Question Description

I’m studying for my Computer Science class and don’t understand how to answer this. Can you help me study?

 Exercise 8-1
In this project, you will create a Web page that allows visitors to your
site to sign a guest book that is saved to a database.

   1.   Create a new document in your text editor and type the
         declaration,  element, document head, and
         element. Use the strict DTD and “Guest Book” as the
        content of the  element.

   2.   Add the following text and elements to the document body:
        Enter your name to sign our guest book
        
        First Name 
        Last Name 
  3.   Save the document as GuestBook.html in the Projects
                       directory for Chapter 8.

                  4.   Create a new document in your text editor and type the
                        declaration,  element, document head, and
                        element. Use the strict DTD and “Sign Guest Book” as

                       the content of the  element.

                  5.   Add the following script section to the document body:
                       

                  6.   Add the following statements to the script section to ensure
                       that visitors enter their ?rst and last names:
                       if (empty($_POST['?rst_name']) || empty($_
                       POST['last_name']))
                            echo "You must enter your ?rst and last
                                 name! Click your browser's Back button to
                                 return to the Guest Book form.";

                  7.   Add the following statement to the script section to connect
                       to the database. Replace host with the host name of your
                       MySQL server, and user and password with the MySQL user
                       name and password you created in Chapter 7.
                       else {
                            $DBConnect = @mysql_connect("host", "user",
                            "password");
                            if ($DBConnect === FALSE)
                                 echo "Unable to connect to the database
                                      server."
                                      . "Error code " . mysql_errno()
                                      . ": " . mysql_error() . "";

                  8.   Add the following statements to the end of the script section
                       to create a database named guestbook if it does not already
                       exist:
                          else {
                               $DBName = "guestbook";
                               if (!@mysql_select_db($DBName, $DBConnect)) {
                                    $SQLstring = "CREATE DATABASE $DBName";
                                    $QueryResult = @mysql_query($SQLstring,
                                    $DBConnect);
                                    if ($QueryResult === FALSE)
                                          echo "Unable to execute the
                                               query."
                                          . "Error code " . mysql_
                                          errno($DBConnect)
                                          . ": " . mysql_error($DBConnect)
                                               . "";
else
                             echo "You are the ?rst
                                  visitor!";
                }
                mysql_select_db($DBName, $DBConnect);

 9.   Add the following statements to the end of the script section
      to create a table named count if it does not already exist. The   489
      table consists of a single auto-incrementing primary key ?eld
      named countID.
          $TableName = "visitors";
          $SQLstring = "SHOW TABLES LIKE '$TableName'";
          $QueryResult = @mysql_query($SQLstring, $DBConnect);
          if (mysql_num_rows($QueryResult) == 0) {
               $SQLstring = "CREATE TABLE $TableName
               (countID SMALLINT
               NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT PRIMARY KEY,
               last_name VARCHAR(40), ?rst_name VARCHAR(40))";
               $QueryResult = @mysql_query($SQLstring,
               $DBConnect);
               if ($QueryResult === FALSE)
                     echo "Unable to create the table."
                        . "Error code " . mysql_
                        errno($DBConnect)
                        . ": " . mysql_error($DBConnect) .
                        "";

10.   Finally, add the following statements to the end of the script
      section. These mysql_query() statements add the visitor to the
      database. The last statement closes the database connection.
                        $LastName = stripslashes($_
                        POST['last_name']);
                        $FirstName = stripslashes($_
                        POST['?rst_name']);
                        $SQLstring = "INSERT INTO $TableName
                        VALUES(NULL, '$LastName',
                        '$FirstName')";
                        $QueryResult = @mysql_
                        query($SQLstring, $DBConnect);
                        if ($QueryResult === FALSE)
                             echo "Unable to execute the
                                  query."
                                . "Error code " . mysql_
                                errno($DBConnect)
                                . ": " . mysql_
                                error($DBConnect) . "";
                        else
                             echo "Thank you for signing
                                  our guest book!";
                  }
                  mysql_close($DBConnect);
            }
      }
 11. Save the document as SignGuestBook.php in the Projects
                        directory for Chapter 8. Upload both SignGuestBook.php and
                        GuestBook.html to the server.

                    12. Open GuestBook.html in your Web browser by entering
                        the following URL: http:///PHP_Projects/

                        Chapter.08/Projects/GuestBook.html. Test the form to see if
                        you can add your name to the database.

                    13. Close your Web browser window.