Add a button to an ASP page

[colinod]

I really need some help!!!!!!

I look after a website for my company www.yaketyyak.c o.uk as you will see we have a large list of actors on the site that we look after, each actor has their own id number.

What i need is to be able to add a button to each artists own page that will add them to a shopping cart type page that a user can then email a link to.

I only have asp available and am sure it is possible as i have seen it on anther website that does the same thing its here http://www.meetthejoneses.co.uk/

i am not bery good with asp and could really do with some simply put advice nothing too technical please

[jhardman]

The simplest asp solution would be to add the artist ID to a session-level variable every time you click the button. When you open the "shopping list" you need to open up the session-level variable and divide it up. Does this make sense? I know this isn't a thorough explanation at all, please let me know what parts I should explain better.

Jared

[colinod]

Hi

that seems perfect, i just dont know how to use session variables or how to split them or write to them when you click a button, so basically all of the above!!!!!

Sorry but my knowledge of asp only goes as far as pulling info from a database

[jhardman]

Hi

that seems perfect, i just dont know how to use session variables or how to split them or write to them when you click a button, so basically all of the above!!!!!

Sorry but my knowledge of asp only goes as far as pulling info from a database

OK, first things first then. Add to a session variable. This is much easier than pulling data from a db. so if you have a page that is pulling info from a record from a db, a simple form that sends all of the info needed might look like this:

<form action="handler.asp" method="post">
   <input type="hidden" name="recordNum" value="<%=objRS("ID")%>">
   <input type="submit" name="submit" value="Add to cart">
</form>

On the form handler, try this:

<%
if session("recordsInCart") <> "" then
   session("recordsInCart") = session("recordsInCart") + ","
end if

response.write "Form received<br>"&vbNewLine

for each x in request.form
   response.write x & ": " & request.form(x) & "<br>" & vbNewLine
next

session("recordsInCart") = session("recordsInCart") + request.form("recordNum")
response.write "Record added to session variable<br>"&vbNewLine

dim records
records = split(session("recordsInCart"), ",")

response.write "Currently in the session variable:<br>"&vbNewLine
for each x in records
   response.write x & "<br>" & vbNewLine
next
%>

Notice you don't need to declare session variables, I just start out by checking to see if it exists, and if so I add a comma, then add the record I want, then I split up the variable on the commas, and print them out. Try it and see if it works, then we'll discuss doing more.

Jared

[colinod]

not sure what i have done but the server is returning a http 500 error when it goes to the handler page

[jhardman]

not sure what i have done but the server is returning a http 500 error when it goes to the handler page

Try to turn off friendly error messages, they always prevent you from seeing the actual error messages. One way to get around it is to replace all the code on the handler with "Hello World" or some such and hit refresh. Then replace the code and refresh again, you should then see the actual error message.

Jared

[colinod]

Hi I have taken out the first for loop

response.write "Form received<br>"&vbNewLine 
  
for each x in request.form 
   response.write x & ": " & request.form(x) & "<br>" & vbNewLine 
next

this makes the page appear but it returns the following

Record added
currently in variable:
67676767696969

this is the right variables and the right amount of each for the clicks i have done, here is the code for the page

<%
if session("recorsdInCart") <> "" then
session("recordsInCart") = session("recordsInCart")+","
end if

session("recordsInCart") = session("recordsInCart") + request.form("recordNum")
response.write "Record added<br>" &vbNewLine

dim records
records = split(session("recordsInCart"),",")

response.write "currently in variable:<br>" &vbNewLine
for each x in records
response.write x &"<br>" & vbNewLine
next
%>

[jhardman]

this makes the page appear but it returns the following

Record added
currently in variable:
67676767696969

OK, this doesn't look quite right, there should be more than one line of records added, unless 67676767696969 is one record ID. Try adding the comma to the session variable at a different point, like right after you add the current ID. This will mean the session variable will always have a comma at the end, but you will still be able to use it. Try it and see how it changes.

