php language function

[wildmalc]

Should be easy but its driving me up the wall!, I'm exPerl and spent a view days on PHP&MySQL, seems v.cool. However i'm making some basic error and cant spot it.

This function is supposed to take a text string and ISO country value and then do a DB look up to find the string match for the specified language.

If I run the script on its own uncommenting the usage example its fine.
However if i nest the db call in the function it fails and if I remove the db call from the function it obviously cant pass the variables into the query !!

Anyone got ideas? - feel free to use and improve !

##########################
# Language Function 1.0.0
##########################
# Purpose:
# send in a piece of text and an iso country code
# and the function will attempt to match within
# the database list of predetermind values. If 
# a value is not present then the original text
# will be used instead
##########################
# DB Schema required:
# As an example this SQL would work
#
#	create database if not exists `dev`;
#	use `dev`;
#
#	drop table if exists `lang`;
#	CREATE TABLE `lang` (
#  		`id` int(8) NOT NULL auto_increment,
#  		`status` int(1) default '1',
#  		`isovalue` varchar(5) default NULL,
#  		`characterset` varchar(255) default NULL,
#  		`language` varchar(10) NOT NULL default 'english',
#  		`original_text` varchar(255) NOT NULL default '0',
#  		`new_text` varchar(255) NOT NULL default '0',
#  		PRIMARY KEY  (`id`),
#  		UNIQUE KEY `id` (`id`)
# 		) TYPE=MyISAM;
##########################
# Usage:
# Language("Welcome","de");
##########################


function Language($originaltext,$isocountrycode)
{
if ($originaltext == "")
				{
				$originaltext = "ERROR: function Language - no text supplied";
				}
				else
				{
				$originaltext = $originaltext;
				}

if ($isocountrycode == "")
				{
				$isocountrycode = "en";
				}
				else
				{
				$isocountrycode = $isocountrycode;
				}

#do DB call
mysql_select_db($database_localhost, $localhost);
$query_getNewTextbyLanguage = "SELECT lang.new_text FROM lang WHERE lang.original_text = '$originaltext' AND lang.isovalue = '$isocountrycode'";
$getNewTextbyLanguage = mysql_query($query_getNewTextbyLanguage, $localhost) or die(mysql_error());
$row_getNewTextbyLanguage = mysql_fetch_assoc($getNewTextbyLanguage);
$totalRows_getNewTextbyLanguage = mysql_num_rows($getNewTextbyLanguage);
#end DB call

#echo $query_getNewTextbyLanguage;

#if no values match use the original text anyway
if ($row_getNewTextbyLanguage['new_text'] == "")
				{
				echo $originaltext;
				}
				else
				{
				echo $row_getNewTextbyLanguage['new_text'];
				}
}
#now closed at base of page
#mysql_free_result($getNewTextbyLanguage);

[dalecosp]

Hey, welcome to PHPBuilder! It's good to see a well-constructed question and nice clean code that been formatted with the PHP tags!

Comments inline - keep in mind that a lot of posts doesn't necessarily mean I'm a genius...

########################## 
# Usage: 
# Language("Welcome","de"); 
########################## 


function Language($originaltext,$isocountrycode) 
{ 
if ($originaltext == "") { 
                $originaltext = "ERROR: function Language - no text supplied"; 
}

if ($isocountrycode == "") { 
                $isocountrycode = "en"; 
}

// not necessary -- if it's not null, it's still $originaltext or $isocountrycode

#do DB call 
//where's the connection?  ref. mysql_connect()
mysql_select_db($database_localhost, $localhost); 
//IF REGISTER GLOBALS are "off", where do these values come from?
$query_getNewTextbyLanguage = "SELECT lang.new_text FROM lang WHERE lang.original_text = '$originaltext' AND lang.isovalue = '$isocountrycode'"; 
$getNewTextbyLanguage = mysql_query($query_getNewTextbyLanguage, $localhost) or die(mysql_error()); 
$row_getNewTextbyLanguage = mysql_fetch_assoc($getNewTextbyLanguage); 
$totalRows_getNewTextbyLanguage = mysql_num_rows($getNewTextbyLanguage); 
#end DB call 

#echo $query_getNewTextbyLanguage; 

#if no values match use the original text anyway 
if ($row_getNewTextbyLanguage['new_text'] == "") 
                { 
                echo $originaltext; 
                } 
                else 
                { 
                echo $row_getNewTextbyLanguage['new_text']; 
                } 
} 
#now closed at base of page 
#mysql_free_result($getNewTextbyLanguage);

And then, lastly, how are you calling the function? The mention of "when I uncomment the Usage block" has me a bit confused...

