Easy question, I presume, (cookies)

Anon

Why on earth does the below...

<?php

setcookie ("cookiename", "cookiedata");

give "Warning: Oops, php3_SetCookie called after header has been sent in /files/home2/jamescaddy/cgi-bin/cookie.php on line 5" and set no cookie??

Because I run these off a cgi-bin (I have no choice in this matter)
I have to put "#!/usr/local/bin/php3"
at the top of my files, okay, so I tried the below..

<?php

ob_start();
echo "Hello\n";

setcookie ("cookiename", "cookiedata");

ob_end_flush();

NOW it tells me the ob_start() is undefinded, no help there then!
I'm using PHP3 and if someone could tell me why this supposedly easy 'stuff' isn't working I'd be very grateful!

Thanks

Anon

Output buffering is PHP4, so that will probably be why you get 'undefined' errors when trying that.

Otherwise, are you saying that the setcookie is the very first thing sent to the browser, because if it is, it should work. I have read some stuff about problems with blank lines in included files, which you should avoid.

Anon

If you have any blank spaces in a file that uses setcookie, it will not work. Remove all blank spaces and try again.

Anon

Ahah!

Thanks guys, it works :-) (PHP3, I had a blank line)

I do have another slightly harder question though.

I want to do one of two things.
1. Set a cookie IF the username and password given are correct
2. Edit a cookie depending upon username and password.

Now, #1 has problems as I can't set a cookie in the middle of a file, so I tried using include and require linking to a file with simply

<?php
setcookie ();
?>

But I get the same error that I've got other stuff in. So the only way I can see is to open another page, instead of including one, how I can do this I have no clue.

Same with #2, not clue how to do this. I got a book with has a chapter on CGI which is where I found out pretty much how to set cookies, but it doesn't go into much detail, and none of the many sites I've tried seem to have any details.

Thanks for any help on this (harder) subject!

Anon

No, it's not really any harder. Put your form-processing code at the top of the file. Put your HTML, including the form, at the bottom.

In the form-processing code, test to see if the SUBMIT button was clicked. If it was, then do whatever processing is appropriate and use setcookie() if you like. (You also might want to do header("Location: nextpage.php") to move the logged-in user along.) If it was not, then the code is not executed and the login form is produced.

Anon

Hmmm, I don't really understand that, can you explain further?

At the moment I'm using the HTML in an include.
Where do I put the setcookie though. It only works if its the first thing, which means its going to be executed whatever,unless its on a seperate page, or unless I can edit it depending on form input.

Thanks

Anon

Cookies and headers must be the first data transmitted to the browser.

But that is not the same as being the first thing in the script.

You can perform any computation you wish before setting a cookie or sending a header ... just don't send any text (html or otherwise).

Anon

Cheers m8.

This did NOT work...
<?php
include ("cookieform.inc");
if (($user == "user") && ($password == "password")) {include ("general_access_cookie.inc");}
if ($general_user == "general_access") {echo "cookie working!"; }
?>

This DID work...
<?php
if (($user == "user") && ($password == "password")) {include ("general_access_cookie.inc");}
if ($general_user == "general_access") {echo "cookie working!"; }
include ("cookieform.inc");
?>

:-)