[Resolved] "Parse Error Unexpected $" - on one server but not the other??

greeno76

I was wondering whether anyone could kindly shed some light on this problem?

My site www.ironmonger-tri.co.uk works perfectly on a (commercial) server running PHP 4.3.1 but gives me "Parse error: parse error, unexpected $ in /var/www/html/ironmonger/index.php on line 310"
when I try to run it on my own server running PHP 4.2.2

I haven't included the code here so far as I was thinking it could be something speifically related to my build. I've counted all the curly braces and they add up too!

Many thanks in advance for your reply.

Jason

sijis

i think some of the code would be helpful.
i would first start off in line 128-130 and find the dollar sign "$" and account for it. could be that the $ is misused or something.

you should also make sure you have a semicolon at the end of a string and that the strings have a matching single/double quote.
eg: $var = "welcome; // missing double quote
$var = "wecome" // missing semicolon
$var = "welcome"; // no problems.

hth

greeno76

Many thanks for your response. I'm sorry for not including the code to start with. I've scoured the page for un ";ed" $'s. In fact the code doesn't have any php beyond ~line 288 (the error said 310)
I'll include the code from the first php mention onwards.
Firstly, let me apologise for the shoddy state of my coding. I only hope the colour of the PHP highlighting helps to make sense of it. I'm very new to PHP etc and appreciate any guidance.
Right, here's the "code":

<?php


$dbh = mysql_pconnect ("host", "user", "pass") or die ('I cannot connect to the database because: ' . mysql_error());
mysql_select_db ("ironmong_ironmongernews"); 

$dbh = mysql_query("SELECT * FROM news order by date desc LIMIT 5")
		or die("Could not execute SQL query"); 


while ($row = mysql_fetch_array($dbh)) 
{
?>
                <td width="7%" bgcolor="#C0E0FF"> 
                  <div align="center"><a href="news.php?story=<? echo $row["id"]; ?>"><img src="images/interface/topic_move.gif" width="19" height="18" border="0"></a></div>
                </td>
                <td width="66%" bgcolor="#D8E9F3" style="cursor:hand" onMouseOver="this.style.backgroundColor='#C0E0FF'" onMouseOut="this.style.backgroundColor=''" onClick="window.location.href='news.php?story=<? echo $row["id"]; ?>'" class="bodyText"> 
                  <? echo $row["headline"]; ?>
                  <a href="news.php?story=<? echo $row["id"]; ?>">more &gt;&gt;</a></td>
                <td width="15%"  class="bodyText" bgcolor="#D8E9F3" align="center" valign="top" > 
                  <table width="100%" border="0" height="100%" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><? $id=$row["id"]; ?>
 <? $dbd = mysql_query("SELECT news.userid_news, members.* FROM news, members WHERE news.id=$id AND news.userid_news = members.id ")
		or die("Could not execute SQL query"); 
		#loop through all records
while ($rowa = mysql_fetch_array($dbd)) 
{
?>
                    <tr> 
                      <td align="center"  valign="middle" height="20" bgcolor="#D8E9F3" style="cursor:hand" onMouseOver="this.style.backgroundColor='#C0E0FF'" onMouseOut="this.style.backgroundColor=''" onClick="window.location.href='profile.php?pro_id=<? echo $row["userid_news"]; ?>'" class="bodyText"> 
                        <a href="profile.php?pro_id=<? echo $row["userid_news"]; ?>">
                        <? echo $rowa["first_name"]; ?>
                        <? echo $rowa["surname"]; ?>
                        </a> 

                  </td>
                </tr><? } ?>
              </table>

            </td>
            <td width="12%" bgcolor="#C0E0FF" class="bodyText" align="center" valign="middle"> 
              <?php

  $datetime = $row["date"];
  $year = substr($datetime,0,4);
  $mon  = substr($datetime,4,2);
  $day  = substr($datetime,6,2);
  $hour = substr($datetime,8,2);
  $min  = substr($datetime,10,2);
  $sec  = substr($datetime,12,2);
  $orgdate = date("D d/m/y ",mktime($hour,$min,$sec,$mon,$day,$year));
  ?>
                  <? echo $orgdate; ?>
                </td>
              </tr>
                <? } ?>

          <tr> 
            <td background="images/interface/cellpic1.gif" colspan="4">&nbsp;</td>
          </tr>
        </table>
        <a href="all_news.php"><img src="images/interface/more_news.gif" width="82" height="25" vspace="5" border="0"></a><br>
        <table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="1" cellpadding="2" class="table_ridge">
          <tr> 
            <td width="7%" class="subText" height="28" background="images/interface/cellpic3.gif"> 
              <div align="center" class="subText"></div>
            </td>
            <td width="66%" class="subText" height="28" background="images/interface/cellpic3.gif"> 
              <div align="center">Club Notices</div>
            </td>
            <td class="subText" height="28" width="15%" background="images/interface/cellpic3.gif"> 
              <div align="center">Author</div>
            </td>
            <td class="subText" height="28" width="12%" background="images/interface/cellpic3.gif"> 
              <div align="center">Date</div>
            </td>
          </tr>
          <tr> 
            <?php



