[Resolved] PHP Cookies. They taste too bitter!!!

Black_Hobbit

Ok, Here's my problem:

  I've got this simple script (see below) and I want to get it to work on my site.

<html>
<title>cookie</title>
<?php 

if (!$myname) { 
    print "What is your name? "; 
    print "<FORM ACTION=\"$PHP_SELF\" METHOD=\"GET\">\n"; 
    print "<INPUT NAME=\"myname\" SIZE=20>\n"; 
    print "</FORM>"; 
    exit; 
} 

setcookie("myname", $myname); 

?>
</html>

I get the following error when I type my name and press "enter":

Warning: Cannot add header information - headers already sent by 
(output started at /home/httpd/vhosts/
mikeandthepurpledragons.org/httpdocuments/myfolder/cookiesarebitter.php:3) in /home/httpd/vhosts/mikeandthepurpledragons.org/
httpdocuments/myfolder/cookiesarebitter.php on line 13

Whats going on?

LordShryku

setcookie is a header function. It needs to be performed before any output is sent to the browser.

AstroTeg

Yeah, you can't have those HTML lines before the <? because they're considered output and then PHP can't send the cookie info in the header since its already sent the headers (that probably doesn't make much sense).

Basically, <? needs to be at the very very top of the page and you can't print anything out until after you issue setcookie().

Now a little trick I learned is you can cheat this by using ob_start() at the very top of your PHP page. This tells PHP to buffer all the output until the page is done. This means you can get all creative with putting our print statements and setcookie() functions and PHP will sort it out when its finished parsing your page.

Pig

Just a word of caution, using output buffering can cause a performance hit. If your page is small, then no big deal. If it is a lot to buffer, you may want to rethink your logic.

dalecosp

Originally posted by Black Hobbit
Ok, Here's my problem:
  I've got this simple script (see below) and I want to get it to work on my site.
SNIP SNAP!
I get the following error when I type my name and press "enter":
DELETED!
Whats going on? [/B]

<?php

function headout() {
        echo "<html>
   <title>Cookies taste good with PHP added!</title>
";
}

if (!$myname) {
    headout();
    print "What is your name? ";
    print "<FORM ACTION=\"$PHP_SELF\" METHOD=\"POST\">\n";
//NB.  the line above breaks script if register_globals=off
    print "<INPUT NAME=\"myname\" SIZE=20>\n";
    print "<INPUT TYPE=submit></FORM>";
    exit;
}

setcookie("myname", $myname);
headout();
echo "<br> Hi, ".$_COOKIE['myname'].", your Cookie is served, bon appetit!";
?>
</html>

Couple of issues here, too, but it should give you a "taste" of how we work to create this recipe....

Black_Hobbit

Ok that works, thanks!