Unserializing of long strings in an array

ealderton

Hi and help!

I've found that unserialize is not working on serialized values. Here's the mess!

$scshort is an array of strings up to 255 in length

That works, hiddenscshort value is the array, no problem so far

But:

$scshort = unserialize(stripslashes($hiddenscshort));

Produces a null value.

I have other string arrays, with shorter string lengths though, that are working fine on exactly the same basis.

Any ideas for me?

Thanks very much

Elizabeth

diego25

Are you using GET or POST? Use POST, 'cause there is a limit on the length of the query string, and your serialize string may be too long for the query string.

Diego

ealderton

The form method is:

then the hiddenfield gets the value of the array as follows:

then each time the form is posted the value

$scshort = unserialize(stripslashes($hiddenscshort));

is taken out of the hidden field

(I have other arrays of shorter strings that work absolutely fine, so it is definitely something to do with the length - but I'm not sure how to rectify it!)

Regards

Elizabeth

diego25

I would suggest you store the serialized string of the array in one file (before it goes to the hidden field), and then store the serialized string after the form has been submitted. Then compare the files, see what the differences are.

Diego

ealderton

Hi Diego

Right, here goes!

Value of $hiddenshort, as put into the hidden field within the Form part of the html

          Value of hiddenscschort before form is posteda:11:{i:0;s:223:\"An excellent base for touring County Clare, close to local beaches and surrounded by open farmland. Situated in its own attractive gardens approximately 1 mile from the town of Miltown Melbay on the west coast of Co. Clare\";i:1;s:254:\"Charming, restored stone cottage overlooking glorious countryside half a mile from the scenic riverside village of Clonegal. An excellent base for exploring the counties of Wicklow, Wexford, Carlow and Kilkenny or for local fishing and historical sites.\";i:2;s:225:\"The cottage and apartments are set on the waters edge of Inniscarra Lake where thousands of acres of coarse fishing can be fished just steps from your front door. Beauty and history is all around and every drive is a delight \";i:3;s:246:\"Located adjacent to the owners residence on private landscaped gardens of approximately 3.5 acres near Dungarvan - famous for its traditional music and beaches. Keen golfers will find 3 golf courses nearby as well as beaches and mountain walks. \";i:4;s:191:\"A pretty stone cottage, built in the traditional style, surrounded by mountains and overlooking Loch Na Fooey. An ideal location for fishing, hill walking, or just a quiet relaxing holiday,\";i:5;s:247:\"Situated between the town of Tipperary and the beautiful Glen of Aherlow and surrounded by fields with panoramic forest and mountain views. A great location for those who love walking, fishing or golf and the tranquility of the Irish countryside\";i:6;s:212:\"Cottage overlooking North Bay on Cape Clear Island with panoramic sea views. A wonderful place for the bird-watching or traditional music enthusiast - and for walking and exploring the romantic, unspoilt island.\";i:7;s:224:\"Located on a small lane which leads directly onto Bleantasour Mountain. The area is famous for its traditional music and you can walk directly from the cottage across to the famous Nire Valley or onto the Comeragh mountains.\";i:8;s:244:\"On a landscaped site overlooking beautiful Lough Derg. Just1 km from Garrykennedy Harbour which is a small peaceful, rural village where you can easily fish from the shoreside and enjoy traditional Irish music in the local pubs in the evenings.\";i:9;s:220:\"Exquisitely restored to make 3 apartments in the village centre. An ideal location for visiting the North West, with its stunning scenery, beautiful beaches, ancient sites and world famous fishing on the local loughs. \";i:10;s:154:\"Part of a period house in a secluded location, with scenic views over the sea from all rooms. This is a perfect place to unwind in peace and tranquility.\";}

Then, value of $hiddenshort, after the form is posted:

