Getting variables from another file

[Ørjan Langbakk]

I wanna make a file that holds the complete pricelist for a small
webshop (yes, I know that a database in the background would be a lot
simpler, but that is not an option today, unfortunately).

I'm thinking something like creating a file that holds the productname
and the price, and then just get the price from the other pages that
needs it. (Typically an overview page of all the products in a category,
and the spesific product pages).

I'm thinking it would be possible to create something like:

#Product 1
$produkt1 = 2000
#produkt 2
$produkt2 = 1400

and so on

Is this a good way to create this?

And what is the best way to get the informatin into the file that needs
to parse it? $GET? or something else entirely?

--
mvh
Ørjan Langbakk
http://www.bergenpchjelp.no
http://www.cubic-design.net

[Rik]

Ørjan Langbakk wrote:

I wanna make a file that holds the complete pricelist for a small
webshop (yes, I know that a database in the background would be a lot
simpler, but that is not an option today, unfortunately).

I'm thinking something like creating a file that holds the productname
and the price, and then just get the price from the other pages that
needs it. (Typically an overview page of all the products in a
category, and the spesific product pages).

I'm thinking it would be possible to create something like:

#Product 1
$produkt1 = 2000
#produkt 2
$produkt2 = 1400

and so on

Is this a good way to create this?

Why not create an CSV, and use fgetcsv() and fputcsv() to get/store the
data? That way it's still pretty easy to update/add/delete stuff, and you
could even run a database somewhere else that would periodically upload a
changed csv easily. Maybe even parse_ini_file( ) could help you here, but I
doubt it will handle very nicely once the shop grows.

Grtz,
--
Rik Wasmus

[Ørjan Langbakk]

Den 14.08.2006 16:21, skriblet Rik følgende:

Ørjan Langbakk wrote:

>I wanna make a file that holds the complete pricelist for a small
webshop (yes, I know that a database in the background would be a lot
simpler, but that is not an option today, unfortunately).

I'm thinking something like creating a file that holds the productname
and the price, and then just get the price from the other pages that
needs it. (Typically an overview page of all the products in a
category, and the spesific product pages).

I'm thinking it would be possible to create something like:

#Product 1
$produkt1 = 2000
#produkt 2
$produkt2 = 1400

and so on

Is this a good way to create this?

Why not create an CSV, and use fgetcsv() and fputcsv() to get/store the
data? That way it's still pretty easy to update/add/delete stuff, and you
could even run a database somewhere else that would periodically upload a
changed csv easily. Maybe even parse_ini_file( ) could help you here, but I
doubt it will handle very nicely once the shop grows.

Well... I already have CSV-files of all the product-listing pages. But
what I want is _one_ file just holding the prices, basically - no other
info. The reason for this is that the prices change frequently (sales,
campaigns etc.) - therefore it would be much easier to just store each
price as a variable, and then get that variable on the pages that need
the price displayed.

So, I think maybe my original suggestion is better, if it works - will
it work?

--
mvh
Ørjan Langbakk
http://www.bergenpchjelp.no
http://www.cubic-design.net

[Rik]

Ørjan Langbakk wrote:

Den 14.08.2006 16:21, skriblet Rik følgende:

>Ørjan Langbakk wrote:

>>I wanna make a file that holds the complete pricelist for a small
webshop (yes, I know that a database in the background would be a
lot simpler, but that is not an option today, unfortunately).

I'm thinking something like creating a file that holds the
productname and the price, and then just get the price from the
other pages that needs it. (Typically an overview page of all the
products in a
category, and the spesific product pages).

I'm thinking it would be possible to create something like:

#Product 1
$produkt1 = 2000
#produkt 2
$produkt2 = 1400

and so on

Is this a good way to create this?

Why not create an CSV, and use fgetcsv() and fputcsv() to get/store
the data? That way it's still pretty easy to update/add/delete
stuff, and you could even run a database somewhere else that would
periodically upload a changed csv easily. Maybe even
parse_ini_file () could help you here, but I doubt it will handle
very nicely once the shop grows.

