Displaying Variables

Powermaker

I'm new to PHP. I have a website (www.steaminc.com) up and running with Frontpage through Earthlink. They do support PHP 4.x and I was able to echo some text from a *.php4 file on the website. I just purchased a book from SAMS titled 'PHP and MySQL'. I have not installed any of the PHP programs on my computer. In working through Chapter 1 in the book, everything worked fine until I tried to echo a variable. The code I used was:

<?php
echo $firstname1 . " " . $lastname1 . " __________________<br>";
echo $firstname2 . " " . $lastname2 . " __________________";
?>

After publishing it to the website, it only displays the underlines. I've looked through all the 'Newbies' postings and haven't run across anything to help me. I've tried a number off variables and none of them will echo the value. What am I doing wrong?

RGBlackmore

you get the variables from a form?

if not, the variables just say ""

<?php
$firstname1 = "some";
$lastname1 = "also some"; 
$firstname2 = "also also some";
$lastname2 = "also also also some";

echo $firstname1 . " " . $lastname1 . " _____________________<br>";
echo $firstname2 . " " . $lastname2 . " _____________________";
?>

or you can get the variables through url:

http://your.site.tld/?firstname1=some&lastname1=also+some&firstname2=also+also+some&lastname2=also+also+also+some
with your original code.

Powermaker

Thanks. That worked great.

Powermaker

I spoke too soon. The problem I'm having is the variable value entered in the html page is not passing to the php script.

My input in the html page is:

</form>

The code in var.php4 is:

<html>
<head>
<title>PHP Variable test</title>
</head>
<body>
<?
$test2 = "abcd";
echo $test1 . " - is the value for Test 1<br />";
echo $test2 . " - is the value for Test 2<br />";
echo "End of php";
?>
</body>
</html>

Entering "aaaa" in the Test1 input results in the following display in my browser:

<html>
<head>
<title>PHP Variable test</title>
</head>
<body>
- is the value for Test 1<br />abcd - is the value for Test 2<br />End of php
</body>
</html>

I'm at a loss on how to find my error.

You are welcome to try it on my website at www.steaminc.com by going to the Test Area menu item.

I'd appreciate any help anyone can provide, and Happy New year to all!!!.

suntra

Try with $POST["test1"] instead of $test1. This must be because register_globals is set to Off. In that case, form variables, cookies variables, blablabla, are not simply accessible with $<name>, but with $GET, $POST, $COOKIES, etc...

Powermaker

Thank you very much, that worked. Is it normal for the host site, in this case Earthlink, to have the register_globals set to off? Should I ask the host to set the globals to on?

suntra

It's normal because since a certain version of PHP, register_globals is, by default, set to Off. Why ? For security reason. I think you should not ask your host to set it to On, but you should modify your code for them to work with register_globals set to Off.

Powermaker

Thanks. I appreciate your feedback.