PHP Custom URL MySQL integration

Question

Hi,

New to PHP, would love to get to know it better. Currently working on a project around RSS + SMS gateway for users to get alerts on certain events around them.

I have a MySQL table with auto_increment ID's, assigned systematically. I'd like to create a PHP page that allows the user to go to http://mysite.com/page.php?id=Mysql_ID - which in-turn loads the MySQL ID row (everything I specify it to load [msg,title,date])

What sort of things should I be looking into?

I have made a custom PHP search, but it isnt perfect yet.

Dont expect anyone to code anything, but would like to know what it's called (the '?q=' bit)

Answer 1

The part of an URL after the ? sign is the query string; what the HTTP GET protocol uses to pass data. In PHP the data in there is available as $_GET['q'].

E.g. If you have the URL example.com?name=John&id=7, the following would be true:

<?php
echo $_GET['name']; // John
echo $_GET['id']; // 7
?>