Well... I already have CSV-files of all the product-listing pages. But
what I want is _one_ file just holding the prices, basically - no
other info. The reason for this is that the prices change frequently
(sales, campaigns etc.) - therefore it would be much easier to just
store each price as a variable, and then get that variable on the
pages that need
the price displayed.

So, I think maybe my original suggestion is better, if it works - will
it work?

It can work perfectly.
I'd prefer an array though: using a product id, and an include like:

<?php
$prices = array(
1 =1200,
2 =4200,
etc...
)
?>

But why not create a seperate csv (if you really want it seperate) if you're
already using it's capabilities?

1,1200
2,1400
etc...

It seems more logical/maintainable to me. It seems even more logical to me
to keep the price in the original CSV, and to maintain it there. It's not
that hard to write a framework than can manipulate a csv as easily as a flat
table.

Grtz,
--
Rik Wasmus

[Ørjan Langbakk]

Den 14.08.2006 17:59, skriblet Rik følgende:

Ørjan Langbakk wrote:

>Den 14.08.2006 16:21, skriblet Rik følgende:

>>Ørjan Langbakk wrote:
I wanna make a file that holds the complete pricelist for a small
webshop (yes, I know that a database in the background would be a
lot simpler, but that is not an option today, unfortunately).

I'm thinking something like creating a file that holds the
productnam e and the price, and then just get the price from the
other pages that needs it. (Typically an overview page of all the
products in a
category, and the spesific product pages).

I'm thinking it would be possible to create something like:

#Product 1
$produkt1 = 2000
#produkt 2
$produkt2 = 1400

and so on

Is this a good way to create this?
Why not create an CSV, and use fgetcsv() and fputcsv() to get/store
the data? That way it's still pretty easy to update/add/delete
stuff, and you could even run a database somewhere else that would
periodicall y upload a changed csv easily. Maybe even
parse_ini_fil e() could help you here, but I doubt it will handle
very nicely once the shop grows.

Well... I already have CSV-files of all the product-listing pages. But
what I want is _one_ file just holding the prices, basically - no
other info. The reason for this is that the prices change frequently
(sales, campaigns etc.) - therefore it would be much easier to just
store each price as a variable, and then get that variable on the
pages that need
the price displayed.

So, I think maybe my original suggestion is better, if it works - will
it work?

It can work perfectly.
I'd prefer an array though: using a product id, and an include like:

<?php
$prices = array(
1 =1200,
2 =4200,
etc...
)
?>

But why not create a seperate csv (if you really want it seperate) if you're
already using it's capabilities?

1,1200
2,1400
etc...

It seems more logical/maintainable to me. It seems even more logical to me
to keep the price in the original CSV, and to maintain it there. It's not
that hard to write a framework than can manipulate a csv as easily as a flat
table.

Maybe? I'm not that capable at PHP (at least not yet) - What I wonder is
how I would take JUST that value (ie. the price) from the CSV-file I
already have?

Could I use a kind of one-liner to just put in the last group in the CSV
(the price is always last)?

And, as I am also new to the array-functions, how would I go around
creating that file, and pulling the different values from it?

I'm thinking I could use something like:

<?php
$prices = array (
product1 =1200,
product2 =2400,
product3 =3450,
)
?>

Would this work? Does the names have anything to say? And, to pull one
value from this file - how would I do that? Assuming that this is put in
a separate PHP-file, that is. Like eg. prices.php

Would I use something like <?php $_GET["prices.php "] $prices="produc t1"
???
--
mvh
Ørjan Langbakk
http://www.bergenpchjelp.no
http://www.cubic-design.net

[Gary Hasler]

But why not create a seperate csv (if you really want it seperate) if you're

already using it's capabilities?

...It seems more logical/maintainable to me. It seems even more logical to me
to keep the price in the original CSV, and to maintain it there. It's not
that hard to write a framework than can manipulate a csv as easily as a flat
table.

I agree totally. I store a list of about 40 unit rate prices for our online
quote system as a very small .csv file, and our cost estimating staff can easily
load it in Microsoft Excel and play with it all they want without having to get
into databases at all. When they're finished, I upload it to the server easy as
pie.

[mootmail-googlegroups]

Ørjan Langbakk wrote:

And, as I am also new to the array-functions, how would I go around
creating that file, and pulling the different values from it?

