My code refuses to work

[Silentwolf]

This is the first post I've made on these forums and I was hoping that someone here could tell me why my code just doesn't work. I'm a complete newbie to PHP, so I'm really not sure...

Here is the code:

<?php $den = ""; if ($den == "") { include "index.htm"; } else { include "$page.htm"; } ?>

Now this handy little code is meant to be a page handler. It is located in my home page (Code.php) in a table Header, where I want my content to load.

My content is arranged into .htm pages and my problem is that although the script runs the initial content (index.htm) correctly, it will not load any other pages of content, regardless of which link I click on my Navigation Bar which is loaded in Code.php.

The reason I want this script is so that I click on any link on my nav bar and it only has to reload the content (Thus I only need to write out my nav bar once, in Code.php)

Now as far as I understand, my script declares a variable ($den) and assigns it an empty value, which means it will load index.htm as content. This part seems to work fine. It then declares an else statement that loads the variable $page.htm if $den is anything apart from blank. This is where something goes wrong.

The links on my nav bar are all relative and lead to:

Code.php?den=pagename

and as far as I know, that should load pagename (.htm as stated in the variable $page, I shouldn't need to write .htm again here) into the variable $den of Code.php.

Only it doesn't :mad:

Can anyone help me? and did I make my problem clear enough? 😕

[yelvington]

Of course your code won't load anything else. There are two problems. One is a logic problem. The other is that you need to know the right way to refer to external variables.

First, the logic problem:

<?php $den = ""; 
if ($den == "")
       { include "index.htm"; } 
else 
       { include "$page.htm"; } ?> 

$den will always be "" because you have set it to that value. Don't initialize it.

Second, the right way to refer to variables passed in the GET string is $_GET['den'].

if (isset($_GET['den']))
    include("$_GET['den'].htm" )
else
    include('index.htm');

For the sake of security you actually should strip any leading dots and slashes from the GET variable before using it, so the code cannot be used to fetch arbitrary pages for other places in your filesystem.

I'll leave that up to you.

[TheDefender]

if (isset($_GET['den'])) 
    include("$_GET['den'].htm" );
else 
    include('index.htm');

Need trailing semi-colon on the include within your IF condition...

[Silentwolf]

I have another problem... I replaced my old php code with the new

<?php if (isset($_GET['den']))  

    include("$_GET['den'].htm" ); 
else  

    include('index.htm'); ?>

and now recieve a parse error:

Parse error: parse error, unexpected T_ENCAPSED_AND_WHITESPACE, expecting T_STRING or T_VARIABLE or T_NUM_STRING in /home2/www/html/silentwolf/Code.php on line 234

does this make any sense?

[Shrike]

Also ensure that the file being requested does actually live on your system.

include($_SERVER['DOCUMENT_ROOT']."/myincludedocs/".$_GET['den'].".htm" );

Otherwise people can load files from a random evil server and [EVILLAUGH]h4x0r y0r b0x3n[/EVILLAUGH]

p.s. don't put array references inside of quotes

[Silentwolf]

I've applied my code but I still get a parse error with it, there is something wrong with it 🙁

[TheDefender]

Based on the last code you posted, you need to make changes according to shrike's p.s.

<?php 
if (isset($_GET['den']))   

    include("".$_GET['den'].".htm");  

else   

    include('index.htm');
?> 

[Silentwolf]

Thanks guys! It seems to be working fine now 😃 🙂

[TheDefender]

You're welcome. Be sure to mark this thread resolved, and have a nice day.