MySql/Php comment at bottom of each page (blog)

Warning on line 16

[russgri]

Warning: mysql_num_rows(): supplied argument is not a valid MySQL result resource in /home/username/mysite-www/includes/pageFooter.inc on line 16
Please send any comments about these pages to [e-mail]
Copyright © 1998-2002 - My Site All Rights Reserved -Webmaster

<?
if(isset($action)&&$action=="Add Comment"){
 mysql_query("insert into comments (name,email,url,comment,page,datecreated)
 values('$form_name','$form_email','$form_url','$form_comment','$PHP_SELF',now())");
 mail("[e-mail]","comment - $PHP_SELF","name : $form_name\nemail : $form_email\nurl : $form_url\n
 comment:$form_comment","From: $form_email");
}
$q=mysql_query("select * from &lt;comments where page='$PHP_SELF' order by datecreated desc"); 
if(mysql_num_rows($q)>0){ //Line 16
 while($r=mysql_fetch_array($q)){
 echo "On $r[datecreated], ";
 if($r['email'])echo "<a href=\"mailto:$r[email]\">";
 echo ($r['name'])?$r['name']:"someone anonymous";
 if($r['email']){?></a><?}
 if($r['url']){
 $r['url']=ereg_replace("^http://","",$r['url']);
 echo " (<a href=\"http://$r[url]\">$r[url]</a>)";
 }
 echo " said:<br />".nl2br(htmlspecialchars($r['comment']))."<hr />";
 }
}
?>

I took this verbatim from a working page.
I need a little help with syntax.

[grahamstewart]

I'd say that this is your problem..

$q = mysql_query("select * from <comments where page='$PHP_SELF' order by datecreated desc"); 

Whats that < doing in there?
Also you should really check whether the query was successful.

Try this..

$sql = "select * from comments where page='$PHP_SELF' order by datecreated desc";
$q = mysql_query($sql) or die('SQL Error: '.mysql_error());

or be a bit nicer to your users like this..

if ( $q = mysql_query($sql) ) {
...all the other stuff...
}
else {
print '<p>Sorry, I was not able to access the database properly. Please try again later.</p>';
}

Also I really think you ought to read this SitePoint article [sitepoint.com] before you make your script public.
Putting variables from a form straight into a query without checking them first is a bad idea.

[russgri]

I inserted you 'be nice' snippet
Is it correct?

$q=mysql_query("select * from comments where page='$PHP_SELF' order by datecreated desc");
if(mysql_num_rows($q)>0)else { 
print '<p>Sorry, I was not able to access the database properly. Please try again later.</p>'; 
} 
{
 while($r=mysql_fetch_array($q)){
 echo "On $r[datecreated], ";
 if($r['email'])echo "<a href=\"mailto:$r[email]\">";
 echo ($r['name'])?$r['name']:"someone anonymous";
 if($r['email']){?></a><?}
 if($r['url']){
  $r['url']=ereg_replace("^http://","",$r['url']);
  echo " (<a href=\"http://$r[url]\">$r[url]</a>)";
 }
 echo " said:<br />".nl2br(htmlspecialchars($r['comment']))."<hr />";
 }
}
?>

[russgri]

...Modifying the else statement:

$q=mysql_query("select * from comments where page='$PHP_SELF' order by datecreated desc"); 
if(mysql_num_rows($q)>0)
}else { 
print '<p>Sorry, I was not able to access the database properly. Please try again later.</p>'; 
} 

I still get this error:

Parse error: parse error in /home/username/mysite-www/includes/pageFooter.inc on line 17

...hum~mmmmm?

[RussellC]

Dont you need another bracket in there?

$q=mysql_query("select * from comments where page='$PHP_SELF' order by datecreated desc");
if(mysql_num_rows($q)>0) {
} else {
print '<p>Sorry, I was not able to access the database properly. Please try again later.</p>';
}

[grahamstewart]

No no.. when I said "...all the other stuff..." I meant do this..

[pre]
if ( $q = mysql_query($sql) ) { 
  while( $r = mysql_fetch_array($q) ){ 
    echo "On $r[datecreated], "; 
    if( $r['email'] )
      echo "<a href=\"mailto:$r[email]\">"; 
    echo ($r['name'])? $r['name'] : "someone anonymous"; 
    if( $r['email'] )
      echo '</a>';
    if( $r['url'] ){ 
      $r['url'] = ereg_replace("^http://","",$r['url']);
      echo " (<a href=\"http://$r[url]\">$r[url]</a>"; 
    }
    echo " said:<br />".nl2br(htmlspecialchars($r['comment']))."<hr />"; 
  }
} 
else { 
  print '<p>Sorry, I was not able to access the database properly. Please try again later.</p>'; 
}
[/pre]

Also this line

if($r['email']){?></a><?}

is wrong. It will always output a </a> tag.
What you want to do is

if ($r['email']) echo '</a>';

Also use the isset function to check if these variable are set
i.e. use

if ( isset($r['email']) ) {}

instead of

if ( $r['email'] ) {}