ITEC 325 2015fall ibarland

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hw04
DB connectivity

Due: 2015.Dec.0108 (Tue) 23:59.
(I highly recommend completing this before Thanksgiving break. However, I'm having it due a day after break completes, to give you a chance to come by office hours. Also, I'll be monitoring the discussion boards over the break.) Am accepting it through Dec.08 only because I goofed up and set that on D2L.

You will complete your new-Okaymon page by storing the okaymon in a database, and retreiving a summary list of all Okaymon.

1. Your page at https://php.radford.edu/~yourUserId/itec325/hw04/index.php should have a link to:

   • your summary-list of Okaymon in the database (see below),
   • your Okaymon-entry form,
   • your demo-form handlers,
   and
   • this homework assignment.
   Submit your files on D2L (individually, not as a jar).

2. (40%) Modify the ol' Okaymon form handler so that once the information is validated, the Okaymon is added to the database.
   

   • Just over-write any previously existing information in the database, for that Okaymon's name.

   • To help me grade, include a line at the bottom of the page which is the SQL INSERT command. Please render this line inside a <ttcode> tag.

   • Note: You don't need to add the energy resistances/weaknesses, to get full credit. Instead, adding this feature is extra credit worth 5% of this assignment.

   • Be sure all your pages/programs always close any database connection they open!

   You can create your database through SQL statements (preferred), or through the GUI interface at MySQL Admin . In either case, include SQL statement(s) which CREATE your tables; you can use MySQL Admin's feature to show this statement. Place the statement in a file “okaymon-db-create.sql”.

   As discussed in lecture, be sure to guard against SQL injection — either by calling mysqli_real_escape_string on any user-provided text which becomes part of a SQL query, or (preferred, but not required) via prepared-statements. (Do this even if other validation requirements make such escaping moot.)

   Make sure you that you can insert/retrieve values that have “SQL-sensitive” characters like apostrophes, spaces, and semicolons (as well as the “html-sensitive” characters like less-than and ampersand that we've already handled). Automate this testing by adding/modifying your demo-forms to include such characters.

3. (30%) Make a page which shows a summary list of all Okaymon previously entered: just the Okaymon name, the associated energy-type, and the weight. This page should also include a link to the Okaymon-entry-form page. (It does not need to be particularly pretty — just loop over the results of the database query.)

   Be sure all your pages/programs always close any database connection they open!

4. (30%) Each Okaymon-name on the summary list should be a link which, when clicked, brings you to a detailed-information page that includes the previous information plus the full description and who submitted the Okaymon.

   (The layout of this information does not need to be anything elegant, but it should not be prone to HTML/script injection.)

   Pro tip:

   From hw03 on, you already have a page which prints the summary information (on a successful submit); it used $_POST.

   You can re-factor that page so that instead of reading from $_POST, it reads from some other array, say, “$the-Okaymon-info”. Then:

   • To get the old behavior, $the-Okaymon-info = $_POST; followed by require("print-Okaymon-info.php");.
   • To meet this new requirement for this hw, read the database-info for a Okaymon into $the-Okaymon-info, and then you can just require("print-Okaymon-info.php"); from there!

   Adding a layer of indirection: is there any problem it can't solve?

   Note that this is asking for a link which behaves a little bit like a form-handler, since you won't have a separate URL for every single Okaymon — instead you'll have one page which (given a particular Okaymon-name) pulls the detailed information out of the database. How do you have a link which provides an argument (Okaymon-name) to another page? One easy way¹ is to have the link contain the parameter(s) explicitly, e.g. “<a href="Okaymon.php?okaymonName=pugglez">…”, and the receiving page accesses that argument through the $_GET array (e.g., $_GET['okaymonName']).

   As always, to guard against HTML/script injection, be sure to call htmlspecialchars on any text which was originally provided by a user (even if retrieved from the database). (This goes for all pages, even if other validation requirements make such escaping moot).

   You don't need to include the Okaymon's energy-biases on this page. If you do, it's extra-credit worth 5% of this homework.

I'll say it again, just because it's fun: Be sure all your pages/programs always close any database connection they open!

Guidelines

• Each file should start (after a doctype declaration) with a PHP comment with your name and a summary description of what the php code accomplishes.
• Use meaningful variable names, function names, and good comments as needed. Javascript code should be described with inside (“<!-- … -->”) comments.
• Write functions (both php and javascript) as appropriate, to avoid repeated code.
• Be sure to make all links relative within the directory (so I can run the D2L submitted files in another directory).
• All code/html should be well formatted with appropriate white space and indentation so it is easy to read.
• Strive to minimize lines that wrap.
• Use standard XHTML tags and make sure your javascript does not use browser-specific constructs.
• If you have any questions, use the discussion board.
• Do not modify your final submission after the due-date.

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©2015, Ian Barland, Radford University Last modified 2015.Nov.30 (Mon)

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