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Getting to Know the Project
6:35Building a php-driven page is just the first step in mastering PHP. The true power of PHP shines when you connect it to a data source like an API or a Database. In this course, we’ll refactor an application to use a database to store the information. This will make our application easier and faster to scale. It will also make it easier and faster to add functionality like the search and pagination we’ll also be adding in this project.
Hi I'm Alena, a PHP teacher at Treehouse.
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I'm going to be teaching you how to
connect a basic PHP website to a database.
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This will allow you to
dynamically update your web pages
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with constantly changing information.
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You already know the basics of PHP but
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building a PHP driven page is just
the first step in mastering PHP.
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The true power of PHP shines when
you connect it to a data source,
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like an API or a database.
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To introduce you to databases,
we'll start with an example project,
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a personal media library.
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Currently the application
is pretty simple and
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it stores its data in
an associative array.
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An associative array can become
extremely hard to maintain.
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Since it's just text, we could easily
miss adding a piece of information.
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We could also mistype the name of a field,
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which would stop our site
from using it at all.
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We could handle these issues,
by writing our own interface with PHP.
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However, one of the first things you
should learn about programming is,
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don't reinvent the wheel.
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Use the right tool for the job,
a database is designed to store data.
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If you need to store data, like our media
items, a database is a good choice.
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Another important thing to consider,
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anytime we want to use the data
that stored in an array.
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We need to include the entire array,
even if we only need one item.
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With twelve items,
this is not really an issue.
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But with 1,200 items,
things can really start to slow down.
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A database can also give us more advanced
sorting and search capabilities.
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We'll refactor that application to use
a database to store the media items.
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This will make our application easier and
faster to scale.
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It also makes it easier and
faster to add functionality.
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We'll be adding search and
pagination functionality to this project.
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Using this library data,
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we'll learn how to communicate using
php's data objects or pto for short.
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Pto uses object oriented methodology,
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which makes interacting with
databases very efficient.
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We'll be covering everything
you need to know, so
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don't be afraid if you don't
understand object oriented programming.
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We'll be using relational databases for
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this project because it fits well with
the way our data relates to each other.
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To learn more about relational databases,
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make sure you check the teacher's
notes for more great courses.
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For now, let's take a look at
the way our data is structured.
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The table structure that we'll be working
with has a media table, a genre table and
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a people table.
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There is only one genre
assigned to each item, so
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we can link directly from the media
table to the genre's table.
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On the other hand, there are multiple
people assigned to each item.
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So, we link the media and the people
table together, using another table.
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That table also tells us which
role that person performs.
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For example, the movie Office Space
has a director, Mike Judge and
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stars Ron Livingston,
Jennifer Aniston, and David Herman.
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This simple structure will allow you
to practice with relational data,
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as you learn your way around a database.
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For reference, I've also included
a chart in the teacher's notes
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that describes the database structure.
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Our main focus will be
in the media table and
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we'll be pulling supporting
information from the other tables.
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Let's take a look at our project.
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If you open the workspace attached to
this video, you'll see all the files for
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our personal media library.
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You'll also see a database file within
the includes folder, named database.db.
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Our database file is local
to the workspace, so
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it's really great for
you to be able to play with.
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Don't be afraid to experiment and try
out different things with the database.
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You can always replace
the file with a fresh copy.
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In workspaces we'll be using SQlite.
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However, most of the query
commands will be the same,
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no matter which relational
database you use.
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Where SQlite differs,
I'll highlight those differences and
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add them to the teacher's notes.
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You're also welcome to download the
project files and install them locally.
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Within the download,
I've also included a dot sequel file for
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importing the data into another database,
such as my sequel.
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Check the teachers notes,
if you need more instruction.
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When we go over and
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hit preview, we can see how
the application works in the browser.
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On the home page,
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we are showing four random media items,
each time the page is loaded.
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We also have the links at the top to
view the library categories, books,
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movies and music.
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From the category pages we can
also link to the full catalog,
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there is also a link to this suggest page.
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Which includes a form for
sending a suggestion for a new media item.
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After connecting to the database,
we'll add a couple new features.
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So, let's take a look at
the finished site as well.
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First of all we'll be
adding a search feature.
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Can you imagine browsing the internet
without the ability to search?
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The internet is full of information
on almost anything you can think of.
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But how would we possibly find it,
without the ability to search?
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In this course we'll be introducing you to
some of the basic components of search.
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By adding the ability to
search the media library.
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Another useful item as our
catalog grows is pagination.
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Listing a million items on a single page
would make for a really slow loading page.
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Can you imagine trying to shop on Amazon
if every single item was on one page?
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Pagination allows us to split
the items across multiple pages and
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navigate between those pages.
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It's kind of like the old adage, how do
you eat an elephant, one bite at a time.
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Pagination allows us to give our
users the data in bite sized chunks.
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Finally, we'll use our database to
simplify our form drop downs as well.
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All this code- Will be
simplified into this function.
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Currently all the data about
the items used in our application
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is stored in an array.
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Moving the data to a database will give
us more flexibility for organization.
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And allows us to select
only part of the data
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without having to loop through
each item in the array.
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This becomes even more important
as our data set grows.
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Our first step is to look
at the php data object
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to set up the connection to the database.
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So let's get started
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