problem with blank variables

evilphantom

I am really puzzled with this one. I don't know if this is something new with this version of PHP but here goes.

First off here are my versions:

Linux -- 2.4.20-30.9
Apache -- 1.3.29
PHP -- 4.3.6

When I go to a page that is looking for vairables that don't exist yet I get an error

Notice: Undefined variable: username in /home/web/work_related/ftplogin/login.php on line 44

I checked to make sure and Register globals is on. I have tried using $_POST and I get another error:

Notice: Undefined index: username in /home/web/work_related/ftplogin/login.php on line 2

Any Ideas

Thanks for the Help

Dez

tekky

Not the state the blatantly obvious...

but errors without code are rather useless in troubleshooting...

evilphantom

Alright but I should have mentioned that the code works perfectly fine on other servers. I have also had problems passing variables to other pages.

Simple

echo $variablename;

I get an error for this when no data is in the variable name.

Also

if (empty($username)){
$err_u="<font color=\"#FF0000\"> <strong>Username is a required field</strong> </font>";
}

Produces the same error

Notice: Undefined variable: <variable Name> in <filename> on line <num>

Dez

rachel2004

Originally posted by evilphantom
Alright but I should have mentioned that the code works perfectly fine on other servers.

If the code works fine on other servers, what process of elimination have you conducted to pinpiont the difference in Server A and Server B, especially where the php.ini file is concerned?

Additionally, it is safer to run your PHP server with register_globals = OFF.

After you've turned it off, look at this to get an idea of how to work with passing variables:

www.php.net/variables.predefined

tekky

Originally posted by rachel2004
If the code works fine on other servers, what process of elimination have you conducted to pinpiont the difference in Server A and Server B, especially where the php.ini file is concerned?

Additionally, it is safer to run your PHP server with register_globals = OFF.

After you've turned it off, look at this to get an idea of how to work with passing variables:

www.php.net/variables.predefined

also what method are you using of passing variables to other pages?

if POST then use

echo '<pre>'.print_r($_POST).'</pre>';

to see if your POST data is making it... if not, I would have to blame the WWW server.... as its not handling the request properly would be my guess...

drawmack

You should get a warning error if you're accessing variables that have not been defined that's what http://www.php.net/isset was created.

evilphantom

Thanks for the quick replies...

The isset() function doesn't work either. Actually anything with variables fail unless I use cookies.

I am leaning towards it being an Apache problem now... POST and GET seem to both fail in passing variables and since I copied php.ini over to my local server for testing and it failed I will have to assume that that is my problem.

I will post when I figure out the problem.

rachel2004

Before you dig too deep into Apache and spend your weekend hating PHP/Apache/programming...

Is your Apache web server serving pages? Yes, okay, Apache is working.
Have you tested that Apache is serving PHP pages? If you haven't, here is a basic test:

create a file and save as phpinfo.php in what ever directory is your htdocs directory for Apache. In that file, put only the following content:

<?php phpinfo(); ?>

Can you view that page in a browser and see all of your PHP settings? If yes, good Apache is parsing PHP pages.

If you've made it this far, good. Now you are a point of troubleshooting the php.ini. Did you create a backup of your originial php.ini before you copied one from another PHP server? If yes, use that original.

Open it up and look for register_globals and if it isn't already set to OFF, change it to OFF.

Okay, if you get through all of that, post again and we'll start on debugging your code. tekky and drawmack already gave good advice to troubleshoot so don't be so quick to dismiss it in favor of ripping apart your Apache. Maybe what I've written looks like a lot of work, but since I have no idea of how you built your web server or configured it with PHP, I can only suggest some basics. Again, if you answer yes to everything suggested in my post, then we should be back at square one with this thread which is debugging the code. And yes, you'll need to post some code if you want someone to look at it in order to QUICKLY help you. So far, I have not seen a lot of successes with remote troubleshooting by playing 20 questions.

evilphantom

Yes... Yes... And Yes...

Yeah I went back and started from scratch just to be 100% that everything was ok.

As I mentioned in my first post I checked register Globals. and it is indeed on.

PHP and Apache are working.

However I may have inadvertantly disabled something in my apache configuration that I forgot.

It shouldn't be a code problem. I have eliminated that. And PHP seems to be working fine. (I got my phpinfo and used it to try and determine the problem)

I am almost convinced that the problem is to do with my Apache config. I will most likely recompile and see if that fixes the problem

Thanks though