I'm thinking I could use something like:

<?php
$prices = array (
product1 =1200,
product2 =2400,
product3 =3450,
)
?>

To do this, put that $prices array in a file all by itself.
Then, from the page that needs to use this data, use require_once [1]
to include the file.
To access the data for a specific product, then, you would say, for
example, $prices['product1'].

This can be a very easy to implement solution, but difficult to
maintain in the long run. I agree with those advocating using, at the
very least, CSV (though I've never done it, so probably won't be of
much help). Once someone decides they want to do more with the website
and/or the data, you are going to wish you had a more flexible data
backend than an include file with an array.
[1] - http://us2.php.net/manual/en/function.require-once.php

[Ørjan Langbakk]

Den 14.08.2006 22:23, skriblet Gary Hasler følgende:

>But why not create a seperate csv (if you really want it seperate) if you're
already using it's capabilities?

>...It seems more logical/maintainable to me. It seems even more logical to me
to keep the price in the original CSV, and to maintain it there. It's not
that hard to write a framework than can manipulate a csv as easily as a flat
table.

I agree totally. I store a list of about 40 unit rate prices for our online
quote system as a very small .csv file, and our cost estimating staff can easily
load it in Microsoft Excel and play with it all they want without having to get
into databases at all. When they're finished, I upload it to the server easy as
pie.

Well... I use TextPad for my webcoding, and has no problems using that
with custom highlights for CSV :)

But still, I kinda don't understand how I would extract only ONE value
for each row in the CSV file, into the other file. If someone can point
me in the right direction for something like that, it would be great -
the lesser the files to maintain, the better.
--
mvh
Ørjan Langbakk
http://www.bergenpchjelp.no
http://www.cubic-design.net

[Ørjan Langbakk]

Den 14.08.2006 22:41, skriblet mo************* ******@yahoo.co m følgende:

Ørjan Langbakk wrote:

>And, as I am also new to the array-functions, how would I go around
creating that file, and pulling the different values from it?

I'm thinking I could use something like:

<?php
$prices = array (
product1 =1200,
product2 =2400,
product3 =3450,
)
?>

To do this, put that $prices array in a file all by itself.
Then, from the page that needs to use this data, use require_once [1]
to include the file.
To access the data for a specific product, then, you would say, for
example, $prices['product1'].

Wouldn't that mean that it would have to read through the entire
prices.php file, to get the one value I need? I mean, using require_once.

Wouldn't it be possible to just use the $_GET variable or something,
using the prices.php as the file from where to get the data?

Or is the require_once the best way of doing this?

--
mvh
Ørjan Langbakk
http://www.bergenpchjelp.no
http://www.cubic-design.net

[Ørjan Langbakk]

Den 14.08.2006 22:41, skriblet mo************* ******@yahoo.co m følgende:

Ørjan Langbakk wrote:

>And, as I am also new to the array-functions, how would I go around
creating that file, and pulling the different values from it?

I'm thinking I could use something like:

<?php
$prices = array (
product1 =1200,
product2 =2400,
product3 =3450,
)
?>

To do this, put that $prices array in a file all by itself.
Then, from the page that needs to use this data, use require_once [1]
to include the file.
To access the data for a specific product, then, you would say, for
example, $prices['product1'].

This can be a very easy to implement solution, but difficult to
maintain in the long run. I agree with those advocating using, at the
very least, CSV (though I've never done it, so probably won't be of
much help). Once someone decides they want to do more with the website
and/or the data, you are going to wish you had a more flexible data
backend than an include file with an array.
[1] - http://us2.php.net/manual/en/function.require-once.php

Hm. Well, I got it to work, but not as I wanted to. Okey, the file
prices.php and the require_once all work fine, but since I already
include a CSV-file with all the specific details about each product, I
need the <?php echo $prices['product1']; ?to be _in_ the CSV file I
parse - and THAT seems to be a problem, since the code just shows up in
the page source code, it's not being parsed, and I wonder how I can
correct this?

--
mvh
Ørjan Langbakk
http://www.bergenpchjelp.no
http://www.cubic-design.net