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A Complete Note Keeping Application

A Complete Note Keeping Application

In this post we are going to expand the Note Keeping Application, using MySQL to create a complete multi-user Application which would be able to register new users as well. It’d be a multi-user system hence many users can register and work on their notes simultaneously. Each user’s data will be private to them. It’d also have the missing features such as editing and deleting of existing notes, hence a complete Note Keeping Application.

In a multi-user application we need to separate each user’s data so that every user is shown only the data belonging to them. As we’ll be using MySQL database to store data, one option is to create a table for each user, it’d be good but when you have like thousands of users, having a table for each is not very efficient.

There is one very efficient technique however, to separate data of different users using relational database structure. For this we’ll only need two tables for the whole application. One will store user-data along with an unique userID (serialized) for each row (or user). The second table will store note data, such as serial number, title, body etc. along with one more column to store the userID (from table 1) to know the user storing the note. The following image will clarify this:

Foreign Key and Primary Key

ID field was a Primary Key in the first table while when it appears in the second table to make relation between the two tables; it is called a ‘foreign key’. Please note that we are not doing anything special to create a foreign key, just using a logical relation.

So with this structure any note getting stored has a valid ID (according to the user who is logged in) in the userID field of the second (notes) table. Thus each row in the second table is logically separated and related with the user who has stored it.

Apart from multi-user functionality, we’re also integrating other features like editing and deleting existing notes, which are done using the following SQL queries:

For editing a note:

UPDATE <table-name> SET <column1=new-data1>,
<column2=new-data2>,
…
WHERE <column0=some-data>

For deleting a note:

DELETE FROM <table-name>
WHERE <some-column=some-data>

Now we have enough knowledge to see the code:

login.php:

<html>
<head>
<title>My Notes | Login</title>
</head>

<body>
<h1>My Notes</h1>
<h2>Login </h2>
<?php
//if submit button was pressed
//that means form was submitted
if(isset($_POST['submit']))
{
    //connect to MySQL
    //change '-USER-' and '-PASS-'
    $db=new mysqli('localhost','-USER-','-PASS-');
    $db->select_db('one');

    //fetch other form data
    $username=trim($_POST['username']);
    $password=trim($_POST['password']);
    
    //start a session
    session_start();
    $result=$db->query("select pass from user where uname='$username'");
    if($result->num_rows>0) 
    {
        $pass=$result->fetch_row();
        $pass=$pass[0];
        if($password=$pass)
        {
            //save session variable with the username
            //which will be unique
            $_SESSION['user']=$username;
            //redirect to homepage
            header("Location: home.php");
        }
    }
    echo "<p style=\"color:#ff0000;\">Incorrect Username/Password. Please Try Again.</p>";
    //close db connection
    $db->close();
}
else
//requesting the login page
{
    //if requesting the login page
    //check if already logged in
    //and redirect to homepage if true

    //start session
    session_start();
    if(isset($_SESSION['user']))
    {
        //redirect to homepage
        //if already logged in
        header("Location: home.php");
    }
}
//if not logged in show the login page
?>
<form name="form1" id="form1" method="post" action="">
  <table width="30%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0">
    <tr> 
      <td>Username</td>
      <td><input name="username" type="text" id="username" /></td>
    </tr>
    <tr> 
      <td>Password</td>
      <td><input name="password" type="password" id="password" /></td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>&nbsp;</td>
      <td><input name="submit" type="submit" id="submit" value="Submit" /></td>
    </tr>
  </table>
</form>
<p>New User <a href="user_reg.php">Register Here</a></p>
</body>
</html>

user_reg.php: Please see Designing a User-Registration Script in PHP for this. Since this post has already gotten so long.

home.php:

<html>
<head>
<title>My Notes</title>
</head>

<body>
<h1>My Notes</h1>
<p>Create A New Note</p>
<form name="form1" id="form1" method="post" action="home.php">
  <table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0">
    <tr> 
      <td width="22%"><font size="2">Title</font></td>
      <td width="78%"><input name="title" type="text" id="title" size="30"  /></td>
    </tr>
    <tr> 
      <td><font size="2">Body</font></td>
      <td><textarea name="body" cols="30" rows="7" id="body"></textarea></td>
    </tr>
    <tr> 
      <td><input name="post" type="submit" id="post" value="Post Note" /></td>
      <td><input type="reset" name="Submit2" value="Reset" /></td>
    </tr>
  </table>
</form>
<?php
//start session again
session_start();
//store the username
//that was stored by the login page
$uname=$_SESSION['user'];
//if someone is requesting this page
//without logging in
if(!isset($uname))
    //redirect to login page
    header('Location: login.php');
    
//connect to MySQL 
//provide your 'USERNAME' and 'PASSWORD' 
//change 'localhost' to the MySQL server 
//host, if not using on 'local server' 
$db=new mysqli('localhost','root','26519877');

//if this is the first time
//and database is not craeted
if(!$db->select_db('one'))
    //create the database
    $db->query('create database one');

//select the databasw to work with
$db->select_db('one');
            
//if table is not craeted, craete it
if(!$db->query('select * from notes'))
    $db->query('create table notes(id int auto_increment primary key, title varchar(100), date varchar(50), body varchar(1000), userid int)');
        
