Hi there,

I am fairly new to web design and I wondered if anyone could explain how people use the query string in the url of one page to show different content depending on what link is clicked.

i.e. usually like www.example.php/index.php?content=signup

I understand partly how this works but not how the parameters/variables content and signup would be defined...

would content be a cell in a table? would signup be a page displayed in this cell when the signup link is clicked?

I would really appreciate if someone could explain this and show me an example of how this is coded - I have looked everywhere!

Many Thanks

Hick

It all works through server side code. From your url i'll give you a PHP example...

<?php

$url = $_GET['content'];

if($url=="signup") {
   echo 'signup code goes here';
}

if($url=="home") {
   echo 'homepage code hoes here';
}

?>

It finds out what the querystring is, then runs a few if statements on the page.


Simple really, google it up to find out more.


Hope this helps

Ah i see, thanks very much for that - I understand now.

Much appreciated

Hick Man

No problem

Also, here is another way to do it which creates more files, but leaves other bits of code a bit cleaner. Like sdcdesign did, I am making this refer to the example site you showed. Just imagine someone has clicked the link

<a href="index.php?content=signup">Signup</a>

PHP Code:

<?php
//This code would be on the index page, in the content area.
if(isset($content)){  //This is checking to see if the browser has set the $content variable
include("$content.php"); //If the browser has set the var, it is saying to include the $content.php page, which in your case would be signup.php
}
else{
include("home.php");  //If no links have been clicked, it will simply include a home page.
}
?>

The link the person has clicked, sets the variable "$content" to signup. So, when the php code runs, it will include $content.php, being signup.php. This file is then displayed on the index.

This is just another variation, of sdcdesigns code, I hope this doesn't confuse you at all