I need help

brianN

Im making a script that will generate a page by filling in the info to a template, the info is submitted by the user through a form. It keeps saying "parse error on line 24". but i cant find anything wrong with line 24. this is the script:

<html> 
<head> 
</head> 
<body> 
<?php $common = $_POST['common']; ?> 
<?php $sci = $_POST['sci']; ?> 
<?php $location = $_POST['location']; ?> 
<?php $size = $_POST['size']; ?> 
<?php $ph = $_POST['ph'];?> 
<?php $temp = $_POST['temp']; ?> 
<?php $diet = $_POST['diet']; ?> 
<?php $tank = $_POST['tank']; ?> 
<?php $temper = $_POST['temper']; ?> 
<?php $breed = $_POST['breed']; ?> 
<?php $author = $_POST['author']; ?> 
<?php $pic = $_POST['pic']; ?> 
<?php $fp = fopen($_POST['filename'], "w"); ?> 
<?php $string = "<html>
<head><title>Cichlid Profiles</title>
	<link rel=stylesheet type=\"text/css\" href=\"style.css\">
</head>
<body bottommargin=\"0\" leftmargin=\"0\" marginheight=\"0\" marginwidth=\"0\" rightmargin=\"0\" topmargin=\"0\" background=\"background.jpg\" text=\"white\" link=\"white\">
<table width=\"100%\" cellpadding=\"0\" cellspacing=\"0\" border=\"0\" height=\"101\"><tr valign=\"top\">
    <td width=\"92\" height=\"101\"><img src=\"topleft.jpg\" width="92" height=\"101\" border=\"0\" alt=\"\"></td>
    <td width=\"100%\" height=\"101\" background=\"topbg.jpg\"> 
        <img src=\"logo.jpg\" width=\"334\" height=\"91\"> 

</td>
</tr>
</table>
<div align=\"right\">
  <table border=\"0\" cellpadding=\"0\" cellspacing=\"0\" style=\"border-collapse: collapse\" width=\"75%\" id=\"AutoNumber1\" height=\"190\">
    <tr>
      <td width=\"100%\" height=\"190\">
      <p align=\"left\"><b><font face=\"Times New Roman\" size=\"5\"> $common </font></b><font size="5"><b>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </b></font><font color=\"#04157f\">&nbsp;</font><font size=\"5\"><b>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </b></font></p>
        <p align=\"left\"><font size=\"4\"><b><font face=\"Times New Roman\">Scientific</font> 
          Name:&nbsp;</b></font><font size=\"4\"><i> $sci </i>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
          </font><font color=\"#04157f\" size=\"4\">&nbsp;</font></i><font size=\"4\"><i>&nbsp; 
          </i><b> &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
          </b></font></p>
      <p align=\"left\"><b><font size=\"4\">Habitat:</font></b><font size=\"4\"> $location </font></p>
      <p align=\"left\"><font size=\"4\"><b>Max Size:</b> $size</font></p>
      <p align=\"left\"><b><font size=\"4\">Diet:</font></b><font size=\"4\"> $diet </font></p>
      <p align=\"left\"><font size=\"4\"><b>Min Tank Size: </b> $tank </font>
      </p>
      <p align=\"left\"><font size=\"4\"><b>Temperament: </b> $temper </font></p>
      <p align=\"left\"><font size=\"4\"><b>Breeding: </b> $breed </font></p>
      <p align=\"left\"><font size=\"4\"><b>Temperature: </b> $temp <font face=\"Times New Roman\">&#730;F</font></font></p>
      <p align=\"left\"><font size=\"4\"><b>PH: </b> $ph </font></p>
      <p align=\"left\"><font size=\"4\"><b>Author of Profile: </b> $author </font></p>

  <p align=\"center\"><b><font size=\"4\">Click the thumbnail to see a larger 
  image</font></b><p align=\"center\">
  <img src=\"$pic\"> 
  <p>&nbsp;<p>&nbsp;</td>
</tr>
  </table>
</div>
<p align=\"center\">&nbsp;</p>

