Variables between includes

canadaman

I'm trying to write a script where one page handles most functions for a survey using MySQL as the backend.

The design here is the edit page (edit.php) gets input from the referring page on what to do and then includes the required code. But I'm having trouble getting variables to be seen by the includes.

For example:
On the main edit page (edit.php) the default calls the editMain include (editMain.inc) which displays all questions so you can select which one to edit.

When you hit the select button it calls the same edit.php script but passes the question ID and survey ID. Edit.php sees the variables properly but the include editQuestion (editQuestion.inc) they become unset. Defines get me around this problem but that seems like a poor hack.

Is this a bad design for my site or am I missing something?

Thanks!

Canadaman

br__ken

might wnat to consider making a class to hold all the functions, then just grab vars by $class->varname

or globalize them $GLOBALS['var'] , dunno ,a bunch of ways you can go

sfullman

I have never had a problem with includes. I did notice you append your includes as .inc. If you must do this I suggest you use

filename.inc.php

so that someone cannot see the source code.

When you include a file, the php server basically puts all of the code in the page where the include() directive is, as if it was one page, at runtime. If you're losing a variable it's NOT becuase you're using an include file. Make sure there is n't some other conflict.

Sam

canadaman

Thanks for your help guys but I'm still having trouble. But I am making headway (I hope).

I think the trouble is coming from the way I call my includes. I'm using a function called includeFiles(fileNameArray) to make things a little easier. I think this might be the problem.

What I do is create an array listing all the includes and then pass it to includeFiles. I thought that the edit.php was getting the variables but it turns out it's not. The variable I initally tested was from an HTTP form which lead me astray. Testing a variable declared in the include showed me it isn't set outside of the include. Sounds like a scope problem!

If this is the function I'm using to include the files what's the best way around it?

Thanks!

Canadaman

edwardsbc

Any code "included" by a function will inherit the functions scope. By default, variables in the normal scope are not available to a function (and vis versa) without being passed as parameters or results. So you must globalize your variables or pass them through to the function.

canadaman

Sure enough that was it. So now I call my includes directly and everything works.

But now I'm wondering how should I deal with potential errors? The whole purpose of using the function to do the includes was so I could have error-handling code and not have to repeat it everytime I wanted to do an include. But passing variables into the function isn't practical because there will be too many and it makes maintaning the code harder.

What's a good way to automate error checking here? Maybe have a bit of code like this

$includeVar=include("filename.php");
if (!includeVar)
call includeError(); //INCLUDE ERROR HANDLING DONE HERE

Thanks for everyone's help!

Canadaman