$dbh = mysql_pconnect ("host", "user", "pass") or die ('I cannot connect to the database because: ' . mysql_error());
mysql_select_db ("ironmong_ironmongernews"); 


$dbh = mysql_query("SELECT * FROM announcements order by date desc LIMIT 3")
		or die("Could not execute SQL query"); 


while ($row = mysql_fetch_array($dbh)) 
{
?>
                <td width="7%" bgcolor="#C0E0FF"> 
                  <div align="center"> <? $id=$row["id"]; ?>
                    <a href="announcements.php?story=<? echo $row["id"]; ?>"><img src="<? switch (($row["priority"]))
						{
						 case red : echo("images/interface/red.gif"); break;
						 case yellow : echo("images/interface/yellow.gif"); break;
						 case green : echo("images/interface/green.gif"); break;
						 default : echo("");
						} 
                ?>" border="0"></a></div>
                </td>
                <td width="66%" bgcolor="#D8E9F3" style="cursor:hand" onMouseOver="this.style.backgroundColor='#C0E0FF'" onMouseOut="this.style.backgroundColor=''" onClick="window.location.href='announcements.php?story=<? echo $row["id"]; ?>'" class="bodyText"> 
                  <? echo $row["subject"]; ?>
                  <a href="announcements.php?story=<? echo $row["id"]; ?>">more &gt;&gt;</a></td>
                <td width="15%" bgcolor="#D8E9F3" class="bodyText" align="center" > 
                  <a href="mailto:<? echo $row["author"]; ?>"> </a>
                  <table width="100%" border="0" height="100%" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0">
                    <?     

$dbc = mysql_query("SELECT announcements.userid_anno, members.* FROM announcements, members WHERE announcements.id=$id AND announcements.userid_anno = members.id ")
		or die("Could not execute SQL query"); 

while ($rowb = mysql_fetch_array($dbc)) 
{
?>
                    <tr> 
                      <td align="center"  valign="middle" height="20" bgcolor="#D8E9F3" style="cursor:hand" onMouseOver="this.style.backgroundColor='#C0E0FF'" onMouseOut="this.style.backgroundColor=''" onClick="window.location.href='profile.php?pro_id=<? echo $row["userid_anno"]; ?>'" class="bodyText"> 
                        <a href="profile.php?pro_id=<? echo $row["userid_anno"]; ?>"> 
                        <? echo $rowb["first_name"]; ?>
                        <? echo $rowb["surname"]; ?>
                        </a> 
                        <? } ?>
                      </td>
                    </tr>
                  </table>
                </td>
                <td width="12%" bgcolor="#C0E0FF" class="bodyText" valign="middle" align="center"> 
                  <?php

  $datetime = $row["date"];
  $year = substr($datetime,0,4);
  $mon  = substr($datetime,4,2);
  $day  = substr($datetime,6,2);
  $hour = substr($datetime,8,2);
  $min  = substr($datetime,10,2);
  $sec  = substr($datetime,12,2);
  $orgdate = date("D d/m/y ",mktime($hour,$min,$sec,$mon,$day,$year));
  ?>
                  <? echo $orgdate; ?>
                </td>
              </tr>
              <? } ?>
              <tr> 
                <td background="images/interface/cellpic1.gif" colspan="4">&nbsp;</td>
              </tr>
            </table>
            <div align="left"> <a href="all_announcements.php"><img src="images/interface/more_anno.gif" width="82" height="25" vspace="5" border="0"></a> 
              <p align="center"><span class="bodyText">&copy;2003 <a href="http://www.greeno76.com/">Jason 
                Green </a></span></p>
            </div>
          </td>
        </tr>
      </table>
    </td>
  </tr>
</table>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
</body>

You hate it, don't you?
I still find it strange that it parses error free on the existing server. Is the newer version of PHP less sensitive to dodgy coding?
Well, many thanks for any input if you've very kindly spent the time browsing it
Jason

sijis

great you posted the code, but could you please tell me what line are you getting the error at?

you say that the error is on line 310, but i copied the provided code, used notepad and i only got ~160 lines of code. I'm missing 150 lines of code 🙂

This way i have a reference point where to search for the parse error.

enjoy.

greeno76

Aargh! The full page code exceeds the character limit. I ran only the exact code as above. The error is now as follows:

Parse error: parse error, unexpected $ in /var/www/html/ironmonger/index2.php on line 184

I've been continuing to debug the code using Magnum but like the commercial server it doesn't throw up this particular error.

Many thanks for your attention on this particular problem.

-Jason

greeno76

I've finally got to the bottom of the problem.

"Short_open_tag" in php.ini

I've now turned it on and the script's working well.

Thanks for your help all the same.

kind regards,

Jason