Ch3, P.76

Hostile · May 15th, 2004, 07:50 AM

I have gone over my code a dozen times and I get the same error with my code and the code supplied from the Wrox site. The error is:

Code:

Your favorite author is: 
Notice: Undefined variable: Author in C:\Program Files\Apache Group\Apache2\htdocs\wrox_examples\ch03\text.php on line 6

Here is the form page, text.html:

Code:

<HTML>
<HEAD></HEAD>
<BODY>
<FORM METHOD=POST ACTION="text.php">
Who is your favorite author?
<INPUT NAME="Author" TYPE="TEXT">
<BR>
<BR>
<INPUT TYPE=SUBMIT>
</FORM>
</BODY>
</HTML>

and text.php

Code:

<HTML>
<HEAD></HEAD>
<BODY>
Your favorite author is:
<?php
echo $Author;
?>
</BODY>
</HTML>

I'm running:

Apache 2.0.49
PHP 4.3.6
on Windows 2000 Server

Any ideas?

TIA

Hostile · May 15th, 2004, 07:57 AM

I found a topic about turning register_globals to "On" and I did, now this works. I've also read this should be turned off in a production environment. How is this going to effect the code that I am learning in this book when I start creating my own applications?

Snib · May 15th, 2004, 08:06 AM

Iain,

register_globals just automatically sets all superglobal variables (i.e. $_POST and $_GET) to normal variables like $name and $author.

The downside:

Security

Take this page, for instance, that you want no one but those logged in to access. register_globals is on and the session variable is $name.

<?php

session_start();

if($name)echo "Welcome!";

else header("Location: error.php");

?>

Say this page is index.php. If someone access it like this: index.php?name=whatever then $name will be whatever, and anyone could access the page that way. The easiest workaround is to turn off register_globals and access superglobals with $_POST, $_SESSION, etc.

HTH,

Snib

<><

richard.york · May 15th, 2004, 10:15 AM

Hi Hostile,
As you can imagine this topic has come up quite a bit, rather than beat a dead horse reiterating all the information conveyed countless times in previous posts, have a read of Nik's register_globals FAQ, then try a google search.

http://p2p.wrox.com/archive/beginnin...2002-11/17.asp
http://www.google.com/search?q=regis...e:p2p.wrox.com

After exploring the archives a bit, if you still have questions about it, let us know.

Regards,
Rich

::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
The Spicy Peanut Project
http://www.spicypeanut.net
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Hostile · May 15th, 2004, 11:09 AM

Thanks for the help guys. I'll take a look at those links Richard.

Cheers

Iain