Title: Tables, Sessions & SQL Last modified: March 3, 2020 --- # Tables, Sessions & SQL * [jonuk80](https://wordpress.org/support/users/jonuk80/) * (@jonuk80) * [6 years, 2 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/tables-sessions-sql/) * Hey all! * I’m a new WordPress user, and I have a couple of questions regarding tables, sessions and SQL. * I have created some additional tables of info in the WP database, which are client projects. * 1. I’m presuming I can create a 1toMany relationship between my tables and the wp_user table? 2. If yes on the above, can I then query information from ‘projects’ table based on the user login (session based)? 3. Finally, how can I query single cells of information and place them into a page? For example a page might look like this. * ``` Welcome, ($$user_logged_in$$) Project: ($$project_name$$) Status: ($$project_status$$) Project address: ($$client_address$$). ``` * Is that something I can do in WP? * Thanks all! 🙂 Viewing 14 replies - 1 through 14 (of 14 total) * Moderator [Steven Stern (sterndata)](https://wordpress.org/support/users/sterndata/) * (@sterndata) * Volunteer Forum Moderator * [6 years, 2 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/tables-sessions-sql/#post-12503431) * Yes. If the tables are in the same database, you can access them with the wordpress database methods. See [https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/classes/wpdb/](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/classes/wpdb/) * Thread Starter [jonuk80](https://wordpress.org/support/users/jonuk80/) * (@jonuk80) * [6 years, 2 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/tables-sessions-sql/#post-12503586) * Thanks Steve, * Can anyone shed any light on how I might achieve the above? Specifically question 3? * Cheers * Moderator [Steven Stern (sterndata)](https://wordpress.org/support/users/sterndata/) * (@sterndata) * Volunteer Forum Moderator * [6 years, 2 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/tables-sessions-sql/#post-12503606) * The easiest thing to do might be to create a [shortcode](https://developer.wordpress.org/apis/handbook/shortcode/), so you’d have _something like_ * ``` Welcome, [user] Project: [project output="name"] Status: [project output="status"] Project address: [project output="client_address']. ``` - This reply was modified 6 years, 2 months ago by [Steven Stern (sterndata)](https://wordpress.org/support/users/sterndata/). * Thread Starter [jonuk80](https://wordpress.org/support/users/jonuk80/) * (@jonuk80) * [6 years, 2 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/tables-sessions-sql/#post-12503725) * Thanks, I’ll look into shortcode. * With my tables then, I’m guessing I will have to create a FK in projects, which links to the UserID (the default PK in WP)? I’m a bit stuck on how to do this. I know how to link the two in SQL, but I’m not sure how I link a query to the shortcode above! * Thanks again! * Moderator [Steven Stern (sterndata)](https://wordpress.org/support/users/sterndata/) * (@sterndata) * Volunteer Forum Moderator * [6 years, 2 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/tables-sessions-sql/#post-12503880) * The shortcodes are just “links” to PHP code, so you’d use the WPDB methods to create your SQL statements and process the results. * Just curious: Why did you choose to use custom tables rather than custom post types? * Thread Starter [jonuk80](https://wordpress.org/support/users/jonuk80/) * (@jonuk80) * [6 years, 2 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/tables-sessions-sql/#post-12504095) * Okay looks like I need to do some WPDB learning :/ I wonder if there are any plugins that can help. * Naivety? I don’t really understand what I’m doing with WP and I’m trying to make a custom client portal. I’ve looked into plugins but none of them seem to do what I want. What are custom post types? * Moderator [Steven Stern (sterndata)](https://wordpress.org/support/users/sterndata/) * (@sterndata) * Volunteer Forum Moderator * [6 years, 2 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/tables-sessions-sql/#post-12505080) * [Custom Post Types](https://wordpress.org/support/article/post-types/) are