What am I doing wrong(please don't laugh!)

Easter_Bunny

OK, I've been trying to learn PHP for a week now and I'm really battling with a stupid little shopping thing. You type in you username and password, then select the items you want using a checkbox and when you click on submit, you get shown a list of things you selected.

The code I tried looks like this:

$action = "";
$psswrd = "admin";
$usrnme = "admin";

if ($action == "")
{
print("<form action=complete.php>
Username: <input type=text name=usr><br><br>
Password: <input type=password name=pwd><br><br>
<input type=submit name=submit value=Submit><br>
<input type=hidden name=action value=login>
</form>");
}

if ($action == "checklogin")
{
if ((usr == $usrnme) && (pwd == $psswrd))
{
print("<form action=http://devin/custom.php?
mode=complete&action=checklogin>
<input type=checkbox name=appels> Apples<br>
<input type=checkbox name=pears> Pears<br>
<input type=checkbox name=grapes> Grapes<br>
<input type=submit name=submit value=Submit>
<input type=hidden name=action value=checklogin>
</form>");
}

else
{
print("Invalid username or password");
}
}
if ($action == "checkout")
{
print("You have selected:<br><br>");
if ($apples == true)
{
print("Apples<br>");
}
if ($pears == true)
{
print("Pears<br>");
}
if ($grapes == true)
{
print("Grapes<br>");
}
else
{
print("Nothing<br>");
}
}

Any help, suggestions, explainations, etc. will be appreciated.

Thanks!

trooper

Firstly welcome to the world of PHP - believe me when i say that it will get easier

OK now your problem

When you show the form in the first place it has an action value of "login". So when you press the submit button it will not actually run the code under if($action == "checklogin".

becomes

You need to change the value of your hidden variable from being login to "checklogin", that will then pass checklogin as the action and the code within that if($action == "checklogin" will be executed. Oh and also change the value of

HTH

Easter_Bunny

OK, thanks for your advice. 🙂 I changed everything to what you said, but as soos as I enter the username and password, the address in the address bar(if that's what it's called, I forget)changes from

http://devin/custom.php?mode=complete

http://devin/complete.php?usr=admin&pwd=admin&submit=Submit&action=checklogin

and then it says,"The Page Cannot Be Found".

What now?

Is there an easier way to do what I'm trying to do?

Bunkermaster

does complete.php exist?

another thing

if ($foo == true){}

is simply easier this way if ($foo){}

trooper

change

 print("<form action=complete.php>");

print("<form>");

and also for the other one - that way by default it will post the page back to itself and reload the same page

HTH

Easter_Bunny

I changed 'print("<form action=complete.php>");'(as well as the other one) to 'print("<form>");'. This helped in removing the message "The Page Cannot Be Found".

Isn't it supposed to look something like this:

print("<form action=..... method=post>"); ?

What exactly does "method=post" do?

After trying 'print("<form>");', I tried using "<form action.... method=post>" too, but "Cannot Be Found" message just returned.

I seemed to have made a mound out of a moleheap...or the other way around.

PS: complete.php does exist

BuzzLY

You don't need "action=..." unless you want to direct your user to another page.

There are two ways to send values to another web page: GET and POST. If you were to use "method=get," you would see the variables as part of the URL once you hit submit (everything after the question mark):

usr=admin&pwd=admin&submit=Submit&action=checklogin

If you use "method=post," you will still have access to those variables, but they will not be visible in the URL.

There are a couple of advantages to using POST. First of all, the variables are not visible in the URL, so your URL is less "messy." If you have values you would rather not let your users see, this is another advantage. Third, you are not limited in the number of variables or the length of the values. With GET, you are limited by the user's browser limit on URL length. That can get messy if you have a lot of variables.

One advantage to the GET method is access to QUERY_STRING. However, that is a very minor advantage in my book, and I recommend using POST whenever possible.

If you want to use POST, you must specify "method=post," because GET is the default. If you do not specify a method, GET will be used.

So, in summation: You don't need "action=...", but you do need "method=post." Your code will look like this:

print("<form method=post>")

Hope that helps!

Bunkermaster

query string max is 2048 Bytes on most browsers but if I am correct some are still stuck at 512 which is damn easy to reach

Easter_Bunny

🙂 Thanks for everyone's help! I got a "little" help from a friend who showed me that setting $action = ""; at the top, I'm actually passing that value on, which means that if I say:

if ($action == "checklogin")

then it would return "false", because $action = ""! 🙂

Removing the statement $action = ""; at the top, made the next form come up(if you can say it like that), resored peace in my little world and I have made peace with PHP for now.

Once again thank-you all for your help. I really appreciate you all taking time to help me. 😉

Now if I could just pass my driver's test on Monday... 🙂