<table width=\"100%\" cellpadding=\"0\" cellspacing=\"0\" border=\"0\"><tr valign=\"top\">
<td width=\"100%\" height=\"101\" background=\"bottombg.jpg\">
		<BR><table align=\"left\" cellpadding=\"0\" cellspacing=\"0\" border=\"0\"><tr valign=\"bottom\" align=\"right\"><td valign=\"bottom\" align=\"left\">
		<p align=\"left\"><a href=\"http://www.steves-templates.com/\" target=\"_blank\"><img src=\"88312.gif\" width=\"88\" height=\"31\" border=\"0\" alt=\"Steves free web site templates\"></a></p>
		</td></tr></table>
</td>
<td width=\"94\" height=\"101\"><img src=\"bottomright.jpg\" width=\"94\" height=\"101\" border=\"0\" alt=\"\"></td>
</tr></table>
<script type='text/javascript'>
function Go(){return}

</script>
<script type='text/javascript' src='exmplmenu_var.js'></script>
<script type='text/javascript' src='menu_com.js'></script>
<noscript>Your browser does not support script</noscript>

</body>
</html>"?>

<?php fwrite($fp, $string); ?> 
<?php fclose($fp); ?> 
<a href="<?php echo $_POST['filename']; ?>">Click here to view the file.</a><br> 
<a href="cf_profiles.php">Click here to go back to the generator.</a>
</body>
</html>

matt_4013

Look at your </html> line. It's got no semi-colon on the end, that's your parse error.

But just so you know, you can actually do this:

<?php

$common = $_POST['common'];;

$sci = $_POST['sci']; 

$location = $_POST['location']; 

$size = $_POST['size']; 

$ph = $_POST['ph'];

$temp = $_POST['temp']; 

$diet = $_POST['diet'];

$tank = $_POST['tank'];

$temper = $_POST['temper'];

$breed = $_POST['breed']; 

$author = $_POST['author']; 

$pic = $_POST['pic']; 

$fp = fopen($_POST['filename'], "w");

?>

brianN

the semi colon at the end didnt do anything, still parse error on line 24.

Kerry_Kobashi

Brian

First, some things I see:

At the top of this document, you have the following tags:

Then, you have the same tags inside the PHP string

<head><title>Cichlid Profiles</title>

You need to remove the 4 tags and readd them inside the string.

Second, these types of problems will always happen when you are writing a html template intermingled with PHP source code. You should keep the HTML tags out of the PHP script. The problem can be in improper double quoting, slashing, etc.

Third, suppose you now have to go out and change the entire presentation for you website? Let's say you want to add another type of information about a Cichlid. If you have 1000 types of fish and 1000 web pages, you now have to go out and touch this entire file, retype all the information back in and regenerate the website again!

This is not a good way to do templating and you are setting yourself up for alot of work in the future.

I have a suggestion.

If I understand what you are doing, you are attempting to create static web pages through a template solution. If I am reading your code right, you are inputting some stuff from a form, and then writing out a new html file based on that input. These files are static web pages generated of fish information.

But I think there is a better way to do this for the long run. Suppose you have many different types of fish you want to show on your website (lets say 1000). And each has some unique data about it.

Rather than having 1000+ pages of fish information, you can use a different approach by using only ONE page to show the fish information. This one page would retrieve the information from the database and generate itself dynamically. This would allow your users to search your database making it a much cooler interface.

Also, I cannot imagine having 1000+ fish browser links on a web page for the user to navigate to find the right one. I hope this makes sense.

You can use the free mySQL database to create it . It's a little more work, but I think you will have a much more easier site to maintain.

Kerry Kobashi
Kobashi Computing

brianN

i like that idea, but i have not learned any SQL yet, where are some good places online to learn it?

Kerry_Kobashi

Go out and by this book from Amazon.com

PHP and MySQL Web Development
by Welling and Thomson

You may have to use the HEREDOC format to get around your problem:

$string = <<< MYSTRING
All the html tag stuff follows
MYSTRING;

brianN

I ordered PHP and MySQL for dummies last weekend, will that work? is there any only tutorials?

mactoph

Try:
http://hotwired.lycos.com/webmonkey/programming/php/tutorials/tutorial4.html
at Webmonkey, I think they do a good job there.

xblue

there is another syntax error (the syntax highlighting makes it really easy to spot, do you use an editor with syntax highlighting? - I'd highly recommend that.)

in your $string, most quotes are properly escaped, but the 92 showing up in blue in the forum here is not.

but probably Kerry's suggestion to start over with the project makes more sense anyway.