Autopost help

Hello Everyone,

I am learning PHP and devoloping a php free ebook website.
I got stuck at this: how to add a date field so the ebook will be shown/posted at that spacific date.
When u access my new book section, u will see the date when these books were added.
I want to be able to control that. I have read some articles but got confused about it, hope some one can help.

the code for my control section (add/delet/edit category):
To add a book


<td width="66%" bgcolor="#A4D0D0" align="center">
                    <font face="Tahoma" size="2"><span lang="ar-kw">add book
                  </span></font></td>
                  </tr>
                  <tr>
                    <td width="66%" align="center"><form method="POST" action="control.php">
                      <table border="1" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" style="border-collapse: collapse" bordercolor="#111111" width="100%">
                        <tr>
                          <td width="25%" align="center">
                          <font face="Tahoma" size="2">Title</font></td>
                          <td width="75%">
                      <input type="text" name="title" size="50" dir="rtl"></td>
                        </tr>
                        <tr>
                          <td width="25%" align="center">
                          <font face="Tahoma" size="2">Author</font></td>
                          <td width="75%">
                      <input type="text" name="name" size="50" dir="rtl"></td>
                        </tr>
                        <tr>
                          <td width="25%" align="center">
                          <font face="Tahoma" size="2">Editor</font></td>
                          <td width="75%">
                      <input type="text" name="des" size="50" dir="rtl"></td>
                        </tr>
                        <tr>
                          <td width="25%" align="center">
                          <font face="Tahoma" size="2"><span lang="ar-kw"> exe</span></font></td>
                          <td width="75%">
                      <input type="text" name="zip_file" size="50" dir="ltr" value=""></td>
                        </tr>
                        <tr>
                          <td width="25%" align="center">
                          <font face="Tahoma" size="2"><span lang="ar-kw">PDF</span></font></td>
                          <td width="75%">
                      <input type="text" name="pdf_file" size="50" dir="ltr" value=""></td>
                        </tr>
                        <tr>
                          <td width="25%" align="center">
                          <font face="Tahoma" size="2"><span lang="ar-kw">Word</span></font></td>
                          <td width="75%">
                      <input type="text" name="word_file" size="50" dir="ltr" value=""></td>
                        </tr>
                        <tr>
                          <td width="25%" align="center">
                          <font face="Tahoma" size="2">Photo</font></td>
                          <td width="75%">
                      <input type="text" name="pic" size="50" dir="ltr" value=""></td>
                        </tr>
                        <tr>
                          <td width="25%" align="center">
							<font face="Tahoma" size="2">section</font></td>
                          <td width="75%">
                          <select size="1" name="catid" dir="rtl">
			<?
		$query = mysql_query("SELECT id,title FROM myCat");
		while($data=mysql_fetch_array($query)) {
		echo "<option value=\\"$data[id]\\">$data[title]</option>";
		}			
			?>
		       </select></td>
                        </tr>
                      </table>
                      <p>
                      <input type="hidden" name="do" value="<? echo $do; ?>">
                      <input type="submit" value="add" name="B1"><br>&nbsp;</p>
                    </form>
                    </td>

to edit a book:

