspaces.
0:50
But you can also download the files and
work locally if you prefer.
0:52
When you open Workspaces, you'll see that
I have set up some of the base files for
0:57
us to begin.
1:02
Including a simple file for
each of the main pages on our site.
1:02
I also created our main template.
1:07
I'm using a boot swatch theme,
which is based on bootstrap.
1:10
This is only to give you something
a little easier on the eyes, but
1:13
leaves plenty of room to make it your own.
1:17
In the inc folder, I've split out
the head section, navigation and footer,
1:19
which we include on all our pages.
1:24
Now we need to create a form
that a user can fill out
1:26
to add a book to our database.
1:29
Inside the inc folder, I've created a
basic form with the fields we'll be using.
1:32
Let's open add.php and
include that form on our page.
1:36
BookForm.php.
1:50
Besides including the book form file,
we also need to add our form tags.
1:54
Method = post.
2:17
And we'll post the form to
procedures addBook.php file.
2:22
We're going to be using
the Symphony HTTP Foundation
2:38
package that I've already added for
you in a composer.json file.
2:41
This package will give us
a lot of great features
2:46
that I'll introduce to
you as we need them.
2:49
To install this package into your project,
2:52
you'll need to open up
the console in your workspace.
2:54
Type composer install.
3:00
Once our packages have installed,
we can close the console.
3:10
I've also set up a little helper
in the functions.php file.
3:17
This helper gets the current
request called request,
3:21
which just creates a new Symphony request
object where we can get posted data.
3:24
In order to use these,
we'll need to set up a few things.
3:30
So let's create a Bootstrap file where
we can add all the things that we need.
3:33
Require once.
3:48
Vendor/autoload.php.
3:54
We also need to include our functions.
4:07
I've also included a connection file which
gives us a PDO connection to our database
4:12
through a variable named db.
4:17
Check the notes associated
with this video for
4:19
more details on creating the connection.
4:22
Let's require that file here as well.
4:24
Now we can include a single file on a page
but have access to everything we need.
4:34
Let's go ahead and create the addBook
file in our procedures folder.
4:39
We start by including our
bootstrap file at the top.
4:52
After this, we can now get the title and
description from the request object.
5:05
Request, get (title).
5:14
And for our bookDescription,
5:20
request get description.
5:25
Now we're set to work with the database.
5:31
I've created all the tables
that we need in this course.
5:34
If you want more information on databases
in general or this database in particular,
5:38
you can find more information in
the notes associated with this video.
5:43
Let's create a function
in the functions file.
5:46
We want to be able to add a book.
5:53
This function should accept two
parameters, the title and the description.
5:57
We need our db variable
from the connection file.
6:06
We'll need this variable in a lot
of our database helper functions.
6:09
Using globals is one of the few
ways to do this and for
6:13
our use case,
it will be the most basic way.
6:16
To do this, we use the keyword
global followed by our variable.
6:19
When we set up our
connection to the database,
6:25
the db variable was set on the global
scope, which makes it available anywhere.
6:28
However, because we're now inside of
a function, we need to tell that function
6:33
to look in the global scope to find
the variable db so that we can use it.
6:38
Our book requires one more field,
an ownerId.
6:43
We'll fill this out later but
for now let's just set it to 0.
6:48
We'll be using prepared statements
to add our book to our database and
6:53
we'll wrap our statement
in a try catch block.
6:56
Let's re-throw the exception.
7:12
For our query,
we're going to INSERT INTO books.
7:21
Name, description and
7:28
owneR_ID And then our VALUES.
7:32
Instead of using
the question mark symbol for
7:38
numbered placeholders,
we'll use named placeholders.
7:40
Starting with a colon, we call this name,
7:45
description, and ownerId.
7:50
Now we can prepare our statement.
7:58
Next we bind our variables.
8:08
Name = title.
8:17
Description =
8:21
description.
8:27
And ownerId = ownerId.
8:37
And finally, we can execute our
statement and return the results.
8:44
Now we can use this new function
in our add book procedure.
8:53
We're going to wrap this
in a try/catch block so
8:57
that we can redirect back to the add page.
9:00
NewBook, bookTitle,
9:18
and bookDescription.
9:24
For the redirection,
9:32
we use some of the features of the Symfony
HTTP Foundation's package for responses.
9:34
Using the response create method from the
Symphony package accepts three properties.
9:56
The first of these properties
is the body of the response.
10:02
This can be of mixed type.
10:06
For our case, we do not need to
return any data inside the body.
10:07
So we can just return null.
10:12
The second of the properties
is the HTTP status code.
10:15
Also part of the Symphony package is
a list of status codes that can be used in
10:20
the form of a word instead
of the magic number.
10:24
Numbers that may not mean anything
to us when glancing over the code.
10:28
For our redirect status code,
we could put a 302.
10:31
But why not be explicit when stating
it by just saying, HTTP_FOUND?
10:35
Meaning that the page was found.
10:45
We can use this with a Symphony component.
10:47
The last property is the headers.
10:59
For our redirect to work,
11:01
we need to tell the browser where
to go with a Location header.
11:02
We'll redirect to books.php
if our book was added.
11:12
We then need to add response,
send and exit.
11:20
If we catch an exception,
we'll redirect to the add.php page.
11:27
So let's copy these three lines.
11:31
Let's open a browser and add a book.
11:39
Because we're redirected to the books.php
page, we know that the book was added.
11:52
But we still need to pull the books
from the database to display on
11:57
the book's page.
12:00