input form :: php to mysql :: possible var problem

[shoshumi]

Hey guys & gals!

First post here.

I'm just starting out with php and I wrote this script myself so go easy on me.

I think this may be a variable problem since I'm using >php4 but I'm not sure how to fix it.

I get a blank page. yikes!

Any help would be appreciated 🙂

here is the code:

<?php require_once('conn.php'); ?>
<?php 
if ($submit) { 
//get date
$mydate = date('Ymd');
//input
mysql_select_db($database, $conn);
$query = "INSERT INTO mylog (date, blogtext) VALUES ('$mydate', '$btext')";
$rsconn = mysql_query($query, $conn) or die(mysql_error());
echo "Thank you! Information Entered"

} else{ 
?>
<b>Add text</b> 
<form name="input" method="post" action="<?php echo $_SERVER['PHP_SELF']; ?>"> 
 text:<br> 
<textarea name="btext"></textarea> 
<input type="submit" name="Submit" value="Submit"> 
</form> 

<?php 
}
?>

cheers,

nigel:rolleyes: 🙂

[shoshumi]

guess I'm too much of a newbie 🙁

I'll jsut keep at it and if I find the solution I will post it here for others

[EricC]

Well this isn't the most optimal bit of code but here's something to get you maybe heading in the right direction (that's a big maybe since I'm not a PHP guru or anything 😉 )

<?php
extract($_POST);
if ($action == "1")  {
   $mydate = date('Ymd');
   echo $mydate." <br>";
   echo $btext." <br>";
} else {
?>
<b>Add text</b>
<form name="input" method="post" action="<?php echo $_SERVER['PHP_SELF']; ?>">
text:<br>
<textarea name="btext"></textarea>
<input type="submit" name="Submit" value="Submit">
<input type=hidden name="action" value="1">
</form>
<?
}
?>

[shoshumi]

Thanks EricC

But this piece of code doesn't seem to work for me and I'm not sure what you were tying to do for me anyway.

If you have a sec could you explain it, if not thanks for replying anyway,

cheers,

nigel

[EricC]

What I was trying to demonstrate is your if condition wasn't working. So I added a hidden input inside your form named action, and changed your if statement to check if action is set at 1. Also I added extract() command make working with the variables being POSTed easier. I also removed your database code just to hopefully make it easier to follow. You'll need to re-add your conn.php file as well.

Good luck.

[shoshumi]

Thanks

I understand know, but your code (on it's own) doesn't work for me. I get a blank page.

[m_tt]

Not sure what the question is here.. this might help you, in one way or another : )

	$output = "";

if (isset($HTTP_POST_VARS['process']))	{
	//	Form Submitted
	require_once("conn.php");

	$curDate = date("Ymd");

	mysql_select_db($database, $conn)or die(mysql_error());

		$query = "INSERT INTO mylog (`date`,`blogtext`) VALUES ('" . $curDate . "','" . addslashes($HTTP_POST_VARS['btext']) . "')";
		$qwery = mysql_query($query,$conn)or die(mysql_error());

	$output .= "Thank You! Information Entered";

} else {
	//	Output Form
	$output = '
	<b>Add Text</b>
	<form name="input" method="POST" action="' . $HTTP_SERVER_VARS['PHP_SELF'] . '">
	Text:<br>
	<textarea name="btext"></textarea>
	<input type="submit" name="Submit" value="Submit">
	</form>
	';
}

echo $output;

[m_tt]

forgot one thing.. on the form add this field:

<input type="hidden" name="process" value="true">

[shoshumi]

Hey M@TT,

Wow, thanks for your time. It's appreciated muchly I must say. After reading through some other posts I'm starting to like this php community.

Unfortunately M@tt, I can't get this script to work either. 🙁

I guess I'm an ediot when it comes to php. well... it's only been 3 days into learning it so far so I can't be that hard on myself.

All I'm trying to do is to create a simple form that inputs text into a database I have set up. I can retrieve information form the database, but now I want to input via php/html form but with no luck so far. I keep getting those damn blank pages or the form just won't proceess anything.

jeesh, well back to the drawing board - futher reading is required 😉

thanks again for your time, if you know of anything that might be going wrong or another proven way of doing this, please let me know.

cheers,

nigel

[shoshumi]

Thanks for everyones help!

I have found the answer at the very start
of my code:

 if($submit)  { 

should be:

if($_POST["submit"])  { 

as I'm using PHP 4.3.2 and global variables are turned off.
Here is the whole code (my first working code!- yeah for me) Hope this helps someone.

<?php 
if($_POST["submit"])  { 
//get date
$mydate = date ("Ymd");
$formtext = $_POST["btext"];
require('conn.php'); 
mysql_select_db($database, $conn);
$query = "INSERT INTO mylog (`date`,`blogtext`) VALUES ('$mydate','$formtext')";
$rsconn = mysql_query($query, $conn) or die(mysql_error());
echo "Database Updated"; 

}else{ 
?>

<b>text</b> 
<form name="input" method="post" action="<?php $PHP_SELF ?>"> 
 text:<br> 
<textarea name="btext"></textarea> 
<input type="submit" name="submit" value="submit"> 
</form>


<?php
};
?>

any thoughts on cleaning it up?

cheers,

nigel

[laserlight]

Well, an indented version would be:

<?php 
if (!empty($_POST["submit"])) { 
	//get date
	$mydate = date("Ymd");
	$formtext = $_POST["btext"];
	require('conn.php'); 
	mysql_select_db($database, $conn);
	$query = "INSERT INTO mylog (`date`,`blogtext`) VALUES ('$mydate','$formtext')";
	$rsconn = mysql_query($query, $conn) or die(mysql_error());
	echo "Database Updated"; 
} else {
?>

<b>text</b>
<form name="input" method="post" action="<?php echo $_SERVER['PHP_SELF']; ?>">
text:<br>
<textarea name="btext"></textarea>
<input type="submit" name="submit" value="submit">
</form>

<?php
}
?>

I edited it slightly to use empty(), since $_POST['submit'] is not defined when the user first enters the page.

Also, I changed
<?php $PHP_SELF; ?>
to
<?php echo $_SERVER['PHP_SELF']; ?>

[shoshumi]

hello lazerlight!

I guess I should indent and follow proper coding structure. me so bad.

I like your improvements, but I'm not sure of how they are improving the code as I'm fairly new to PHP. :rolleyes:

I will have to search the manual for empty() and _$server[] and do some reading.

Thank you for your post! 🙂
&
nice site!

nigel

[shoshumi]

Hi Lazerlight,

I have been trying out your code and have just been getting blanks pages. Do you know of any possible reason for this?

cheers,

nigel