Online Magazine with Flat File Database

Demo

For our second example, we are going to create an online magazine.

The magazine will be coded in PHP and the database will consist of 3 arrays: 2 tw-dimensional array: 'stories' and 'authors' and a one-dimensional array tags. As in the first example, commas are used to delimit the one-dimensional array and 3-character strings are used to delimit the two-dimensional arrays. These arrays are all stored as text files, with 'stories' and 'authors' inside folders, while the tags are a single text file.

Section 1: Defining the Database:

This file defines the field delimiter and record fields:

CATSTACK/inc/database-definitions.php ▾

This folder holds the 'author' records:
CATSTACK/data/authors

bob-cat.txt ▾

horace.txt ▾

miss-kitty.txt ▾

priscilla-paddypaws.txt ▾

professor-fluffy.txt ▾

squeekie.txt ▾

This folder holds the 'stories' records:
CATSTACK/data/stories

are-you-a-fish-cat-or-a-chicken-cat.txt ▾

catnip-how-to-tell-if-you-are-an-addict.txt ▾

catnip-in-history.txt ▾

controlling-the-litter-box.txt ▾

customer-service-is-overrated.txt ▾

enjoying-the-outdoors.txt ▾

extreme-challenges.txt ▾

how-to-raise-successful-kittens.txt ▾

nappy-new-year.txt ▾

overcoming-tolerance.txt ▾

seven-habits-of-highly-effective-cats.txt ▾

seven-ways-to-get-a-fatter-tummy.txt ▾

the-cat-inspired-business.txt ▾

walking-your-person.txt ▾

what-is-money.txt ▾

What is Money?%!%squeekie%!%2023-01-19%!%<i>(Reprinted with permission from <a href = 'https://wealthycats.com'>Wealthy Cats Magazine)</a></i><br>
Hi Wealthy Cat Wannabees -

Let's talk about Money - do you know what Money is?   Don't feel bad if you don't- it's not obvious.   Here's what I found out from watching my humans over the years. 

For one thing, they talk about Money all the time.   Is Money another human?   A god?  An invisible force?   Actually, yes -  like in Star Wars - Money is <i> "an energy field created by all living things. It surrounds us and penetrates us; it binds the galaxy together."</i> - Thank you Obi-Wan

Sometimes it can manifest as an actual object.   That green paper that humans carry around is a form on Money.  It shows up on computer screens as little numbers.   But mostly it's an invisible force.  People think about Money all the time, but they can't see it.

Fortunately for you,  cats have the ability to see things that are invisible to humans.   If you put a little effort into it, you can see the streams of money that float by in the air.  It's a little like humans seeing auras, only it's kind of sparkly.  

Money accumulates in certain places in the house, like the kitchen and around anything new.  Most of the stuff coming into the house has a lot of money around it.  You just have to notice.   After things have been around a while, the money fades away.

One of the best places to find a lot of Money is in empty shopping bags.   Go inside and just soak it up.  Doesn't it feel great!  If a human gets a gift, the box is full of Money - get in that box!  New clothes lying around are just spewing out Money - sprawl out and get comfortable - don't let any of that wealth get away!Make it a habit to always rub up against anything new- that way the Money rubs off on you.  

If you diligently practice these habits,  there is no limit to the amount of Money you can accumulate.  Sometimes the humans will try to remove you from a good Money spot.  Don't give up - jump right back into that box.  Plop yourself down on the new expensive dress.  Before you know it, you will be a Wealthy Cat!

So there, you now know what Money is, and how you can get some!%!%%!%with-mouse.jpg

why-do-dogs-exist.txt ▾

This file contains a list of 'tags':

CATSTACK/data/tags.txt ▾

Section 2: Relationships between records

As in Example 1, relationships between tables are established by 'maps' - two-dimensional arrays containing pairs of values.
The 'story-author' map:

CATSTACK/data/maps/story-author-map.txt ▾

The 'date-story' map:

CATSTACK/data/maps/date-story-map.txt ▾

The 'tag-story' map:

CATSTACK/data/maps/tag-story-map.txt ▾

Section 3: Accessing Records and Maps

The 'functions' file is the database management system. This file contains code for reading and writing the records and arrays, and querying the database.

