Form data not being posted

telladam

I have several forms that are not transmitting their variables to the page outlined in the action attribute.

<form action="login.php" method="post">
	  <table>
	  <tr>
	  <td>username</td><td><input type ="text" name="user_name"></td>
	  </tr>
	  <tr>
	  <td>password</td><td><input type="password" name="password"></td>
	  </tr>
	  <tr>
	    <td colspan="2" align="right"> 
        <input type="submit" value="Login">
        </td>
		</tr>
	  </table>
	  </form>

On the page "login.php" I have the following script

$query = "SELECT * FROM forum_users WHERE user_name = '$user_name'";

This query is not being evaluated. As a check I tried inserting a simple "echo" command to show me the variable and it came up as being an Undefined Variable.
I have several otehr forms working in a similar manner with no problems. Any Ideas?

stolzyboy

if register_globals is turned off in your php.ini, you will need to use $_POST['user_name'] to access your variables, are you using a newer version of php, if so that is most likely your problem, since register_globals is turned off in newer versions

telladam

The php.ini needed changing to allow global variables but this problem also exists on my hosts server and the same technique works on many other forms on my site. This is what is weirding me out about this, it doesn't seem consistent.
I tried using the $_POST["etc"] as well but that didn't work either.
I've checked and rechecked the syntax but as far as I can see everything is correct.
Please help as I'm meant to be demonstrating my brilliant home built forum to my friends tomorrow lunchtime. Damn PHP and it's promise of rapid development. Lies, all lies!

stolzyboy

make this

$_POST["etc"]

look like

$_POST['etc'] // <------ single quotes

if that doesn't work, then i'm lost, have you restarted apache after you reconfig'd the php.ini?

and try putting a semicolon after your query and after the quotes

$query = "SELECT * FROM forum_users WHERE user_name = '$user_name';"; //sometimes mysql is picky, this is how i always do it

dalecosp

Works for me:

"damnphp.html":

<form action="loginn.php" method="post">
          <table>
          <tr>
          <td>username</td><td><input type ="text" name="user_name"></td>
          </tr>
          <tr>
          <td>password</td><td><input type="password" name="password"></td>
          </tr>
          <tr>
            <td colspan="2" align="right">
        <input type="submit" value="Login">
        </td>
                </tr>
          </table>
          </form>

"loginn.php":

<?
echo $_POST['user_name'];
?>

returns the proper value. Something in environment, or a slip of the fingers.....<?> Is this maybe in some conditional that is evaluating FALSE, perhaps?

acidbox

If that file is included into another PHP file, make sure that you didnt define $user_name in any other file, or even have any form asking for name=user_name in any other file that will be parsed before this. I know I have done that before, and the variable was showing up empty because it was getting reset by another variable that I had included earlier.

telladam

Thanks for all the ideas but I am still having problems. The exact code I am using to evaluate the $user_name is

$query = "SELECT * FROM forum_users WHERE user_name = '$user_name'";
$result = mysql_query($query,$db);
while ($user = mysql_fetch_array($result)){

But that just gives me the following error

Warning: mysql_fetch_array(): supplied argument is not a valid MySQL result resource in xxx

I can pretty safely say that globals are turned on because of all the other forms on my site running in a similar fashion. Also, the page does not have any includes in it until way after the failing code and these included files only call the string $user_name, not edit it.

acidbox

what does it return if you print($query); ?

telladam

Tried to put in a simple print to view the $query but it wouldn't appear on the page. Checked the source and there was nothing there either. Fiddled around a bit and found that a copy of the root folder had been created a few days ago (prolly when I was setting up IIS) and it was these pages I was viewing.
At least I've now get my dev server set up properly as well. Thanks loads for all of your help dudes.