variables

mlppodge

In php i have seen people use the URL to define variables... when i do it using "index.php?page=(page)" it says that variable page is undefined:

PHP Notice: Undefined variable: page in e:\inetpub\wwwroot\index.php on line 10 PHP Warning: main(): Failed opening '' for inclusion (include_path='.;c:\php4\pear') in e:\inetpub\wwwroot\index.php on line 10

i get this when i goto http://64.233.216.75/index.php?page=main.html

in index.php i use:

<?
include "$page";
?>

but when i change the source to:

<?
include "main.html";
?>

it works.

TheDefender

Call it using $_GET['page'] instead of just $page.

Or before you call it, define it:

$page = $_GET['page'];
include "$page";

mlppodge

thank you very much. is that new to php4?

TheDefender

The setting has always been there, but around version 4.0.1?!? (not certain), it has been set to off by default. I recommend you leave it off, and build your code accordingly, due to the security risks posed by having it on.

mlppodge

when i use $_GET['page'] it works and all but it will display an error. is this because it tries to pull from the URL and when you first visit the site it has no values?

PHP Notice: Undefined index: page_main in e:\inetpub\wwwroot\index.php on line 10

that error goes away if i insert the value into the URL but when someone goes to the site those values wont be there. you understand what im trying to say?...

TheDefender

Check to see if it exists and is not an empty variable like page=, and if it does exist and has a value set, then include it, otherwise include some default page... (You will also want to include some error checking to make sure that page exists before you include it).

if(isset($_GET['page']) && $_GET['page'] != ''){
$page = $_GET['page']; 
include "$page";
} else {
include "default.php";
}

mlppodge

thanks again! so does the isset check to see if it is in the URL?

TheDefender

[man]isset()[/man], the way I am using it here, basically looks in the $_GET global array to see if an index called whatever is in it (in this case, page)

mlppodge

when the address has index.php?page_main=login.php it still does not load the page. it kinda skips to the deafault i think... im not sure.

<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/loose.dtd">
<html>
<head>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1">
<title>Untitled Document</title>
</head>

mlppodge

wait... i think i got it... i was not supposed to take out the previous declarations, they were supposed to be there and the isset() was to go with it

TheDefender

Rogue $ sign, and misnamed variable...

Change this:

if(isset($_GET['$page_main']) && $_GET['page_main'] != ''){ 
$page = $_GET['page_main']; 
include "$page_main"; 
} 
else { 
include "main.html"; 
}

to this:

if(isset($_GET['page_main']) && $_GET['page_main'] != ''){ 
$page_main = $_GET['page_main']; 
include "$page_main"; 
} 
else { 
include "main.html"; 
}

mlppodge

could i set any of those so it does not need to be in the url to be passed page to page?

TheDefender

Sure, just declare the variable...

$default_page = "default.php";
$contact_page = "contact.php";
$home_page = "index.php";

If you don't want to declare them every page, then you need to look in the php manual at session handling functions.