PHP-MySQL inserts "Array" into a table in a foreach loop with Simple HTML Dom library

Question

I have a piece of code similar to below:

    include 'simplehtmldom/simple_html_dom.php';
    ...
    ...
    foreach ($files as $file){
    $results= array();
        if(substr($file->getAttribute('href'),0,strlen($lookfor))==$lookfor){
            $URLs= $file->getAttribute('href');
            echo $URLs ."<br>";
            $html = file_get_html($URLs);
            foreach($html->find('div.postDisplay') as $post) {
                $item['date']     = $post->find('p.id.post-date', 0)->plaintext;
                $item['location']    = $post->find('p.id.post-location', 0)->plaintext;
                $title = $item['title']     = $post->find('h1.id.post-title', 0)->plaintext;
                $item['post'] = $post->find('div.post', 0)->plaintext;
                $results[] = $item;
            }
    print_r($results) ."</br>";
    ...
    ...
    ...
    $my_id ="1";
    $photos = "1";
    $insert_query = mysqli_query($db_connect, "INSERT INTO jackson.data (
        my_id, photos, results) VALUES (
        '$my_id', '$photos', '$results')");

The code echos the $results values in the browser perfectly fine; however, when I inserted the data into the database, results field only stores the "Array" as values. So, is there something I'm missing? and how can I insert the HTML format of the $results values which is echoing on my browser rather than the plain text?

@user1613360, thanks for your comment. I added the insert query. also, how about outertext method? I found the methods here simplehtmldom.sourceforge.net/manual_api.htm — Sami
– Sami, Commented Jun 8, 2014 at 15:59
Yeah you can use that but you should copy all their css and other properties to display the contents properly and moreover you can't customize the way the contents is displayed in your site.Check my edited answer it's a much more refined way to do it. — user1613360
– user1613360, Commented Jun 8, 2014 at 16:13

user1613360 · Accepted Answer · 2014-06-08 16:17:02Z

2

You are using print_r which outputs the array with index and that's why the browser displays the result perfectly.I think you are using the variable $results in your insert query and that's why it fails as it contains an array.Try something like this: Change your table structure to

jackson.data (my_id, photos, title,date,location,post)

and put the insert statement into the foreach loop and insert the values accordingly.

Example

 foreach($html->find('div.postDisplay') as $post) {
                $item['date']     = $post->find('p.id.post-date', 0)->plaintext;
                $item['location']    = $post->find('p.id.post-location', 0)->plaintext;
                $title = $item['title']     = $post->find('h1.id.post-title', 0)->plaintext;
                $item['post'] = $post->find('div.post', 0)->plaintext;
                $query=mysqli_query($db_connect,"INSERT INTO jackson.data (
    my_id, photos, title,date,location,post) VALUES (
    '$my_id', '$photos', '$item['title'],$item['date'],.....)");
            }

For html formatting:

Do something like this:

 echo "<html><body>";

 foreach($html->find('div.postDisplay') as $post) {
                    $item['date']     = $post->find('p.id.post-date', 0)->plaintext;
                    $item['location']    = $post->find('p.id.post-location', 0)->plaintext;
                    $title = $item['title']     = $post->find('h1.id.post-title', 0)->plaintext;
                    $item['post'] = $post->find('div.post', 0)->plaintext;
                    $query=mysqli_query($db_connect,"INSERT INTO jackson.data (
        my_id, photos, title,date,location,post) VALUES (
        '$my_id', '$photos', '$item['title'],$item['date'],.....)");

                 echo "<div class=\"my_post\"><h1>".$item['title']."</h1>"."<br />Published:". $item['date']."<br />".$item['location']."<br /><br />".$item['post']."</div>";
}
echo "</body></html>";

In your css you can have something like this:

.my_post
{
  margin:0 auto;//centers the contents
   font-weight:bold;
   font:fontname;
   font-size:16px;
   color:brown;
   padding-top:15px;//Adjusts the gap between two posts;


}

edited Jun 8, 2014 at 16:17

answered Jun 8, 2014 at 16:02

user1613360

1,3143 gold badges17 silver badges45 bronze badges

Sign up to request clarification or add additional context in comments.

4 Comments

Sami Over a year ago

thanks for your answer. I changed the $item['post'] to $item['results'], but still it inserts the Array as a value.

Sami Over a year ago

I tried to serialize($results) and insert the ".mysqli_real_escape_string($db_connect, $results).", but it returns an empty value

user1613360 Over a year ago

@Apiah No don't do that $results is an array variable only way to access it is to use index in your case you can call it using $result[0],$result[1]....Let me explain your input is <html><body><tags>Content</tags> you are using html dom parser to take the contents based on tags and each content type like title,date etc are stored in $item['title'],$item['data'] so you should store them separately but you are try to aggregate everything into $result which makes all the valuable information like title,content,date and makes the data inaccessible.

user1613360 Over a year ago

What you can do is you can have a query like "insert into table(title,date,location,content) values($item['title'],$item['date'],$item['location'],$item['post'])" inside the foreach loop and later you can retrieve the contents using select queries.

RajeshK · Accepted Answer · 2014-06-08 16:00:19Z

1

you can use

 "<pre>".print_r($result,true)."</pre>"

to store in db to display html output similar to browser

answered Jun 8, 2014 at 16:00

RajeshK

4595 silver badges10 bronze badges

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

PHP-MySQL inserts "Array" into a table in a foreach loop with Simple HTML Dom library

2 Answers 2

4 Comments

Comments

Your Answer

Hot Network Questions

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

2 Answers 2

4 Comments

Comments

Your Answer

Sign up or log in

Post as a guest

Related