CATSTACK/inc/functions.php ▾

<?php

function  createRecordId ($name) {
    $newname = "";
    if ($name !== "") {       
        $newname = trim ($name);
        $newname = str_replace (" " , "-", $newname);            
        $newname = strtolower ($newname);
        $newname = preg_replace('/[^A-Za-z0-9-]/', '', $newname); 
        $newname = preg_replace('/-+/', '-', $newname);        
    }    
    return $newname;        
}

function initializeRecord ($keys){  
   
    $record = array ();
    foreach ($keys as $Id => $key) {
        $record[$key] = ""; 
    }  
    return ($record);
}

function readDatabaseRecord ($keys,  $filename) {
  
    global $dl1;
    $string = '';
    if (file_exists($filename)) {  
        $string = file_get_contents ($filename);    
    }

    $record = array();          
    $fArray1= explode ($dl1, $string);
    foreach ($keys as $Id => $key) {  
        $record[$key] = "";           
        if (array_key_exists ($Id, $fArray1)) {
            $record [$key] = $fArray1[$Id];         
        }          
    }  
    return $record;    
}


function writeDatabaseRecord ($record,  $filename) { 
  
    global $dl1;    
    $String = implode ($dl1, $record);     
    //file_put_contents ($filename, $String);      
}


// Maps for table relationships
function addMapEntry ($map, $key1, $key2) {    
    global $dl1,  $dl2;          
    
    $fArray1 = readArray ($map, $dl1);    
    $newentry = $key1 . $dl2 . $key2 . $dl2 . "\n";
    array_push ($fArray1, $newentry);
    $fArray1 =  array_unique ($fArray1);  
    writeArray ($map, $fArray1, $dl1);
}
function addMapEntryReverse ($map, $key1, $key2) {    
    global $dl1,  $dl2;          
    
    $fArray1 = readArray ($map, $dl1);    
    $newentry = $key1 . $dl2 . $key2 . $dl2 . "\n";
    array_push ($fArray1, $newentry);
    $fArray1 =  array_unique ($fArray1);       
    rsort ($fArray1);
    writeArray ($map, $fArray1, $dl1);
}

function removeMapEntries ($map, $key0, $key1) {
    //Remove entries containing either or both key0 and key1
    global $dl1,  $dl2;       
   
    $fArray1 = readArray ($map, $dl1);
    
    foreach ($fArray1 as $Id => $Item1) {
        $fArray2 = explode ($dl2, $Item1);          
        if (array_key_exists (0, $fArray2) && array_key_exists (1, $fArray2)) {               
        
            if ($key0 !== "" && $key1 !== "") {
                if ( $fArray2[0] === $key0  && $fArray2[1] === $key1 ) {                       
                    unset ($fArray1 [$Id]);
                }
            }
            else if ($key0 === "" && $key1 !== "") {
                if ($fArray2[1] === $key1) {
                    unset ($fArray1 [$Id]);
                }
            }
            else if ($key0 !== "" && $key1 === "") {
                if ($fArray2[0] === $key0) {
                    unset ($fArray1 [$Id]);
                }
            }
        }
    }
    writeArray ($map, $fArray1, $dl1);
    
}

    
function selectMapEntries ($map, $key0, $key1) {
     global $dl1,  $dl2;
     $fArray1 = readArray ($map, $dl1);
    //returns an array with selected key
    global $dl1,  $dl2;
    $selectedarray = array();    
    
    foreach ($fArray1 as $Item1) {    
        $fArray2 = explode ($dl2, $Item1);       
        if (array_key_exists (1, $fArray2)) {
          
            if ($key0 && !$key1 ) {               
                if ($fArray2[0] == $key0 ){           
                    array_push ($selectedarray, $fArray2[1]);
                }
            }  
            else if (!$key0  && $key1) {
                if ($fArray2[1] === $key1) {
                     array_push ($selectedarray, $fArray2[0]);
                }
            }            
        }
    }    
    return $selectedarray;    
}


function selectMapKey ($map, $key0, $key1) {
    
    //returns an single value
    global $dl1,  $dl2;   
    $returnvalue = '';
   
    $fArray1 = readArray ($map, $dl1);
   
    foreach ($fArray1 as $Id => $Item1) {
        $fArray2 = explode ($dl2, $Item1);      
      
        if ( array_key_exists (1, $fArray2)) {
           
           if (!$key0  && $key1) {
              if ($fArray2[1] === $key1) {
                  $returnvalue = $fArray2[0];
                  break;
              }                
            }
            else if ($key0  && ! $key1) {
               
                if ($fArray2[0] === $key0){                  
                    $returnvalue = $fArray2[1];                   
                    break;                  
                }
            }
        }
    }    
    return $returnvalue;    
}

function extractFromMap($map, $key) {
    //returns a new array of either the the first or second columns
    global $dl1,  $dl2;
  
    $selectedarray = array();  
    $fArray1 = readArray ($map, $dl1);
    foreach ($fArray1 as $Item1) {
      
