Inserting data from a database help

[skekum +]

Hi Guys,

I have populated a mysql database with some data and want to display it on the home page.

Using standard mySQL & php, I can retrieve the 3 rows of data, and echo the array to the page, but it somehow breaks the building of the page.

This is the code i've placed onto the home.tpl where I want the data to appear:

PHP Code:

$host="localhost";
$user="***";
$password="***";
$database="***";

$connection = mysql_connect($host,$user,$password)
    or die("Couldn't select database");

// connect to db
$db = mysql_select_db($database,$connection)
    or die("Couldn't select the database");
    

// Get the last 3 rows of data from the db
$query = "SELECT * FROM whatson ORDER BY id DESC LIMIT 3";
$result = mysql_query($query)
    or die("Couldn't select anything from the db but don't get upset");

// Count the number of rows retrieved.
$nrows = mysql_num_rows($result);

// Start a loop to echo out the results in a table.

for ($i=0;$i<$nrows;$i++)
{
    $row = mysql_fetch_array($result);
    extract ($row);
    echo "<table id='whatsontable'>";
    echo "<tr><td class='articletable_title'><a href='$link' target='_blank'>$title</a></td></tr>";
    echo "<tr><td>$body�</td></tr>";
    echo "</table><br />";
} 


As seen in the attached picture, the data is written correctly but the menus on the right hand column are not completed leaving empty boxes. I suspect my {php} tags on the home.tpl page are breaking the code?



I'm new to smarty and have been through the manual and the forums, but can't seem to get a handle on what I need to do to get this to work.

Any help would be appreciated.

Currently as a work around, I'm "hard coding" the data onto the page, but i'm trying to automate it.

Glenn