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(@dazzathedrummer)

Hi,

I’ve written a basic plugin that queries the WP database to look for gig dates and displys them in a list with a date graphic that gets selected on the fly.

Its a simple query that I use on other websites, this is my first go at incorporating it into a WP plugin, the query seems to work fine – i’ve created a shortcode so that I can show the results in a widget box – but when I do this, the result is displayed above the widget area div instead of inside it.
I’ve been messing around with formatting for a while and I cant figure out why this might be happening. I’d be very grateful if anyone has any ideas.

The plugin..

<?php
/*
Plugin Name: Dazza's Gig Bible
Plugin URI: ..........etc, etc
*/

add_shortcode("gig_bible", "gig_bible_list");

function gig_bible_list() {
include ('giglist.php');
}
?>

the query (giglist.php)…

<?php
// Connects to your Database 

mysql_connect("host", "user", "password") or die(mysql_error());
mysql_select_db("db") or die(mysql_error());
$query  = "
SELECT
day(show_date) as day,
(left(LCASE(monthname(show_date)),3))as month,

venue_name,
venue_city,
venue_postal_code,
artist_name,
artist_url

FROM wp_gigpress_shows, wp_gigpress_artists, wp_gigpress_venues
where
show_venue_id = venue_id
and show_artist_id = artist_id

and show_date > curdate()
order by show_date DESC LIMIT 1,1

";
$result = mysql_query($query);

while($row = mysql_fetch_array($result, MYSQL_ASSOC))
{echo 

"<img height=\"50px\" width=\"50px\" valign=\"bottom\" alt=\"calendarpic\"  style=\"position:absolute; vertical-align:bottom; z-index:1;\" src=\"wp-content/plugins/Gig_bible/calpics/background.png\" margin=\"0px auto\" vspace=\"6\" align=\"left\"\"/>
<img height=\"50px\" width=\"50px\" valign=\"top\" alt=\"calendarpic1\"  style=\"position:absolute;  z-index:2;\" src=\"wp-content/plugins/Gig_bible/calpics/{$row['day']}.png\" hspace=\"6\" vspace=\"20\" align=\"left\"\"/>
<img height=\"50px\" width=\"50px\" valign=\"top\" alt=\"calendarpic2\"  style=\"position:absolute;  z-index:3;\" src=\"wp-content/plugins/Gig_bible/calpics/{$row['month']}.png\" hspace=\"6\" vspace=\"20\" align=\"left\"\"/>";
//"<span style=\"padding-left:55px;\">{$row['venue_name']}, {$row['venue_city']}</span>".
"<p align=\"left\"><span style=\"padding-left:55px;\"></span></p>".
"<p><br><a onclick=\"href='http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q={$row['venue_postal_code']}'\" target=\"_blank\"><b><u>Click for map</b></u></a></p>";

}

?>

Viewing 9 replies - 1 through 9 (of 9 total)

David Gard

(@duck_boy)

11 years, 11 months ago

You have to use ‘return’ with Shortcode, not ‘echo’.

while($row = mysql_fetch_array($result, MYSQL_ASSOC))
{$my_str = 

"<img height=\"50px\" width=\"50px\" valign=\"bottom\" alt=\"calendarpic\"  style=\"position:absolute; vertical-align:bottom; z-index:1;\" src=\"wp-content/plugins/Gig_bible/calpics/background.png\" margin=\"0px auto\" vspace=\"6\" align=\"left\"\"/>
<img height=\"50px\" width=\"50px\" valign=\"top\" alt=\"calendarpic1\"  style=\"position:absolute;  z-index:2;\" src=\"wp-content/plugins/Gig_bible/calpics/{$row['day']}.png\" hspace=\"6\" vspace=\"20\" align=\"left\"\"/>
<img height=\"50px\" width=\"50px\" valign=\"top\" alt=\"calendarpic2\"  style=\"position:absolute;  z-index:3;\" src=\"wp-content/plugins/Gig_bible/calpics/{$row['month']}.png\" hspace=\"6\" vspace=\"20\" align=\"left\"\"/>";
//"<span style=\"padding-left:55px;\">{$row['venue_name']}, {$row['venue_city']}</span>".
"<p align=\"left\"><span style=\"padding-left:55px;\"></span></p>".
"<p><br><a onclick=\"href='http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q={$row['venue_postal_code']}'\" target=\"_blank\"><b><u>Click for map</b></u></a></p>";

return $my_str;

}

Thread Starter

Dazzathedrummer

(@dazzathedrummer)

11 years, 11 months ago

…..that makes sense to me, but I’m not getting any output at all with that
?

David Gard

(@duck_boy)

11 years, 11 months ago

Shortcode is traditonally used only in posts. You can make use of it in your php files, but I believe you need to call it with do_shortcode();

Here is a link to the codex, whice has some examples – http://codex.wordpress.org/Function_Reference/do_shortcode

Thread Starter

Dazzathedrummer

(@dazzathedrummer)

11 years, 11 months ago

ok well I got a bit further.

