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PHP Build a Basic PHP Website (2018) Adding a Basic Form Setting Up the Initial Form

Posted by James Ma
James Ma
19,063 Points

Getting links to work?

On this project, I was wondering how the "view details" link is able to work. From my understanding it is a <p> element, so how is the functionality to link "view details" to the actual details is able to work? It is not explained in the video?

4 Answers

Lindsay Sauer
Lindsay Sauer
12,029 Points
Lindsay Sauer
Lindsay Sauer
12,029 Points

Alright, I think I know what you're asking, but let me know if I don't answer your question fully.

The anchor element <a> defines a hyperlink to a location, either on the same page or to a different page. The act of navigating on click is handled by the browser.

The get_item_html function returns, in part, an anchor element with a link to the page details.php. As well, this link includes a GET parameter id which tells the details.php page what item's details to display. The GET parameter id is set to the value of a parameter passed to the get_item_html function, $id:

 <a href='details.php?id=". $id ."'>

Thereby creating a link like:

http://port-80-bfl8tlr2r9.treehouse-app.com/details.php?id=103

Lindsay Sauer
Lindsay Sauer
12,029 Points
Lindsay Sauer
Lindsay Sauer
12,029 Points

Hi James,

I'm not seeing a "View Details" link on the video, does this appear elsewhere in the lesson?

James Ma
James Ma
19,063 Points
James Ma
James Ma
19,063 Points

no, its right under the books/movies/music. its generated in the get_item_html function. I just want to know how you got it to link to the actual details section.

Lindsey Somerset
Lindsey Somerset
10,592 Points
Lindsey Somerset
Lindsey Somerset
10,592 Points 
<a href="details.php?id=301">
    <img src="img/media/beethoven.jpg" alt="Beethoven: Complete Symphonies">
    <p>View Details</p>
</a>

The paragraph element links to the details section because it is nested in the anchor tag (included before the closing tag). If "View Details" was not in a paragraph tag, it would still be a clickable link that leads to the details section because it's contained within the anchor or <a> tag.

Hope this helps!