🙂

[wildmalc]

Ok its a little tidier but the same core error still occurs.

In answer to your question the DB call is in an include elsewhere in the script that looks like this

<?php
# FileName="Connection_php_mysql.htm"
# Type="MYSQL"
# HTTP="true"
$hostname_localhost = "localhost";
$database_localhost = "dev";
$username_localhost = "root";
$password_localhost = "password";
$localhost = mysql_pconnect($hostname_localhost, $username_localhost, $password_localhost) or die(mysql_error());
?>

I call the function directly by placing

Language("OriginalTextHere","newisovaluehere")

This should do a lookup in my language table to try to find the match for the original text (in english) and the new text. E.g.

Language("Welcome","de")

should return Willkommen
Because my lang table contains a row with the following info
|iso|originaltext|newtext
|de|Welcome|Willkommen

However I get an error response
"Warning: Supplied argument is not a valid MySQL-Link resource in path/to/file..." on these two lines:
mysql_select_db($database_localhost, $localhost);

and
$getNewTextbyLanguage = mysql_query($query_getNewTextbyLanguage, $localhost) or die(mysql_error());

But I cant see where the issue is as the db code only fails when placed inside the function. When placed outside the function its fine, but obviously the function wont work as it needs to be able to dynamically look up words/phrases on a regular basis as it parse out a page

Any more ideas ???

[laserlight]

ah.

I suspect that $localhost is not defined outside of the function.

i.e. you need to give it a global scope.

[dalecosp]

Scope, indeed. But, Laserlight, don't you mean inside the function?

wildmalc, read a bit on global scope in the manual. Basically, you have about 3 options.

1. Feed the value for every variable you wish to use in the function as a function argument:

   function Language($originaltext, $isocountrycode, $database_name, $localhost) //etc., etc.

   2. declare the variables global within the function:

   function Language($originaltext, $isocountrycode) {
      global $database_name;
      global $localhost;
      // etc., etc.

   3. Use the $_GLOBALS superglobal array:

   $GLOBALS['hostname_localhost'] = "localhost"; 
   $GLOBALS['database_localhost'] = "dev"; 
   $GLOBALS['username_localhost'] = "root"; 
   $GLOBALS['password_localhost'] = "password"; 
   
   // then, in the function itself:
   
   function Language($originaltext,$isocountrycode)  
   
   {  
   
   if ($originaltext == "") {  
   
                   $originaltext = "ERROR: function Language - no text supplied";  
   
   } 
   
   if ($isocountrycode == "") {  
   
                   $isocountrycode = "en";  
   
   } 
   
   #do DB call 
   mysql_select_db($GLOBALS['database_localhost'], $GLOBALS['localhost']);  
   
   $query_getNewTextbyLanguage = "SELECT lang.new_text FROM lang WHERE lang.original_text = '$originaltext' AND lang.isovalue = '$isocountrycode'";  
   
   $getNewTextbyLanguage = mysql_query($query_getNewTextbyLanguage, $localhost) or die(mysql_error());  
   
   $row_getNewTextbyLanguage = mysql_fetch_assoc($getNewTextbyLanguage);  
   
   $totalRows_getNewTextbyLanguage = mysql_num_rows($getNewTextbyLanguage);  
   
   #end DB call 

   I think that's what I was talking about when I asked "where do these values come from"....
   
   HTH,

[laserlight]

well, inside or outside depends on which function.

I didnt read the code entirely so I dont know.

[wildmalc]

Thanks for the 3 options, tried them but the original issue persits, its seems that the values are being collected correctly regardless of being declared in global variables or page specific variables (via my dbopen.php include).

Either way the function dies complaining "...Supplied argument is not a valid MySQL-Link..." But as soon as I run the same code outside the function it runs fine, but with default values from the DB script part. So the function further down my page never make the DB call, the page spits out the output from the script part, The DB is just running as PHP parse the page.

I reckon its down to a poor design of the original function so if any of you have a smarter way of achieving the same result let me know.