Jared

[colinod]

Hi

I added the comma to the session variable after the current id is added and it returns all the id numbers on seperate lines, i hope thats what it should be doing.

[colinod]

Hi Just had a further look and its doing as you said i have all variables with commas in between and a comma at the end, i need to fugure out how to use these variables to make a list of the relevant items on the page, im used to just calling out everything at the top of my code??? not sure how to do this

What i need to do i stop it from duplicating entries, and then i ant to be able to email the list of variables in a link so someone can email the list to people and they can view it by clicking on the url in an email.

[jhardman]

What i need to do i stop it from duplicating entries,

Keeping out duplicates is fairly easy, you just need to search the session variable for the string you are about to add:

if instr(session("recordsInCart"), ","&request("recordNum") &",")) < 0 then
   'add record to session variable
else
   'record has already been added
end if

Of course this searches for a comma before and after the record number so that if you search for record 1 after 15 has been added it will understand that this is a different record. Does this make sense? Of course you will want to add a special case to the if statement to catch the first record in the list (which won't have a leading comma), something like

if instr(session("recordsInCart"), ","&request("recordNum") &",")) < 0 AND instr(session("recordsInCart"), request("recordNum") &",")) <>0 then

I'm writing this off the top of my head, so I might have it a little off, you can search w3schools.com for "instr" function to make sure you get it right (or you can test it of course).

and then i ant to be able to email the list of variables in a link so someone can email the list to people and they can view it by clicking on the url in an email.

Do you know how to send an email from an ASP page? (w3schools might be a big help there as well) Do you know how to generate a URL with querystring data? Do you know how to open querystring data? It's unclear from your phrasing what exactly you are asking.

[colinod]

Hi

I should be able to make an asp page that sends an email, ive done it in the past using cdonts in html it cant be that different in asp.

As for generating a URL with querystring data and opening querystring data, have never done that as such, i can send data in a url and gather it on the following page, just not sure how i send a session variable as the computer obviously does not keep this in the url without converting it some how, am i thinking in the right direction

[colinod]

I have tried the code for checking for duplicates, what i have is now like this

<%
if session("recorsdInCart") <> "" then
session("recordsInCart") = session("recordsInCart")+","
end if

if instr(session("recordsInCart"), ","&request("recordNum") &",") < 0 then 
   session("recordsInCart") = session("recordsInCart") + request.form("recordNum")+","
response.write "Record added<br>" &vbNewLine

end if

dim y
y = session("recordsInCart")
response.write y


dim records
records = split(session("recordsInCart"),",")

response.write "currently in variable:<br>" &vbNewLine
for each x in records
response.write x &"<br>" & vbNewLine
next
%>

this produces a page that just says

currently in variable.

does this mean the variables are not being written to the session variable, have i put it in the wrong place??

[jhardman]

does this mean the variables are not being written to the session variable, have i put it in the wrong place??

The code looks right to me, but it's been a while since I tried this type of thing. The first "if" statement can be removed, no longer does anything important. In its place, try to response.write the following four data points: the session variable, the request data, the instr() function that's in the next "if" statement, and the same instr() function but with the two arguments switched. See what that gives you.

Jared

[jhardman]

Hi

I should be able to make an asp page that sends an email, ive done it in the past using cdonts in html it cant be that different in asp.

As for generating a URL with querystring data and opening querystring data, have never done that as such, i can send data in a url and gather it on the following page, just not sure how i send a session variable as the computer obviously does not keep this in the url without converting it some how, am i thinking in the right direction

Yeah, you are going right, to generate the url, you just need something like this:

<a href="myurl.com/shoppingcart.asp?cartContents=<%= urlEncode(session("variableName")) %>">Click here for your shopping cart</a>

then the page that opens it needs to do the same thing as any other page that handles the session variable, but it needs to check for the request.queryst ring("variableN ame") instead of the session(":varia bleName").

Jared