PHP and MySQL Available on the HKU WWW Server

1. PHP and MySQL Available on www.hku.hk
2. How to use these services?
3. A Sample Program

1.  PHP and MySQL Available on www.hku.hk

To enable our departments to create dynamic web pages, the Computer Centre has installed PHP and MySQL to support dynamic web pages on the HKU WWW server (www.hku.hk).  Preprocessor Hypertext Page (PHP)  is a  general-purpose scripting language for web page development and can be embedded in web pages to make its content dynamic, in response to the user's input.  MySQL is an open source database software which is often used by PHP programmers.  The PHP software is run under a separate Apache web server running on www.hku.hk.

The versions of PHP, MySQL and Apache installed on www.hku.hk are as follows:
 

Software	Version
PHP	4.2.3
MySQL	3.23.54a-max
Apache	1.3.27

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2. How to use these services?

If you wish to use the PHP and/or MySQL on www.hku.hk, please complete the form CF-106 "Application for Departmental Computer Account" (posted at http://www.hku.hk/cc/home/services/forms.htm) and return it to the Computer Centre.   In the application form, specify www as the computer system required and PHP or MYSQL or both as the software used on the required system. Please submit this form even if your department already has an existing account on www.hku.hk.

After your application is processed, a new directory will be created for your departmental account on www.hku.hk.  The path name for this new directory is /web/php/<account-name>, e.g. /web/php/cc for the Computer Centre.  Then you can develop your web page in PHP or in HTML and you must put your PHP files in this new directory as for the static HTML pages.  Bear in mind that those files with PHP codes must be named with the extension .php.

To access the web pages written in PHP, use the URL, i.e.  http://www3.hku.hk/<account-name>/... (URL updated on Aug 1, 2005)

A summary of the differences between the default web pages on www.hku.hk and PHP supported web pages is tabulated as follows:

	Default (no PHP support)	with PHP support
URL	http://www.hku.hk/<account-name>	http://www3.hku.hk/<account-name>
Directory Path	/web/docs/<account-name>	/web/php/<account-name>
Extension	.html, .htm	.html, .htm, .php

If the use of MySQL is required, an account in the MySQL Database will also be created. Details for MySQL database connection are as follows:

Hostname	www.hku.hk
Port number	default MySQL port (3306)
Username	your account name on www.hku.hk
Database name	your account name on www.hku.hk

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3. A Sample Program

To test the operations of the PHP set-up, here are some sample programs you can try before implementing your own:

1) Displaying PHP installation details:
 

File named test.php contains the following content:

<? phpinfo() ?>

2) Web-based form to accept 2 values and displaying the entered values using PHP
 

File named input.html contains the following content:

<Form name="form1" method="post" action="output.php"> <p>Value 1<input type="text" name="value1" size="10"></p> <p>Value 2<input type="text" name="value2" size="10"></p>  <input type="submit" value="submit" name="submit"> </Form>

File named output.php contains the following content:

<?php $value1=$_POST['value1']; $value2=$_POST['value2']; print "value 1 = $value1 <br>";  print "value 2 = $value2 <br>"; ?>

3) Connection to MYSQL -- connect to MySQL, select the database "your_db", and display data in the table "my_table" in a tabular format.
 

File named mysql.php contains the following content:

<?php /* Building MYSQL connection */ $link = mysql_connect("www.hku.hk","username","password") or die("Cannot connect"); mysql_select_db("your_db") or die("Cannot select db"); /* Sending query to MYSQL */ $query= "select * from my_table"; $result= mysql_query($query) or die("Query failed"); /* Printing results in HTML */ print "<table>\n"; while ($line = mysql_fetch_array($result, MYSQL_ASSOC)) {      print "\t<tr>\n";     foreach ($line as $col_value) {      print "\t\t<td>$col_value</td>\n";    }   print "\t</tr>\n";  } print "</table>\n"; /* Free resultset */  mysql_free_result($result);  /* Closing connection */  mysql_close($link);  ?>

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Kenneth Yip 
Tel: 2859 7973 
E-mail: kenty@cc.hku.hk