<table border="1" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" style="border-collapse: collapse" bordercolor="#111111" width="97%" id="AutoNumber1">
                  <tr>
                    <td width="66%" bgcolor="#A4D0D0" align="center">
                    <font face="Tahoma" size="2"><span lang="ar-kw"> edit a book</span></font></td>
                  </tr>
                  <tr>
                    <td width="66%" align="center"><form method="POST" action="control.php">
                      <table border="1" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" style="border-collapse: collapse" bordercolor="#111111" width="100%">
                        <tr>
                          <td width="25%" align="center">
                          <font face="Tahoma" size="2">Title</font></td>
                          <td width="75%">
                      <input type="text" name="title" size="50" dir="rtl" value="<? echo $data[title]; ?>"></td>
                        </tr>
                        <tr>
                          <td width="25%" align="center">
                          <font face="Tahoma" size="2">Author</font></td>
                          <td width="75%">
                      <input type="text" name="name" size="50" dir="rtl" value="<? echo $data[name]; ?>"></td>
                        </tr>
                        </tr>
                        <tr>
                          <td width="25%" align="center">
                          <font face="Tahoma" size="2">Editor</font></td>
                          <td width="75%">
                      <input type="text" name="des" size="50" dir="rtl" value="<? echo $data[des]; ?>"></td>
                        </tr>
                        <tr>
                          <td width="25%" align="center">
                          <font face="Tahoma" size="2"><span lang="ar-kw">exe</span></font></td>
                          <td width="75%">
                      <input type="text" name="zip_file" size="50" dir="rtl" value="<? echo $data[zip_file]; ?>"></td>
                        </tr>
                        <tr>
                          <td width="25%" align="center">
                          <font face="Tahoma" size="2"><span lang="ar-kw">Word</span></font></td>
                          <td width="75%">
                      <input type="text" name="word_file" size="50" dir="rtl" value="<? echo $data[word_file]; ?>"></td>
                        </tr>
                        <tr>
                          <td width="25%" align="center">
                          <font face="Tahoma" size="2"><span lang="ar-kw">PDF</span></font></td>
                          <td width="75%">
                      <input type="text" name="pdf_file" size="50" dir="rtl" value="<? echo $data[pdf_file]; ?>"></td>
                        </tr>
                        <tr>
                          <td width="25%" align="center">
                          <font face="Tahoma" size="2">Photo</font></td>
                          <td width="75%">
                      <input type="text" name="pic" size="50" dir="rtl" value="<? echo $data[pic]; ?>"></td>
                        </tr>
                        <tr>
                          <td width="25%" align="center">
							<font face="Tahoma" size="2">Section</font></td>
                          <td width="75%">
                          <select size="1" name="catid" dir="rtl">
			<?
		$query = mysql_query("SELECT id,title FROM myCat");
		while($data=mysql_fetch_array($query)) {
		echo "<option value=\\"$data[id]\\">$data[title]</option>";
		}			
			?>
		       </select><font face="Tahoma" size="1">* catagory:</font></td>
                        </tr>
                      </table>
                      <p>
                      <input type="hidden" name="do" value="<? echo $do; ?>">
                      <input type="hidden" name="old_cida" value="<? echo $old_cida; ?>">
                      <input type="hidden" name="myfile" value="<? echo $myfile; ?>">
                      <input type="submit" value="done" name="B_save_me"><br>&nbsp;</p>
                    </form>
                    </td>
                  </tr>
                  </table>

The Code for listing the ebooks:

              <tr>
                <td width="42%" align="center" bgcolor="#DADADA">
                <b>
                <span lang="ar-kw">
				<font face="Arial" color="#008000">
                title</font></span></b></td>
                <td width="22%" align="center" bgcolor="#DADADA">
                <b>
                <span lang="ar-kw">
				<font face="Arial" color="#008000">
                Author</font></span></b></td>
                <td width="20%" align="center" bgcolor="#DADADA">
                <b>
                <span lang="ar-kw">
				<font face="Arial" color="#008000">
                Editor</font></span></b></td>
                <td width="10%" align="center" bgcolor="#DADADA">
                <b>
                <font face="Arial" color="#008000" size="2"><span lang="ar-kw">
                Date</span></font></b></td>
              </tr>
<?
while($data = mysql_fetch_array($query)) {
	$date = Format_Date($data[date]);
	echo "
              <tr>
                <td width='35%' align='center' height='30'>
                <p align='right'><b><font face='Arial' size='2'>
                <span lang='ar-kw'>&nbsp;</span><span lang='en-us'><img border='0' src='images/paper.gif' width='6' height='9'></span><span lang='ar-kw'>
                </span><span lang='en-us'>
                <font face='Arial' size='3'><b><span lang='en-us'>
				<a href=open.php?cat=$cat&book=$data[id] style=\\"text-decoration: none\\">$data[title]</a></span></font></b></td>
                <td width='25%' align='center' height='30'>
                <font face='Arial' size='2'><b><span lang='en-us'>
				<a href='search.php?do=all&u=$data[name]' style=\\"text-decoration: none\\">$data[name]</a></span></b></font></td>
                <td width='15%' align='center' height='30'>
                <font face='Arial' size='2'><b><span lang='en-us'>
				<a href='search.php?do=all&u=$data[des]' style=\\"text-decoration: none\\">$data[des]</a></span></b></font></td>
                <b><font size='2'>
                <td width='15%' align='center' height='30'></font>
				<font face='Arial' size='1'>
                <span lang='en-us'>$date</span></font></b></td>
              </tr>";

Thank you so much.

What have you tried and why hasn’t it worked?

The basic steps are:

  • Add a column to your database table to store the date, of type DATE or DATETIME.
  • Add an <input> to type the date on your add and edit forms.
  • Edit the code where you save an ebook to add the date column to the INSERT or UPDATE queries so the date gets saved with the rest of the info.
  • Change the SELECT query on the page that lists ebooks to only show those where the date is less than or equal to the current date (which is equivalent to not selecting those whose date is in the future). i.e. “SELECT * FROM ebooks WHERE date <= CURDATE()”