like a post or page, but of a type you define and to which you can add custom fields, either via hand-coded PHP or plugins like Advanced Custom Fields. * Thread Starter [jonuk80](https://wordpress.org/support/users/jonuk80/) * (@jonuk80) * [6 years, 2 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/tables-sessions-sql/#post-12513880) * Thanks Steve. That looks like quite a bit of coding know how. * I can’t believe it’s so hard to query single fields at a time and stick them on a page. Maybe I’m just being naive in thinking I can do it! * Thread Starter [jonuk80](https://wordpress.org/support/users/jonuk80/) * (@jonuk80) * [6 years, 2 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/tables-sessions-sql/#post-12514119) * I think I’m getting closer to what I want. Using php snippets, I am able to insert the $wpdb->get_var command and pull single instances from the WP database, which works. * Maybe someone can help with the following questions. * 1. On a page I have the following snippet * ``` get_var( "SELECT display_name FROM $wpdb->users WHERE ID=2" ); echo "{$username}"; ``` * This currently echos the display name from whoever user ID 2 is. How do I amend this statement so it shows the name of whoever’s logged in? * 2. Going one step futher, I have created some custom tables i.e. wp_projects. For this one, I made this query. * ``` get_var( "SELECT pr_no FROM $wpdb->projects WHERE user_id=1" ); echo "{$projectref}"; ``` * However, it echos nothing, and comes up blank. Does the wpdb shortcode not work with custom tables? * 3. If you can solve the above, can I go one step further with that code. You can see it’s just WHERE user_id=1, but I’d like it to display only the project number(s) relevant to the person logged in. * There is a FK in ‘projects’ user_id, which links to ‘wp_users’ ID. * Many thanks! * Moderator [Steven Stern (sterndata)](https://wordpress.org/support/users/sterndata/) * (@sterndata) * Volunteer Forum Moderator * [6 years, 2 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/tables-sessions-sql/#post-12514130) * start with get_current_user() to get the current user’s user object. * Thread Starter [jonuk80](https://wordpress.org/support/users/jonuk80/) * (@jonuk80) * [6 years, 2 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/tables-sessions-sql/#post-12514177) * Thank you, that worked. I changed it to * ``` get_var( "SELECT display_name FROM $wpdb->users WHERE ID=$current_user->ID" ); echo "{$username}"; ``` * Please can you shed some light on questions 2 & 3 above? * Moderator [Steven Stern (sterndata)](https://wordpress.org/support/users/sterndata/) * (@sterndata) * Volunteer Forum Moderator * [6 years, 2 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/tables-sessions-sql/#post-12514180) * use a print_r to see what’s in $projectref and correct the PHP — remove the {} around it. * I think this has gone as far as I’m willing to take it. * Thread Starter [jonuk80](https://wordpress.org/support/users/jonuk80/) * (@jonuk80) * [6 years, 2 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/tables-sessions-sql/#post-12514198) * No problem Steve – not trying to offend here, I’m just trying to learn. * Thread Starter [jonuk80](https://wordpress.org/support/users/jonuk80/) * (@jonuk80) * [6 years, 2 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/tables-sessions-sql/#post-12514307) * For anyone who’s interested, you don’t need the $wdbp prefix on custom tables in a query. Amending the code to below fixes it. * > $current_user = wp_get_current_user(); $projectref = $wpdb->get_var(“ > SELECT pr_no FROM projects WHERE ID=$current_user->ID”); echo “{$projectref}”; Viewing 14 replies - 1 through 14 (of 14 total) The topic ‘Tables, Sessions & SQL’ is closed to new replies. * In: [Developing with WordPress](https://wordpress.org/support/forum/wp-advanced/) * 14 replies * 2 participants * Last reply from: [jonuk80](https://wordpress.org/support/users/jonuk80/) * Last activity: [6 years, 2 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/tables-sessions-sql/#post-12514307) * Status: not resolved ## Topics ### Topics with no replies ### Non-support topics ### Resolved topics ### Unresolved topics ### All topics