The case of the lost returned values

revron

I am having a bit of a fit. (about 2 days worth) Perhaps someone can help.

I have a function which determines the shipping costs for a range of weights. (shortened here for clarity)

<?php

function calculate_shipping_cost($total_price, $total_weight, $ship_method)
{

if ($total_price >= 1000)
{
$shipping = "0.00";
{ return $shipping; }
}

//calculate ups ground charges
if ($total_weight >=0 && $total_weight <=9 && $ship_method == "ups_ground")
{
$shipping = "7.50";
{ return $shipping; }
}
}

<?

I have set session_register('shipping'); earlier on and have track_vars enabled on the server. I even turned the server globals to on, just to see if it would help.

The function works fine... that is, until I attempt to insert $shipping in the shipping table via a query in a different file, via the following script.

<?php

//insert shipping and tax information

 $query = "insert into shipping_and_taxes values
          ('$orderid', '$shipping', '$ship_method', '$tax', '$non_prof_cert')";
$result = mysql_query($query);
if(!$result)
  return false;

<?

$orderid (which is related to the primary key) is inserted into the table fine.

$ship_method and '$non_prof_cert which were submitted via a form earlier on insert fine too.

$tax is a future addition so is null right now.

$shipping, which was the value returned above... just disappears into the netherworld and I just can't seem to be able to retrieve it to put it in the table... or use it anywhere other than the page where the calculate_shipping_cost was called from.

Has to be something I am missing. Yup... I have been to the manual and to my understanding...(which is limited) think I have done what I was supposed to do. I am enjoying the challenge, but could use a little boost here.

sijis

from what i can tell your logic in the calculate_shipping_cost() function is missing a few things.

first of, lets assume that
$total_price = 900;
then the shipping will be.... NOTHING.
because if the $total_price is more that 1000 then shipping is 0, but what if the shipping is less than that???
you will have to set a default shipping cost, so in case the value doesn't fit in a condition it will still return a value!

do this:

function calculate_shipping_cost($total_price, $total_weight, $ship_method){
// set default shipping.
$shiping = 16.00;

if ($total_price >= 1000){ 
    $shipping = "0.00"; 
} 

//calculate ups ground charges 
if ($total_weight >=0 && $total_weight <=9 && $ship_method == "ups_ground") { 
$shipping = "7.50"; 
} 

// just set the variable $shipping before you return its value. 
// easier to know when and what you are returning.
return $shipping;
}

revron

The full code carries it right up to the 1000. I just posted a part of it. It in itself does work ok and it returns the correct calculation, where it is displayed under the page header as shipping cost.

My problem is that even though I have session_register('shipping') set, the value returned for $shipping disappears as soon as I attempt to use $shipping any where other than the page where the function was originally called. I also start sessions at the beginning of every page.

Is there something I need to call when I want to reuse the value of $shipping elsewhere?

In other words, I can only access the value of $shipping on the page it called the function from. I need to use it again on other pages.

Thanks

sijis

try:

$_SESSION['shipping']; // should echo your shipping value

btw: my apologies, i didn't realize you stripped most of the function... 🙂

revron

Thanks... Tried the $_SESSION['shipping']; to acquire the value to insert it into the table. No luck.

Then I tried just putting it above the header include with an echo "$shipping"; to see if it would display the value. Nope. the value was 0.00

Is there a specific place that the $_SESSION['shipping']; has to be placed?

Will give it another shot in the morning when I get to the office. Been at this for about 13 hours today. I am open to any suggestions.

Thanks again... Hope someday I can be of help to someone else.

sijis

the reason i used
$_SESSION['shipping']
is because you said "I have set session_register('shipping');"
what you can do, instead of doing session_register('shipping')
just do

$_SESSION['shipping'] = $value; //value of shipping

here's also a warning from PHP Manual:
If you are using $_SESSION (or $HTTP_SESSION_VARS), do not use session_register(), session_is_registered() and session_unregister().
just keep that in mind.

i could be overlooking something though.. i'll wait until your response and i'll take a much closer look.

revron

Thanks for your help sijis-

I had to change the way I was thinking this thing. What I ended up doing was to call the function to dump all of the order information into the database. Then called the functions to calculate the applicable sales tax and shipping charges.

I now select the stuff I need from the database and since all of the functions are called in the same file, the variable values are still accessible... where I immediately dump THEM into their associated fields.

I tried the $_SESSION['shipping'] thing, but am using unregister in the admin portion and didn't want to nuts things up even more by changing all of the register and unregister stuff in this application.

I think I am safe.... I'm right handed.

Thanks again.