session variables passing

[Anon]

I already did my homework - read through forum archives (some say to refer to php manual), refered to manual, read postings there, STILL can't get this to work. Please take pity and don't refer me to another source...

I need to collect 20 pieces of info from forms. I want to collect it in two different forms. I want the first 5 pieces of info to be inserted into the same MySQL record as the last 15 pieces of info, all reflecting one single new user's info. I feel I need to register the first five pieces of info as global variables and pass the session ID through the URL, and then INSERT all 20 pieces of info into MySQL after the user fills out the second form.

Clear? Good - let's proceed.

The user will come across an html page. At the top of this page I have the following:

<?php
session_start();
session_register($org_username);
session_register($org_password);
session_register($tax_id);
session_register($org_name);
?>

(I've also tried this with
session_register("org_username");
)
The form's ACTION is:
create_basicprofile.php

In this file, I have the following:

header( "Location: http://www.resultshare.org/contactinfo.php?<?=SID?>");
exit;

BUT when I click on the submit button from the first form, create_basicprofile.php sends me to the URL www.resultshare.org/contactinfo.php?<?=SID?>

which is the correct page (contactinfo.php) but it doesn't actually generate a session id. (there are no numbers replacing "SID")

By the way, on the contactinfo.php page, I start off with the following:

<?php
session_start();
?>

I think the problems later on with the inability to insert all 20 form fields into one single record in a MySQL table stem from the inability to start a session and/or successfully register all 20 damn variables.

Now, after all that -- can you please instruct me to what I am doing wrong?

Thank you sincerely,
A tired newbie,
Claire

[Anon]

One error:

I don't want to register "all 20 damn variables" -

just the five from the first form on the first html page. (I do want to INSERT all 20 damn variables into one record tho')

Thanks,
Claire

[Anon]

Three things:
1. session_register("org_username") is the correct form.

2. Your header statement should be header("Location: http://www.resultshare.org/contactinfo.php?".sid).

3. I think the form's action should be "create_basicprofile.php?<?=SID?>". (I'm not certain about this one.)

I don't know if this will solve all your problems, but it's a start.

HTH,
Beth

[Anon]

This time the new URL is
/contactinfo.php?.sid (still no numbers)
and variables are not passing

By the way, the track_vars and register_globals is enabled (checking on --enable-trans-sid at the moment)

Is it that the php is not able to figure out that my variable "org_username" is coming from a field in a form?

EX: <INPUT TYPE="text" name="org_username"
size=10 maxlength=10>

Do I need to point it to this?

Besides, there is still no session being created (or at least none passed)

Even if I have to use cookies, can someone explain how to pass the SESSID using them? (the manual and comments are woefully lacking in explanations for how to pass it any other way but URL)

Just wanting something to work...
Thank you,
Claire

[Anon]

I know it is not exactly what you what but it but it puts a session id at the end of the URL.

#!/usr/bin/php4
<?php

function session_start_from_rewrite()
{
global $HTTP_HOST, $REQUEST_URI;

ereg("/([0-9a-z]{32})", $REQUEST_URI, $regs);
$session_id = $regs[1];

if(!isset($session_id) || empty($session_id))
{
srand((double)microtime()*1000000);
$session_id = md5(uniqid(rand()));

  $destination = "http://$HTTP_HOST$REQUEST_URI/$session_id";
  header("Location: $destination");

}

session_id($session_id);
session_start();

}
session_start_from_rewrite();

?>

Regards,
Anthony Irwin

[Anon]

Claire wrote:

This time the new URL is /contactinfo.php?.sid (still no numbers)

and variables are not passing

I don't know why that would be. I've used it myself and it's worked. Did you remember to put the .sid outside of the quotation marks?

---

Is it that the php is not able to figure out that my variable "org_username" is coming from a field in a form?

That could be part of the problem. PHP won't let a form variable be used as a session variable (to avoid possible security holes). Also, do you understand that form variables are not visible to PHP until after the form has been posted? (Forgive me if I'm getting too basic here. I don't know how much you know about server side programming.)

---

Even if I have to use cookies, can someone explain how to pass the SESSID using them? (the manual and comments are woefully lacking in explanations for how to pass it any other way but URL)

That's because there's not much to say. Cookies are the default for sessions, and they function automatically. If you're running under a standard PHP4 installation you shouldn't have to do anything to make them work.

I suspect some of your frustration is coming from trying to tackle too much at one time (forms, sessions, sid, etc.). Maybe you could write some test pages focusing on one small piece. For instance, one page could simply assign a value to a variable, register it as a session variable and then check to see if that worked.

Then create a link to another page where you echo the value of $myvar. Try all this with cookies turned on so you don't have to worry about SID. If it works with cookies, then you can move on to integrating SID.

[Anon]

Thank you - and no, I'm not above very basic explanations of how server-side is supposed to work...

one question though - if I can't use form variables as session variables, then how am I supposed to be able to transmit those to the next form and page? In other words, maybe I'm using session management for the wrong thing alltogether... but I thought this was one way passing form variables can be done (maybe I'm completely wrong).

If so, is my only other option Javascript and hidden fields? Does anyone have a good source that explains how to pass these from different forms on different pages (already looked through all the scripts at javascript.com, read through webmonkey, read through cnet, still couldn't find what I needed to know ... )

I realize that starting basic is the right approach, and I did do an alternative set of pages that were very simplistic ... but I was trying to make this work because the small scale doesn't always translate successfully to the large scale (especially if I can't even pass form variables due to security!)

Thanks for your patience, and any tips on getting the variables to go from page to page would be appreciated....

Claire

[Anon]

Hi Claire,

As I read your Posts, I'm not too sure if you really need sessions at all...
For simplicity I call your files a different way...
Form1: is the page where you collect your first five Informations
Form2: is the page where you collect your last 15 Informations
Put_them_in: is the file, where you write your data in the database ... hope I haven't missed anything important :-))
I would now do it this way:
The Action Document of Form1 is Form2,
in the Form2 I would use 5 hidden fields giving them the name and the value of the 5 fields you collected on Form1. The Action Document of Form2 would be Put_them_in, in Put_them_in you would have all your 20 damn Variables 5 from the hidden fields of Form2 and 15 from the normal field of Form2 ... Does that make sense ??

hope that helps, if not ask again, thats what the forum is for ...

cya Rob

[Anon]

Claire,

Below is how I Successfully pass parameters to other pages.

www.website/page1.cgi?1234

#!/usr/bin/php4

<?php
$ID = $QUERY_STRING;
?>

<head><title> Page 1 </title></head>
<body bgcolor="ffffff">
<a href="page2.cgi<? echo "?".$ID; ?>"><p> Page 2></a></p>

</body>

---

www.website/page2.cgi?1234

#!/usr/bin/php4

<?php
$ID = $QUERY_STRING;
?>

<head><title> Page 2 </title></head>
<body bgcolor="ffffff">
<a href="page1.cgi<? echo "?".$ID; ?>"><p> Page 2></a></p>

</body>

---

I hope this is what you are after.

Regards,
Anthony Irwin

[Anon]

I had a similar prob with <?=SID?> and ended up using the following format:

"prog.php?".session_name()."=".session_id()

BTW at the begining of each prog I then have:

session_start();
session_register( "session" );

Where $session is an array that way I can keep all session vars in an easily remembered (and initialised place)!

It seemes to do the trick for me!

Never found out why the original failed to work!

HTH