//find the 'userid' from the user table
//it is the unique id of the logged in user
//it'd be needed to retrieve and save notes
$result=$db->query("select userid from user where uname='$uname'");
$result=$result->fetch_row();
$userid=$result[0];
    
//if logged in
echo "<p style=\"background: #000; color: #fff;\"><b>Hello: <i>".$_SESSION['user']."</b></i></p>";
echo "<a href=\"?action=logout\">Log Out</a></p>";

//----PERFORM ACTION AS PER WHAT WAS CLICKED----
//if 'post' button was pressed
//i.e note was posted
if(isset($_POST['post']))
{
    $title=strip_tags($_POST['title']);
    $body=strip_tags($_POST['body']);
    //convert newlines in the body to <br />
    //so that formatting dont by user remains
    $body=nl2br($body);
    //have current date and time
    $date=date('H:iA jS F Y');
    
    //escape special characters that
    //can cause probs with MySQL
    $title=addslashes($title);
    $body=addslashes($body);
    $date=addslashes($date);
    
    //if body or title field was not blank
    if($body!='' && $title!='')
        //ready to insert data
        $db->query("insert into notes (title, date, body, userid) values ('$title', '$date', '$body', '$userid')");
}
//if edit button was clicked on from the edit
//page
if(isset($_POST['edit']))
{
    $title=strip_tags($_POST['title']);
    $body=strip_tags($_POST['body']);
    $date=strip_tags($_POST['date']);
    //fetch the Note ID sent by the hiddeen form element
    $id=trim($_POST['id']);
    
    //convert newlines in the body to <br />
    //so that formatting dont by user remains
    $body=nl2br($body);
    //have current date and time
    
    //escape special characters that
    //can cause probs with MySQL
    $title=addslashes($title);
    $body=addslashes($body);
    $date=addslashes($date);
    
    //if body or title field was not blank
    if($body!='' && $title!='')
        //ready to updatedata
        $db->query("update notes set title='$title', date='$date', body='$body' where id='$id'");
}

//if delete link is clicked w.r.t any note
if($_GET['action']=='del')
{
    //have the ID of note to be deleted
    $noteid=$_GET['id'];
    
    $db->query("delete from notes where id='$noteid'");
}
//if logout was clicked
if($_GET['action']=='logout')
{
    unset($_SESSION['user']);
    //redirect to login page
    header('Location: login.php');
}
//----/ACTION PERFORMED----
    
//----SHOW THE PREVIOUS NOTES----
echo "<h2 style=\"background: #000; color: #fff;\">Previous Notes</h2>";
//fetch all the notes of the user
//'order by id desc' to have in newest first order
$result=$db->query("select * from notes where userid='$userid' order by id desc");
$num_rows=$result->num_rows;
for($i=0;$i<$num_rows;$i++)
{
    $row=$result->fetch_row();
    $id=$row[0];
    $title=$row[1];
    $date=$row[2];
    $body=$row[3];
    
    //we'd escaped special chars
    //so de-escaping those
    $title=stripslashes($title);
    $body=stripslashes($body);
    $date=stripslashes($date);
    
    echo "<h3>$title</h3>
          <p><i>$date</i></p>
          <p>$body<br />";
    //echo deleting option
    echo "<a href=\"?action=del&id=$id\">Delete</a> | <a href=\"edit.php?id=$id\">Edit</a></p>";
}
//----/NOTES SHOWN----
$db->close();
?>
</body>
</html>

edit.php:

<?php
//fetch the unique note id sent
$id=(int)$_GET['id'];

//start session again
session_start();
//store the username
//that was stored by the login page
$uname=$_SESSION['user'];
//if someone is requesting this page
//without logging in
if(!isset($uname))
    //redirect to login page
    header('Location: login.php');
    
//connect to MySQL 
//provide your 'USERNAME' and 'PASSWORD' 
//change 'localhost' if required 
$db=new mysqli('localhost','root','26519877');

//select the databasw to work with
$db->select_db('one');

//query MySQL for the specific note
$result=$db->query("select * from notes where id='$id'");
//there will only be one note with an id
//fetch the row and its data
$result=$result->fetch_row();
$title=$result[1];
$date=$result[2];
$body=$result[3];

$db->close();
?>
<html>
<head>
<title>My Notes | Edit</title>
</head>

<body>
<h1>My Notes</h1>
<p>Edit Note</p>
<form name="form1" id="form1" method="post" action="home.php">
  <table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0">
    <tr> 
      <td width="22%"><font size="2">Title</font></td>
      <td width="78%"><input name="title" type="text" id="title" value="<?php echo $title; ?>" size="30"  /></td>
    </tr>
       
      <td>Date</td>
      <td><input name="date" type="text" id="date" value="<?php echo $date; ?>" size="30">
      <!-- hidden field is used for sending some information that user doesn't need to edit -->
      <!--here we are using it to send the ID of the note, it is needed to UPDATE the row -->
        <input name="id" type="hidden" id="id" value="<?php echo $id; ?>"></td>
    <tr> 
      <td><font size="2">Body</font></td>
      <td><textarea name="body" cols="30" rows="7" id="body"><?php echo $body; ?></textarea></td>
    </tr>
    <tr> 
      <td><input name="edit" type="submit" id="edit" value="Save Changes" /></td>
      <td><input type="reset" name="Submit2" value="Reset" /></td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
    </tr>
  </table>
</form>

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