my variables do not work on all servers

adrianTNT

Hello, I am new to PHP, i have this code for a rating system but the code do not work on all servers after i uplod the files, some host told me that it is because variables in code are local vars and they need to be global to vork on other php hosts.

What should I add/change ?

Here is the code:

<?php

//this is the same code we used in average.php to get the values of votes and score
$filename = 'votes.txt';
$fp = fopen($filename, "r");
$votes = fread($fp, filesize($filename));
fclose($fp);

$filename = 'score.txt';
$fp = fopen($filename, "r");
$score = fread($fp, filesize($filename));
fclose($fp);

//Up votes by one and add the user's choice to the score

$votes++;

$score = $score + $choice;

$filename = 'votes.txt';
$fp = fopen($filename, "w");
fwrite($fp, "$votes");
fclose($fp);

$filename = 'score.txt';
$fp = fopen($filename, "w");
fwrite($fp, "$score");
fclose($fp);

?>

Thanks, bye.

TheDefender

Your host is probably referring to the Register Globals setting, but I don't see anything in your code where that applies, since you are defining all of your variables within this script snippet... Is that all there is?

What they mean is if you use a form to post or get variables, then you should call them out of the respective arrays. $GET['variable'] or $POST['variable']... It looks as though you are simply openeing a file, upping a counter in it, and closing the file.

I would think there is more code to go along with this, since the script would need some identifier or something maybe? If there's more code, post it.

tommynanda

I guess variable $choice should be used as "The Defender" said
$choice = $POST['choice']; or $choice = $POST['choice'];
POST or GET depends on wat u are using in ur HTML form where user votes.

Good Luck
TommYNandA

TheDefender

$choice = $POST['choice']; or $choice = $GET['choice'];

(Dang copy and paste typos ;-) Thanks for the followup tommynanda 😉)

adrianTNT

I still have to read the first replys i got from you but i wated to add this too:
The variables are send to php pages by flash, i think is the same as comming from a web page. Something like:

www.my_page.com/page.php?my_var=my_value

this is the code for teh page that returns the average for the rating reading from the 2 text files (total score and no of votes):

<?php

//this is the same code we used in average.php to get the values of votes and score
$filename = 'votes.txt';
$fp = fopen($filename, "r");
$votes = fread($fp, filesize($filename));
fclose($fp);

$filename = 'score.txt';
$fp = fopen($filename, "r");
$score = fread($fp, filesize($filename));
fclose($fp);

//Average the score

$average = $score/$votes;

//tell the user what the new average is

//echo("&averageText=Your vote changed the average of this movie to $average");
echo("&averageText=$average");

?>

The code works on 1 of 3 servers.
For the FIRST part of the script i think ony one of the 2 text files can be updated by that code.
Where is the problem?

TheDefender

The question is: How are the variables being used by this page? The code you provided here doesn't use any variables from the URL... Everything in the code you provided is defined within the code, so the URL doesn't matter... Is there more code to this page?

adrianTNT

No, that is all the code, there are some flash files that send the variables to the code but for the php scripts taking those variables from flash is like taking them from the URL.
All what flash files do is send a variable value that can be from 1 to 5 (the rating)
And the second flash file is the one that loads the variables from the second script i posted so the resoult of voting can be displayed in the swf flash file, all the important things are inside the php script, swf are not doing much.

Thanks.
Adrian.

TheDefender

OK, so let's look at the code piece by piece to see what is happening...

<?php 
/* Open the votes.txt file and read the current number of votes.  Load that into a variable ($votes) and close the file. */
$filename = 'votes.txt'; 
$fp = fopen($filename, "r"); 
$votes = fread($fp, filesize($filename)); 
fclose($fp); 


/* Open the score.txt file and read the current score.  Load that into a variable ($score) and close the file */
$filename = 'score.txt'; 
$fp = fopen($filename, "r"); 
$score = fread($fp, filesize($filename)); 
fclose($fp); 


/* Create an average of the scores to votes using the above created variables and load that into a variable ($average) */
$average = $score/$votes; 



/* Echo the $average variable to the user */
//echo("&averageText=Your vote changed the average of this movie to $average"); 
echo("&averageText=$average"); 

?>

There is absolutely nothing in this script that you have here that uses a variable from the URL, so the Register Globals setting wouldn't affect this script in any way.

Now, in the original script:

<?php 

//this is the same code we used in average.php to get the values of votes and score 
$filename = 'votes.txt'; 
$fp = fopen($filename, "r"); 
$votes = fread($fp, filesize($filename)); 
fclose($fp); 

$filename = 'score.txt'; 
$fp = fopen($filename, "r"); 
$score = fread($fp, filesize($filename)); 
fclose($fp); 

//Up votes by one and add the user's choice to the score 

$votes++; 

$score = $score + $choice; 

$filename = 'votes.txt'; 
$fp = fopen($filename, "w"); 
fwrite($fp, "$votes"); 
fclose($fp); 

$filename = 'score.txt'; 
$fp = fopen($filename, "w"); 
fwrite($fp, "$score"); 
fclose($fp); 

?>

It's pretty much the same thing, except you reference a $choice variable that isn't accounted for in the script, so is that what is being passed by the variable? If so, then change this:

$score = $score + $choice;

to this:

$score = $score + $_GET['choice'];

and see if that works better for you.