PHP blog from flat file

[Designer_101]

Hi im having some trouble with the code bellow. I would like for each time the form containing the name and message to be echoed out but in a table. So naturally i have made a for loop that checks the amount in the array and echo out seperate portions of the data in a table.

Please .. any help would be so apreciative

<?
//host form values in variables
$name = $HTTP_POST_VARS["name"];
$message = $HTTP_POST_VARS["message"];


$write = $name."|".$message."|";



//open the blog.txt
$fp = fopen("blogfile.txt","a+") or die("Counld not open file");


//writing to the file and closing
fwrite($fp, $write);
fclose($fp);


//split the variable $write at | making an array
$finished = explode('|',$write);


//count the entries in the blog
$amount = count($finished);
?>
<table bgcolor="#47607C" border="2"  cellpadding="5" bordercolor="#003333" style="color:#003366;"  width="500px">


<tr>
<td width=40><font color="#000000">Name</font></td>
<td width=200><font color="#000000">Message</font></td>
</tr>


<?php


 for($i=0; $i<$amount ; $i = $i+2)
{


if(empty($finished[$i]) || $finished[$i] == null)
continue;


echo "<tr>";


echo "<td>".$finished[$i]."</td><td>".$finished[$i+1]."</td>";


echo "</tr>";
}
?>


</table>

The code in Bold is where i think the problem is.
Thanks

[somedude3488]

what exactly is the problem. is there any errors or is the table just not showing up or displaying improperly.

[Designer_101]

yes thats it, it does not repeat the table for the amount of data entries. Which makes me think that the following is the problem . But i cant see what.

for($i=0; $i<$amount ; $i = $i+2)
{

if(empty($finished[$i]) || $finished[$i] == null)
continue;

echo "<tr>";

echo "<td>".$finished[$i]."</td><td>".$finished[$i+1]."</td>";

echo "</tr>";
}

[Designer_101]

i have just uploaded it to my server

http://www.reecesplace.co.uk/Reecesplace/blog/blog.php

if u fill it in once on the next page it echoes into the table but if you try it again it just echoes the new data and doesnt repeat what i wanted in the for loop. Please help

[somedude3488]

you are not returning values from the text file. right now you have it set up to only show the information that someone submits.

[Designer_101]

Ok, but im a newbie to php, could you show me ? :D

[somedude3488]

here, i wrote this:

<?php

$name = $_REQUEST['name'];
$message = $_REQUEST['message'];

$file = 'blogfile.txt';

$error = 0;

if ($name == '') {
$error++;
}
if ($message == '') {
$error++;
}
if ($error > 0) {
echo 'No fields can be left blank';
}
if ($error == 0) {

$open = fopen($file, 'a');
$data = "--" . $name . "|" . $message . "\n";
$write = fwrite($open, $data);
fclose($open);

}

$open = fopen($file, 'r');
$read = fread($open, filesize($file));
fclose($open);

$entries = explode('--', $read);

$delete = array_shift($entries);

echo '<table bgcolor="#47607C" border="2" cellpadding="5" bordercolor="#003333" style="color:#003366;" width="500px">';
echo '<tr>';
echo '<td width=40><font color="#000000">Name</font></td>';
echo '<td width=200><font color="#000000">Message</font></td>';
echo '</tr>';

$i = 0;
while ($i < count($entries)) {

$info = explode('|', $entries[$i]);
echo '<tr>';
echo '<td>' . $info[0] . '</td><td>' . $info[1] . '</td>';
echo '</tr>';

$i++;
}

echo '</table>';

?>

it works perfectly for me. make sure you delete everything in your blogfile.txt file first though. it won't work other wise. if you have any questions, just let me know and i will answer them