Script Help

bold php

[airpirate]

I am a beginner at PHP, self taught, no formal classes. I am putting together a task page for myself with the following code. I would like to figure out a way that to have the task highlighted or bold-ed when it is today's date or past today's date. Any help would be appreciated.

<?php

@$today = date('d/m/y');
@$pfw_host = "localhost";
@$pfw_user = "user";
@$pfw_pw = "pass";
@$pfw_db = "db";
$pfw_link = mysql_connect($pfw_host, $pfw_user, $pfw_pw);
if (!$pfw_link)
{
die('Could not connect: ' . mysql_error());
}

$pfw_db_selected = mysql_select_db($pfw_db, $pfw_link);
if (!$pfw_db_selected)
{
die ('Can not use $pfw_db : ' . mysql_error());
}

$query=mysql_query("select id, task, due_date From tasks where completed is Null and to_do ='X' order by due_date;") or die ("invalid query");

print'
<center>
<table align=center border=0 cellpadding=0 cellspacing=2 width=600>
<tr align=center>
<td width=100 align=center><b>Complete</b></td>
<td width=400 align=center><b>Task</b></td>
<td width=100 align=center><b>Due Date</b></td>
<tr><td colspan="10" bgcolor="black" height="1"></td></tr>
';

while($row=mysql_fetch_array($query)){
if($color == 1)
{
print '<tr bgcolor=#999966>
<FORM METHOD="post" ACTION="complete.php">
<td align=center><input type="submit" name="button" value= "Mark Complete" /></td>
<td align=center> ' . $row['task'] . ' </td>
<td align=center> ' . $row['due_date'] . ' </td>
<input name="id" type="hidden" value="' . $row['id'] . '">
</form>
</tr>';
$color=0;
}
else
{
print '<tr>
<FORM METHOD="post" ACTION="complete.php">
<td align=center><input type="submit" name="button" value= "Mark Complete" /></td>
<td align=center> ' . $row['task'] . ' </td>
<td align=center> ' . $row['due_date'] . ' </td>
<input name="id" type="hidden" value="' . $row['id'] . '">
</form>
</tr>';
$color=1;

}
}

?>

[cameraman]

Welcome to Webmaster World, airpirate.

First off, how about using CSS to simplify a bit. In the head of the document,
<style type="text/css">
.alt { background-color: #999966; }
.hi { background-color: #FFFFF0; }
</style>

Now, instead of two sections:

$color = 1;
while($row=mysql_fetch_array($query)){
$class = $color ? '' : 'alt';
$color = 1 - $color;

print '<tr class="' . $class . '">

<FORM METHOD="post" ACTION="complete.php">
<td align=center><input type="submit" name="button" value= "Mark Complete" /></td>
<td align=center> ' . $row['task'] . ' </td>
<td align=center> ' . $row['due_date'] . ' </td>
<input name="id" type="hidden" value="' . $row['id'] . '">
</form>
</tr>';
}

Now adding the highlite:

$color = 1;
while($row=mysql_fetch_array($query)){
$class = $color ? '' : 'alt';
$color = 1 - $color;
$today = strtotime("11:59:59pm");
$taskdate = strtotime($row['due_date']);
if($taskdate < $today)
$class = 'hi';
print '<tr class="' . $class . '">

<FORM METHOD="post" ACTION="complete.php">
<td align=center><input type="submit" name="button" value= "Mark Complete" /></td>
<td align=center> ' . $row['task'] . ' </td>
<td align=center> ' . $row['due_date'] . ' </td>
<input name="id" type="hidden" value="' . $row['id'] . '">
</form>
</tr>';
}

This bit:
$class = $color ? '' : 'alt';
makes use of a ternary operator that evaluates the expression to the left of the question mark. If the expression is true, the result will be the stuff between question mark and colon, and if false, then the result will be the stuff to the right of the colon.

As a side note, you can do this sort of thing:
<?php
$a = 7;
$b = 3;
?>
<p>The first is <?php echo $a; ?> and the second is <?php echo $b; ?>.</p>
<?php
$c = $a + $b;
?>
<p>And the sum is <?php echo $c; ?>.</p>

In other words, you can switch back and forth between html and php. There's nothing wrong with how you've done it, but it would be easy to get a quote in the wrong place and a pain to track down where it's supposed to go.

[MattAU]

Using strtotime() is a great way to compare dates, because it makes them into an integer timestamp.

You could use something like this:

$today_stamp = strtotime($today);
if(strtotime($row['due_date']) >= $today_stamp)
//make bold
}

I noticed a couple of other little issues with your code:

$variables need to be in "double quotes" to be parsed. So ['Can not use $pfw_db : '] will actual output [Can not use $pfw_db : ] not [Can not use 01/01/08: ]. The square brackets are not part of the output, I just used them for quoting so it didn't get too confusing using quotes to quote quotes about quotes... :)

The @ symbol is used for supressing runtime errors, but it won't do anything when you're assigned a plain text string eg. $pfw_host = "localhost"; If there's an error in that code it'll be a parse error so the script won't run anyway. Because of this @ has no use in those first for lines.

Hope this helps :)

[airpirate]

Thanks guys! That helps me a lot.