How to connect php to mysql database? Simple html comment box tutorial.

First thing first. You will need a little bit knowledge of web programming. Simple HTML will work. Now here is a step by step procedure on how to connect php to mysql database using local server. Lets create a simple comment box. And I will teach you how to do this on both Mac or windows/Linux.

Here is a list of Applications you need before doing some coding.

A text editor ( I would recommend Sublime text)
A local server software (MAMP for mac , Xampp for windows/linux)

Now that you have downloaded your local server software, install it and start the servers.

If you are on mac follow the screenshot to start up the servers.

Bravo ! Your computer is now a server (local though).
If you are on windows/Linux follow the similar procedure to start your servers.

Now lets get into some simple coding. Since we are going to make a simple comment box, lets create two files "comment.php"and "comment_post.php" inside htdocs folder.

Note : Your default server directory is htdocs. Server will only host the files inside the htdocs directory. But you can change it in your xammp/mamp settings.

But before writing any codes, lets create a database.

After starting server, open your browser goto 'http://localhost/phpMyAdmin/'
Create a new database name 'comments'
Create a table 'comments' with fileds '2'
Fill up the database table as below and save (leave other fields empty).

Field Type Length/values
Name varchar 100
Comment varchar 100

Your database table looks something like this

Now Lets get into some coding !!

filename : 'comments.php'

<!DOCTYPE html>
<head>
</head><body>
<h1> HTML comment box using PHP and MYSQL</h1>
<form action="comment_post.php" name="comments" method="post" enctype="multipart/form-data">
name:
<br />
<input type="text" name="name">
<br />
comment: <br />
<textarea name="comment" rows="2" cols="50"></textarea>
<br />
<input type="submit" value="submit !">
</form>
<br /></body></html>
<?php
$user = 'root';
$password = 'root';
$db = 'comments';
$host = 'localhost';
$conn= mysqli_connect( $host, $user, $password, $db);
$sql = "SELECT * FROM comments" ;
$result=mysqli_query($conn,$sql);
    if (!$conn) {
        echo "Unable to connect to DB: " . mysqli_error();
        exit;
    }
    else
  {
      while($row = mysqli_fetch_assoc($result))
   {
    $name=$row['name'];
    $comment=$row['comment'];
    echo'<font size="4" color="purple"> <b> '.$name. ' </b>: '.$comment.' </font> <hr></div> ';
       
    }
   }

filename : 'comment_post.php'


<!DOCTYPE html>

<head><meta http-equiv="refresh" content="1; url=comments.php" />
<title></title> </head>
<body>
</body>
</html>


<?php
$name=$_POST['name'];

$comment=$_POST['comment'];
$hostname="localhost";

$username="root";

$password="root";

$db="comments";

$conn=mysqli_connect($hostname,$username,$password,$db);
$sql="INSERT INTO comments(name,comment) VALUES ('$name','$comment') ";
   //default password for mamp is "root" and for xampp is empty

 
    $query=mysqli_query($conn,$sql);

if(!query)
{
    echo "could not insert into database <br>";

}

else
{

    echo " Sucessfully inserted inside database";
}

?>