a:11:{i:0;s:223:\"An excellent base for touring County Clare, close to local beaches and surrounded by open farmland. Situated in its own attractive gardens approximately 1 mile from the town of Miltown Melbay on the west coast of Co. Clare\";i:1;s:254:\"Charming, restored stone cottage overlooking glorious countryside half a mile from the scenic riverside village of Clonegal. An excellent base for exploring the counties of Wicklow, Wexford, Carlow and Kilkenny or for local fishing and historical sites.\";i:2;s:225:\"The cottage and apartments are set on the waters edge of Inniscarra Lake where thousands of acres of coarse fishing can be fished just steps from your front door. Beauty and history is all around and every drive is a delight \";i:3;s:246:\"Located adjacent to the owners residence on private landscaped gardens of approximately 3.5 acres near Dungarvan - famous for its traditional music and beaches. Keen golfers will find 3 golf courses nearby as well as beaches and mountain walks. \";i:4;s:191:\"A pretty stone cottage, built in the traditional style, surrounded by mountains and overlooking Loch Na Fooey. An ideal location for fishing, hill walking, or just a quiet relaxing holiday,\";i:5;s:247:\"Situated between the town of Tipperary and the beautiful Glen of Aherlow and surrounded by fields with panoramic forest and mountain views. A great location for those who love walking, fishing or golf and the tranquility of the Irish countryside\";i:6;s:212:\"Cottage overlooking North Bay on Cape Clear Island with panoramic sea views. A wonderful place for the bird-watching or traditional music enthusiast - and for walking and exploring the romantic, unspoilt island.\";i:7;s:224:\"Located on a small lane which leads directly onto Bleantasour Mountain. The area is famous for its traditional music and you can walk directly from the cottage across to the famous Nire Valley or onto the Comeragh mountains.\";i:8;s:244:\"On a landscaped site overlooking beautiful Lough Derg. Just1 km from Garrykennedy Harbour which is a small peaceful, rural village where you can easily fish from the shoreside and enjoy traditional Irish music in the local pubs in the evenings.\";i:9;s:220:\"Exquisitely restored to make 3 apartments in the village centre. An ideal location for visiting the North West, with its stunning scenery, beautiful beaches, ancient sites and world famous fishing on the local loughs. \";i:10;s:154:\"Part of a period house in a secluded location, with scenic views over the sea from all rooms. This is a perfect place to unwind in peace and tranquility.\";}

Then value of $scshort (unserialized version of above)

Null

For comparison, we have $hiddensclogo and $sclogo

$hiddensclogo after form posted:

a:11:{i:0;s:24:\"scmiltownmelbay/logo.jpg\";i:1;s:21:\"scpennybrook/logo.jpg\";i:2;s:18:\"scleeview/logo.jpg\";i:3;s:20:\"scwildgeese/logo.jpg\";i:4;s:22:\"sclochnafooey/logo.jpg\";i:5;s:25:\"sctippmaplelodge/logo.jpg\";i:6;s:20:\"sctighnoini/logo.jpg\";i:7;s:19:\"scbleantis/logo.jpg\";i:8;s:23:\"sctipplakeview/logo.jpg\";i:9;s:18:\"scpettigo/logo.jpg\";i:10;s:29:\"sckinsaleharbourhill/logo.jpg\";}

$sclogo (unserialized version of above)

I don't seem to have any problem storing the serialized values, but when it comes to unserializing them it seems to give up on me.

The thing is working on the internet as

http://www.stayindependently.com/index1.htm - click on view properties, and then view more properties.

What we are doing is displaying 10 properties per page with a forward and back option but maintaining the order in which they were originally displayed. This is a random order and changes each time someone does the first search, but then we want to keep the order while they look around the properities. This value of the short description is the only fly in the ointment!

thanks again!

Regards

Elizabeth

Weedpacket

...and don't forget to put quotes around your attribute values so that spaces in the values don't mess things up, and use htmlspecialchars() so that characters like <, >, &, and " don't mess things up as well.

value="<?php echo htmlspecialchars(serialize(...))?>"

But what I'd really like to know is; why are you getting the server to put all this information into the browser, just to have the browser send it back again? It doesn't look like something the server is likely to forget in the meantime. If you're using a database to store this information, you can send just something that will identify the appropriate row in the database, and fetch it from there again. Since you're wanting to retain the order, just a single array of these row identifiers would be sufficient to show which entries are being displayed in what order.

You may also want to consider using session variables (or at least, you would, except you appear to still be running PHP 3, which doesn't have native support for sessioning).

ealderton

Well, the reason for it is:

SELECT *, MD5( RAND( NOW( ) ) ) AS myRandom
FROM SELFCATERING ORDER BY myRandom

I do all the bits to randomized it properly and that's fine.

But, then, if we have more than 10 properities we want people to scroll back and forward, but without requering the database so that the random order is maintained. The only way I could think of doing it at the time was to have an array for each field in the database that I needed, and then show them in the correct order

Now, a way round my problem with the long strings would be to put only the ID of the record into an array, and requery the database for each record that I displayed. Mmmm - it would work I think, but might it be a bit slow???? We'll ultimately only be displaying around 50 properties, max, at any one time.

I've tried:

input type=hidden name=hiddenscshort value=<?php echo "'".htmlspecialchars(serialize($scshort))."'" ?>>

but, no better still producing null when it's unserialized.

Regards

Elizabeth