* Donn [19/02/08 08:13]:

Can I use the tools it provides (like login and templates etc.) to create a 'section' on a website where my own PHP code runs a mini-application like a shopping-basket (browse, filter, add, view, checkout) or something like a track-a-parcel system and so on?

I guess you can do it, I'm doing it at a much simpler level, but I don't see why you can do it combining your code, drupal theming and features and your external database.

Here is my example:

I use db_set_active to change to another db, perform the queries, then go back to drupal to use its theming capabilities and rest. Here is an example where I query another db and then create a table in drupal, paged and sortable. You can define multiple databases in settings.php, look at http://drupal.org/node/18429.

Here is an example, I enter this direcly into a content type where I allow php in the body only to the admin. "ampa" is a table in an external database:

<?php

db_set_active('ampa');

$sqlCount = "SELECT COUNT(*) FROM ampa";

$header = array( array('data' => 'Nom', 'field' => 'nom'), array('data' => 'Centre', 'field' => 'centre'), array('data' => 'Població', 'field' => 'poblacio','sort' => 'asc'), array('data' => 'Comarca', 'field' => 'comarca') );

$sql = "SELECT * FROM ampa"; $sql .= tablesort_sql($header);

$ta = array('id' => 'my-table', 'align' => 'center');

$result = pager_query($sql, 30, 0, $sqlCount);

$trows = array(); while ($row = db_fetch_object($result)) { $trows[] = array( array('data'=>$row->nom,'valign'=>'top'), array('data'=>$row->centre,'valign'=>'top'), array('data'=>$row->poblacio,'valign'=>'top'), array('data'=>$row->comarca,'valign'=>'top') ); }

db_set_active('default');

$output = theme('table', $header, $trows,$ta); $output .= theme('pager', NULL, 30, 0);

print $output;

?>