Newbie help...

Anon

I am very new to PHP and website developing but I know HTML and would like to do certain things with PHP on a website Im making.
Take a look at the following site:
(this is just an example I am in no way related to this site)
http://www.osnews.com/editor.php

This editor.php shows information about editors at osnews.com the following way:

http://www.osnews.com/editor.php?editors_id=1

I suppose this is achieved by using include() inside that table that shows the info.

I am planning to do pretty much the same without having to make a different .html for every article i plan to show, kinda like this:

http://mysite.com/article.php?id=articlename.txt

How do i get this info into the page? Do I place a reference to the variable inside the code like this:
include($id)
so it includes articlename.txt inside the current page?
Do I have to use mysql for it? How do they get it to work by using editor_id=1 ?
I know this might raise some flames but I have read some tutorials (not many but some) and I cant find an answer.
Thanks in advance.

Anon

in a HTML file you make for example this:

<a href="redirectionscript.php?articleid=1">
Klick here for article no 1 </a>

then you have to code a php file, whck content should (could) look like this:

If (articleid == 1) {

include (article1.txt);

}

Thats it !!!

INFO : Remember to change the file permission on your server, otherwise the interpreter gives you an error message: Permission on articlexyz.txt denied

ali

Anon

I dont get it...
Suppose I have a page called archives.html with links to a series of articles like so:
<a href="article.php?articleid=1">
Klick here for article no 1 </a>

Then you tell me to code a article.php with the following code:
<?

If (articleid == 1) {

include (article1.txt);

}

Why would I want to use the If statement? what about the other articles? Would I have to use a different conditional for every other article?
Cant I just include a reference to the articleid variable inside article.php so I just do this:

<?
include ($articleid);
?>

Would that work? (I am assuming thats how you refer to variables in PHP based on previous experience with other programming languages)
Thanks for your help

Anon

i think, if you would write

<?
include ($articleid);
?>

you would not include a file. If you want to do it with the method above (your way)
you would have to write in the html

<a href="article.php?=arcticleid=article1.txt"> Click here for article 1 </a>

should work then in the way you wanted the php file.

But to be honest with you, i have never tried that way you want to go...

So I can only theoreticaly say that it would work. If your way does not work and nobody else knows an answer you can be sure the way i wrote you in my first reply works fine.

regards ali

mithril

Yep,

That way will work..... but it's also inherantly insecure and thus a Bad Thing (TM). Because you're including whatever filename is specified in "arcticleid=xxx.ext", I can copy the link, change the path and file, and gain access to any file I wish on your server. For example, I could do:

   article.php?arcticleid=/etc/passwrd

on a *Nix machine and get a listing of all user accounts and password for that server. You're much better of using the conditional statements, it will save you security problems in the long run.

My thoughts, not yours.....

Geoff A. Virgo

Anon

Simply name all of your articles article1.html, article2.html, article476.html

then to include them in page.php

<?php
include('article' . $article_id . '.html');
?>

so when someone calls page.php?article_id=476
article476.html will be included.

Anon

Thanks everyone for your answers!
Would that solution by John cause any inherent security problems? If i have the $articleid .html in the php code I dont think you could view any other files unless the attacker uses the pipe to separate the output. I think I might have to go with the conditionals unless I use some kind of checking to insure that no one requests something they shouldnt but my php expertise isnt that good yet.And that might be a tad annoying.Just dont know what is more annoying yet,having to do a conditional for each new file I add or doing the checks.
Thanks a lot again and if any of you have any other ideas I would appreciate it.