        $fArray2 = explode ($dl2, $Item1);       
        if ($key == 0)  { 
            array_push ($selectedarray, $fArray2[0]); 
        }
        else if ($key == 1) {   
            if (array_key_exists (1, $fArray2)) {
                array_push ($selectedarray, $fArray2[1]);                 
            }
        }       
    }    
    return $selectedarray;    
}



function moveToTrash ($table, $recordid) {   
    $oldfilename = 'data/' . $table . '/' . $recordid . '.txt';
    $newfilename = 'data/trash/' . $table . '----' . $recordid . '.txt';  
    if (file_exists ($oldfilename)) {
        rename ($oldfilename, $newfilename);         
    }   
}

//ARRAYS 

function readArray ($filename, $delimiter){
  
    $fArray1 = array();
    if (file_exists($filename)) { 
      
        $String = file_get_contents ($filename);
        if ($String !== "") {
            $fArray1 = explode ($delimiter, $String); 
        }
    }  
    return $fArray1;    
}

 function writeArray ($filename, $array, $delimiter){    
    $String = implode ($delimiter, $array);    
    //file_put_contents ($filename, $String);          
}  
        
function addNameToArray ($filename, $name, $delimiter) {
  
    if (file_exists($filename)) {  
        $String = file_get_contents ($filename);
        $fArray1 = explode ($delimiter, $String);  
		array_push ($fArray1, $name);
        $fArray1 = array_unique ($fArray1);
		$String = implode ($delimiter, $fArray1);	
        $String = preg_replace('/,+/', ',', $String); 			
		//file_put_contents ($filename, $String);
    }
}       
function removeNameFromArray ($filename, $name, $delimiter) {  
    
    if (file_exists($filename)) {  

        $String = file_get_contents ($filename);
        $Array = explode ($delimiter, $String);   
       
        foreach ($Array as $Id => $Item) {
            $Item = trim ($Item);
            if ($Item ===  $name) {
                unset ($Array [$Id]);
            }
        }
        array_values ($Array);
        $String = implode ($delimiter, $Array);
        //file_put_contents ($filename, $String);
    }
}

//Validate 'GET'  value
function getFromQueryString ($label) {   
	$value = "";
	if (isset ($_GET[$label])) {        
		$value =  filter_var($_GET[$label], FILTER_SANITIZE_STRING) ; 
		$value = trim ($value);
	}    
	return $value;    
}

//Filter input text
function sanitizeFormInput($text) {
    global $dl1, $dl2;  
    $text = trim($text);       
    $text = str_replace ($dl1, '', $text);
    $text = str_replace ($dl2, '', $text);
    return $text;
  }

  function showWords ($text) {
    $fancytext = ucwords (str_replace ('-', ' ', $text));
    return $fancytext;
}

//CHECK FOR DUPLICATE EMAILS
function checkForDuplicateEmail ($sendtoemail, $message) {
    global $dl1, $dl2;  
    $error = false;
    $emailarchive = readArray ('data/email-archive.txt', $dl1);
    $emailentry = date ("Y-m-d") . $dl2 .$sendtoemail . $dl2  . $message . "\n";	
    if ( in_array ($emailentry, $emailarchive)) {
        $error = true;
        echo "<div class = 'error'>Message is a duplicate</div>";
    }
    return $error;
}

function randomString () {    
   $String = "";
   $chars = "abcdefghijklmanopqrstuvwxyzABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ0123456789";
   $size = strlen($chars);
   for ($i = 0; $i < 7; $i++) {
       $String .= $chars[rand(0, $size - 1)];
   }
   return $String; 
}

function assignPostValuesToRecord ($postarray, $keys) {
   
    //Assign  values to record   
    $record = array();      
    foreach ($keys as $Id => $key) {
        $record[$key] = ""; 
        if (isset ($postarray[$key])) {
            $record[$key] =  sanitizeFormInput ($postarray[$key]); 
        }
    }    
    return $record;   
    
}
function saveToLog ($text) {
    
    global $dl1, $dl2;    
    $currenttime = date ("h-i:sa");       
    $date = date ("Y-m-d");
    $filename = 'data/log.txt';
    $String = file_get_contents ($filename);
    $String = $String . "\n\n "  . $date . " " . $currenttime . "  ". $text;
    //file_put_contents ($filename, $String);
}
?>

For example, to find all the stories by an author, you would use the 'selectMapEntries' function and specify the 'story-author' map and the author record id. By leaving the story record variable emtpy, all the stories by the author will be returned in an array.

The home page queries the database using 2 maps - the date-story map, the story-author map and the tag-story map:

CATSTACK/pages/home.php ▾

The 'display-tag' page queries the database using the tag-story map:

CATSTACK/pages/display-tag.php ▾