CH3, pg 96 Hidden Form Fields

wadesmart · October 27th, 2003, 07:15 PM

Could it be something in my php.ini setting?

wadesmart · October 27th, 2003, 07:18 PM

Just so you know, I am running Apache2.

I just tried using IE6 on the page and the first page is fine, the php page is blank. I also tried Opera and still nothing.

It has to be in the ini or apache or something else.

richard.york · October 27th, 2003, 07:30 PM

OK a test of <br/> on Moz 1.5 executed as expected... so that is irrelvant.
In NS 3 the output caused the browser to simply ignore the <br/> tag all-together. HTML tags alone will never caues a page to not display.

So something must be awry with your PHP installation.

What do you see when you run this script.

<?php phpinfo(); ?>

You should see a long, detailed output of configuration settings.

: )
Rich

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Smiling Souls
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wadesmart · October 27th, 2003, 07:40 PM

The phpinfo() page is there.

php.ini path: C:\Program Files\Apache Group\Apache2\php.ini

richard.york · October 27th, 2003, 08:18 PM

That's curious.
I really don't know what more to suggest. Perhaps try the script on a different server to see if the same thing happens. Then it could be tracked down to something apache-specific. If the same behavior does happen then it might be something php-specific.

Try Xitami:
http://www.xitami.com

Its pretty easy to set-up just download the installer and once installed go into the admin panel Configuration->Filters and type in the extenstions you want PHP to parse as well as the path to the php executable e.g. G:\PHP\php.exe.

Temporarily shutdown Apache while you test on Xitami.

If the script can be run on a different server then we can narrow it down to something in Apache.

This is not likely a php problem if you can see phpinfo() output.

Other than that I am not sure what to suggest. Maybe someone else on the list has some ideas.

: )
Rich

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Smiling Souls
http://www.smilingsouls.net
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wadesmart · October 28th, 2003, 12:14 PM

Ok. Tried that server you mentioned but had more trouble with it than I really wanted.

Went back to my apache error logs (which I never thought to check) and found

[client 127.0.0.1] PHP Parse error: parse error, unexpected T_STRING in C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator\My Documents\My Work\PHP\Beg_PHP4\CH3\loan.php on line 1, referer: http://localhost/PHP/Beg_PHP4/CH3/loan.htm

So, I go back to my page and look at line 1.

<?xml version='1.0'?><!doctype html public '-//w3c//dtd xhtml 1.0 strict//en' 'http://www.w3.org/tr/xhtml1/dtd/xhtml1-strict.dtd'><html xmlns='http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml'>
<head><title> Smart Loan Application</title></head>

Now, my question is this: is line 1, line 1 on the page or line 1 of the php script?

wadesmart · October 28th, 2003, 12:42 PM

Ok. I took out the doc reference at the top and I found actual problems.

I receive this in my error logs:
[client 127.0.0.1] PHP Notice: Undefined variable: _post in C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator\My Documents\My Work\PHP\Beg_PHP4\CH3\loan.php on line 8, referer: http://localhost/PHP/Beg_PHP4/CH3/loan.htm
[client 127.0.0.1] PHP Notice: Undefined variable: _post in C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator\My Documents\My Work\PHP\Beg_PHP4\CH3\loan.php on line 9, referer: http://localhost/PHP/Beg_PHP4/CH3/loan.htm
[client 127.0.0.1] PHP Notice: Undefined variable: _post in C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator\My Documents\My Work\PHP\Beg_PHP4\CH3\loan.php on line 10, referer: http://localhost/PHP/Beg_PHP4/CH3/loan.htm
[client 127.0.0.1] PHP Notice: Undefined variable: _post in C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator\My Documents\My Work\PHP\Beg_PHP4\CH3\loan.php on line 11, referer: http://localhost/PHP/Beg_PHP4/CH3/loan.htm
[client 127.0.0.1] PHP Notice: Undefined variable: _post in C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator\My Documents\My Work\PHP\Beg_PHP4\CH3\loan.php on line 12, referer: http://localhost/PHP/Beg_PHP4/CH3/loan.htm

Errors on line 8 through 12.

