Finish Final Stage of Social Networking Button

[justlukeyou]

Hi,

I am trying to complete a button which allows someone to follow somone else. It is designed to be a social networking button. I could get the button to work whever the page is loaded which is highly undersirable but I cant make it work when the button is pressed.

I have really stuck on this, does anyone have any suggestions on what I can try to get it to work.

<?php
 
	

 $followerid = intval($_SESSION['userID']);
        $profileid  = intval($row['id']);
		

	
if(isset($_POST['followbutton']) && $_POST['followbutton'] == 'true'){


	if($profileid =  $followerid) {
        $errors['profileid'] = "This is a test error.";
    }



if(!$errors){
        //Validation of input vars passed, attempt to run query
        //Force vars to be ints to be safe for query statement

		
		    $followerid = intval($_SESSION['userID']);
        $profileid  = intval($row['id']);

        $query = "INSERT INTO `follow` (`user_id`, `follow_user_id`) VALUES ('{$profileid}', '{$followerid}')";
        $result = mysql_query($query);

		
        if (!$result)
        {
                $errors[] = "Query: {$query}<br>Error: " . mysql_error();

        }
	}	
	}
	
	
?>

[bradgrafelman]

First and foremost: Stop Using the MySQL Extension!.

Have you tried debugging the code at all? For example, have you at least tried:

1. Tracing through the code (using a debugger preferably; can also be done with echo statements placed throughout the code) to determine which branches you're getting into?
2. Outputting variables of interest (especially external variables) either directly or, if contained within an array (e.g. $_POST), by examining the array altogether via print_r(). Note that var_dump() can be used to get even more information on what a variable contains.
3. Outputting the SQL query and visually inspecting it.
4. Checking to see if mysql_query() indicated an error has occurred and, if so, outputting the error message provided by MySQL (see mysql_error()).

?

[justlukeyou]

Thanks,

I have tried to use PDO before but I just dont understand it. I dont understand how it is similar or to differs to MySQL.

I have tried option 2 and it echoes all the values I was expecting. How can I use Option 1. What is a debugger?