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An Extensive Examination of the PHP:DataGrid Component: Part 1 by: Dennis Pallett An Extensive Examination of the PHP:DataGrid Component: Part 1 Introduction One of the most common tasks in PHP is retrieving data from a database table, and creating a HTML table to output that data. It's done in almost every project, and it's usually a really boring task, because the code is always nearly the same, but not just same enough to be able to copy it. It often looks some like this (in pseudo-code): Create database connection Get data from a table Output table header (<table) Loop through each records ... output tr's and td's ... Output table footer (</table>) It's a sad fact, but we've already written code like the above hundreds of times. And for every project and script, you have to do it again, again and again. But why not use a solution that can do it for us? That's exactly what PHP:DataGrid is. What is PHP:DataGrid? PHP:DataGrid (http://phpscripts.pallettgroup.com/phpdatagrid/?ref=phpit) is the answer to the above problem. It's basically a PHP component, that's very similar to the ASP.NET DataGrid control. PHP:DataGrid will take care of all the boring tasks leaving you the easy and interesting parts. Very little PHP code is actually necessary for PHP:DataGrid, and you can change its looks and layout using simple HTML tags. The only downside of PHP:DataGrid is that it's not free. You have to purchase it from TPG PHP Scripts (http://phpscripts.pallettgroup.com/?ref=phpscripts), but it's $24.99 for a Developer license, which grants you permission to use it in all your personal projects, and I certainly believe that the advantages far outweigh the cost. Even only the time saved by PHP:DataGrid is already worth the cost for me. (editor's note: use coupon code phpit for a 10% discount!). Let's have an actual look at PHP:DataGrid. If you don't want to purchase the component yourself, then you can always have a look at the demo's only. The Basics To create a new datagrid, we must use the php:datagrid tag. This tells the PHP:DataGrid component that a datagrid must be shown. The only thing that we must set is the name of the datagrid. This is a required attribute, and cannot be left out. A simple datagrid looks like this: <php:datagrid name="test"></php:datagrid> That's the only thing necessary to display a datagrid. But we're forgetting one thing - we haven't binded any data to the datagrid yet. If you forget to do this, nothing will be displayed, except for an error. Binding Data Binding data to a datagrid is really easy, and requires only one line of real PHP code. The PHP:DataGrid component automatically creates a variables called $_DATAGRID (not a superglobal (http://www.php.net/variables.predefined), unfortunately). To bind data, you have to call the bind() method on the $_DATAGRID variable, like so: $_DATAGRID->bind('test
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