Here is the code for that page:

<head><title> Smart Loan Application</title></head>

<body>

<h1>Smart Credit Bank Loan Application Form</h1>

<?php
    $firstname = $_post['firstname'];
    $lastname = $_post['lastname'];
    $salary = $_post['salary'];
    $age = $_post['age'];
    $loan = $_post['loan'];

    $SalaryAllowance = $salary / 5;
    $AgeAllowance = ($age / 10 - ($age % 10) / 10 ) -1;
    $LoanAllowance = $SalaryAllowance + $AgeAllowance;

    echo 'Loan desired: $loan <br />';
    echo 'Loan amount we will allow: $LoanAllownace <br /><br />';
        if ($loan <= $LoanAllowance) echo 'Yes, $firstname $lastname, we are delighted to accept your application';
        if ($loan > $LoanAllowance) echo 'We\'re sorry, $firstname $lastname, we cannot accept your application at this time.';
?>

<p>Created on ... October 27, 2003</p>
</body>
</html>

The errors in question are the $firstname = $_post['firstname'];

Is there something wrong with that?

wadesmart · October 28th, 2003, 02:31 PM

Ok. After some serious head banging against the wall, this is what I have that IS working:

<head><title> Smart Loan Application</title></head>
<body>
<h1>Smart Credit Bank Loan Application Form</h1>

<?php
$SalaryAllowance = $_POST["salary"] / 5;
$AgeAllowance = ($_POST["age"] / 10 - ($_POST["age"] % 10) / 10 ) -1;
$LoanAllowance = $SalaryAllowance + $AgeAllowance;

echo "Loan desired: $_POST[loan] <br /> " ;
echo "Loan amount we will allow: $LoanAllowance <br /><br />";

if ($_POST["loan"] <= $LoanAllowance) echo "Yes, $_POST[firstname] $_POST[lastname], we are delighted to accept your application. ";

if ($_POST["loan"] > $LoanAllowance) echo "We\"re sorry, $_POST[firstname] $_POST[lastname], we cannot accept your application at this time.";
?>

</body>
</html>

I guess I did not understand outside the echo " " you have to have $_POST[" xx "]; and inside you have $_POST[xx];

I also found, for whatever reason, that if I have anything other than POST in caps, it wont work.

Moving along the chapter slowly.

nikolai · October 28th, 2003, 02:59 PM

Well, that all makes sense. If you read the PHP manual page for strings and variable substitution, you'll see how variables are parsed within double-quoted and heredoc strings:
http://www.php.net/types.string

You'll also notice that the superglobal variable names are $_POST, $_GET, etc... not $_post or $_get.
http://www.php.net/reserved.variables

I think the reason you were having parse errors in your original script is that your php.ini says that "<?" is a valid PHP start tag, so <?xml might screw PHP up. I'd recommend entering PHP and echoing your <?xml line from within PHP:

<?php
echo "<?xml ...";

...

Take care,

Nik
http://www.bigaction.org/

richard.york · October 28th, 2003, 03:18 PM

Yeah all variable names are case sensitive, function names are not.

Quote:

quote:
I guess I did not understand outside the echo " " you have to have $_POST[" xx "]; and inside you have $_POST[xx];

You can also use curly syntax:
if ($_POST["loan"] <= $LoanAllowance)
echo "Yes, {$_POST["firstname"]} {$_POST["lastname"]}, we are delighted to accept your application.";

http://www.php.net/manual/en/language.types.array.php

In your development environment it would, IMO, be more helpful to output your errors directly to the browser, rather than having to check a log. Those are all directives in PHP.ini.

: )
Rich

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Smiling Souls
http://www.smilingsouls.net
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