Sessions and form variables????

Kenderized

Hello All,

I am new to PHP and have been given the project of developing a custom shopping cart that works from a flat file of products..this is roughly how I have it laid out

ProductSelect.html (form)
here the cust chooses their products and qtys

ShoppingCart.php
This is a php page where the cust. can review their select and see
their purchase totals, if all is well they then proceed to the next page.

CustInfo.html (form)
Here the cust. enters their name, address, etc

OrderProcess.php
here all of the cust. info for the order is written to a file, where
the merchant can login and see it, this also sends email confirmation to the cust, as well as an alert to the merchant that an order is waiting.

I am currently having the forms post their variables but
here is the prob. OrderProcess.php needs to be able to gather all of the variables from ProductSelect.html & CustInfo.html in order to do its job....I would think that using session variables would accomplish my goals

for security reasons on the server using register globals isnt an option.

Can anyone tell me how can I session register HTML form variables?

Or is there a better way?? Please Help.

Kenderized

😕

universelittle

If your register_globals is off and you want to access those variables posted by forms, you can access them by $SESSION, super global variable.
e.g. $SESSION('username');
$_SESSION('password');

Hope it works.

elfynmcb

Hi,

If you want to access form variables just use the superglobal associated with the request method. As it's a cart you'll most likely be using POST so you would access an input of name qtyTires like this:

<?php

$quantity_tires = $_POST["qtyTires"];

?>

Is this what you mean ???

To register them just do this:

<?php

session_start();
$quantity_tires = $_POST["qtyTires"];
session_register("quantity_tires");

// Once Reg.
$a_var = $_SESSION["quantity_tires"];
echo $a_var."\n";

?>

universelittle

oh,sorry. I made a mistake coz I am doing session.:p

yes. should be $_POST

Kenderized

Ok but is there a way to session register the variable on the form
itself for instance

<? //this is on the very first line.
session_start();
?>
<html>
<head>
<title>ProductSelect.html</title>
</head>
<body>

for some reason they only place I can access the $_POST variables is in the php scripts they are posted to, not 2 or 3 scripts later.

for instance
<html>
<form action"ShoppingCart.php" method="post">
<input type="text" name="stuff" size="30">
<input type="submit" value="Check Me Out" name="checkout">
</form>
</html>

----------NEXT PAGE__________
<html>
<head>
<title>ShoppingCart.php</title>
</head>
</html>
<?
echo $POST['stuff'];

  //this works fine.

__LAST PAGE_________
<html>
<head>
<title>ProcessOrder.php</title>
</head>
</html>
<?
echo $POST['stuff'];

   //this doesnt work.

is this just the way it works??, thats why I thought of using session variables instead.

Or should I session register my variables in the php that my $_POST variables are posted to?

Kenderized

elfynmcb

Hi,

You cannot do that no, unless your web server is configured to parse .html files as php scripts. Also, if i gather this correctly, you are wanting .html forms to submit info and .php files to process ???

And session_register() cannot be used in a script where submitting variables. It must be used to register them when they are in the scope.

Kenderized

Hi again, (by the way thanks appreciate the help)

Yes, Im using html to submit values and php to process them.

I was currently using $_POST variables for this but ran into this problem.

----------NEXT PAGE__________
<html>
<head>
<title>ShoppingCart.php</title>
</head>
</html>
<?
echo $POST['stuff'];

//this works fine.
?>

__LAST PAGE_________
<html>
<head>
<title>ProcessOrder.php</title>
</head>
</html>
<?
echo $POST['stuff'];

//this doesnt work.
?>

is this just the way it works??, thats why I thought of using session variables instead.

so I guess then the best way to do this would be to session register them on the php page that receives the post vars??

Kenderized

universelittle

I am thinking about this problem as well. I think can use session to realize this. As long as you register the variables that you need in the session, and in the page that need to use those variables, just don't forget start_session(), maybe can. I am on the way trying it.

Kenderized

You guys have been great, your suggestion to session register my $_POST vars works great....but

I have a lot of variables to session register.

is there a short cut to session register them for instance

right now Im doing;

for my scalar variables

$billname = $_POST["billname"];
session_register("billname");

but can arrays be done somehow like this?
using maybe a wildcard like * perhaps.

$qty[] = $_POST['qty'][''];
session_register ("qty['*']");

instead of

$qty["carrots"] = $_POST['qty]['carrots'];
session_register(qty['carrots']);

this makes for a few hours of typing.

is there a foreach way to do this?? Im a newbie the foreach loop is still cant of foreign to me..I dont really understand it well.

ALSO what is the rule of thumb for using arrays as far as when to use single quote or double quote??

example: $qty['apples'] or $qty["apples"]

I know that you should always use quotes or php will see the array as a constant rather than a string. as I understand it.

Kenderized