I got it to work (sort of) by setting the ‘while’ result as a variable and then calling it with ‘return’ after the include in the function like this…..

function gig_bible_list() {
include ('giglist.php');
return $mygigs;
}

This puts the results in the correct position in the widget box, but only returns the last record in the array – if I can just get this to output the whole array, this would be perfect.

David Gard

(@duck_boy)

11 years, 11 months ago

Ah, I think I see where you are going wrong…

An explaination of what is happening –

/**
 * Shortcode is calling the 'gig_bible_list' function,
 * which is correct
 */
add_shortcode("gig_bible", "gig_bible_list");

function gig_bible_list(){

    /**
     * The file 'giglist.php' is being included right now,
     * at this point. We don't want the output yet though,
     * it needs to be held in a variable and then returned
     * at the end of this function.
     */
    include('giglist.php');

}

The below should work, because by first including your file, but wrapping the code in the file in a function, the code will not automatically be output. Doing it this way should hopefully get you closer to your goal.

I’d also suggest having a look at the $wpdb global, as you can run your query through that as opposed to having to define and connect to the db before each query (unless it is a different database to that whihc is used by your website).

add_shortcode("gig_bible", "gig_bible_list");

/** Not sure of your exact circumstance, you made need this instead */
//$shortcode = do_shortcode("gig_bible", "gig_bible_list");

function gig_bible_list() {
    include ('giglist.php');
    return my_giglist();
}

And here is your giglist.php file

<?php
// Connects to your Database 

function my_giglist(){

    global $wpdb;

    $query = "
        SELECT
        day(show_date) as day,
        (left(LCASE(monthname(show_date)),3))as month,

        venue_name,
        venue_city,
        venue_postal_code,
        artist_name,
        artist_url

        FROM wp_gigpress_shows, wp_gigpress_artists, wp_gigpress_venues
        where
        show_venue_id = venue_id
        and show_artist_id = artist_id

        and show_date > curdate()
        order by show_date DESC LIMIT 1,1

    ";
    $result = $wpdb->query($query);

    while($row = mysql_fetch_array($result, MYSQL_ASSOC)){

    $my_string =
        "<img height=\"50px\" width=\"50px\" valign=\"bottom\" alt=\"calendarpic\"  style=\"position:absolute; vertical-align:bottom; z-index:1;\" src=\"wp-content/plugins/Gig_bible/calpics/background.png\" margin=\"0px auto\" vspace=\"6\" align=\"left\"\"/>
<img height=\"50px\" width=\"50px\" valign=\"top\" alt=\"calendarpic1\"  style=\"position:absolute;  z-index:2;\" src=\"wp-content/plugins/Gig_bible/calpics/{$row['day']}.png\" hspace=\"6\" vspace=\"20\" align=\"left\"\"/>
<img height=\"50px\" width=\"50px\" valign=\"top\" alt=\"calendarpic2\"  style=\"position:absolute;  z-index:3;\" src=\"wp-content/plugins/Gig_bible/calpics/{$row['month']}.png\" hspace=\"6\" vspace=\"20\" align=\"left\"\"/>";
//"<span style=\"padding-left:55px;\">{$row['venue_name']}, {$row['venue_city']}</span>".
"<p align=\"left\"><span style=\"padding-left:55px;\"></span></p>".
"<p><br><a onclick=\"href='http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q={$row['venue_postal_code']}'\" target=\"_blank\"><b><u>Click for map</b></u></a></p>";

    }

    return $my_string;

}

?>

Thread Starter

Dazzathedrummer

(@dazzathedrummer)

11 years, 11 months ago

I think I’m getting closer to cracking this….

Your suggestions make sense to me from the point of view of structuring (given that I don’t know very much about wordpress).

But, fundamentally, by structuring the while loop like that, I can only get ‘$my_string’ to output the last record in the array.

I’m testing this by running the giglist.php on its own, if I go back to having ‘echo’ in place of ‘$my_string =’ I get the whole array as output……if I switch to your method above (swapping ‘echo’ for ‘$my_string’ and then calling $my_string after the loop), $my_string only stores the last record.

So, I guess the problem is getting the variable to store and output the array rather than one record……I think :-S

PS…I realise that in the query above I have ‘limit 1,1’ in the ‘order by’….obviously, I’ve removed this and can verify that all rows are output when using ‘echo’ as described above.

David Gard

(@duck_boy)

11 years, 11 months ago

Replace $my_string = with $my_string.=. The dot means that the text will be added to the end of the string, and not overwrite it.

Thread Starter

Dazzathedrummer

(@dazzathedrummer)

11 years, 11 months ago

That’s it!!!

Brilliant!!

Thanks for your help – I’ve just got a few CSS problems to sort out and I should be good!!

David Gard