ARRRGH! Bloody CODE!

dougyitbos

Ok hope some of the gurus here can help.

I THINK what I'm seeing is a scope problem.

When I include "File A" into my main page it works just fine.

When I include "File B" which reads from the database the path to file "A" and then includes it right then and there on "File B"... certain variables seem to be lost.

This is driving me nuts.

For those wanting a more in depth description:

---- BEGIN RANT ----

I installed phpBB.
I have code included on my main page (outside of the forum) to check if the user is currently logged into the forum.
If they are I say welcome back... if they aren't I give them a link to go login.
Brilliant I know...

Anyway here's the weird part:

If I include the php file (with the bit of code that checks for logged in status and gives them link if they aren't) it works just fine.
(inside and outside of the forum itself)

But if I instead include a php file that hits the database... grabs the path and file name of the afore mentioned login check... then includes it... it doesn't seem to know if the user is logged in at all.

So basically.. a file that is included in an include isn't working.

I have made all the phpBB variables I can think of "global".. no luck.

---- END RANT ----

Anyone done anything like this?

2,000,015 cool points goes to the first person to tell me what the heck I'm doing wrong here.

Thanks!!!!!

sneakyimp

so your code database-referencing code looks some thing like this

// file 1
<?
include('file_a.php');
?>

// file_a
<?
//check the database, retrieve $string from database
// $string refers to awesome phpBB code
include($string);
?>

is that correct? do you get an error?

you might want to note that $string must contain the path to the phpBB file relative to file 1, not file_a. since you are executing file 1, there is this php concept of a working directory (which is where file 1 resides, not file_a).

suppose both file_a and file_php are in a folder called includes. your code might be

// file 1
<?
include('includes/file_a.php');
?>

// in file_a, you want to include file_php which is also in the
// includes folder, you should do this:
<?
include('includes/file_php.php');
?>

i hope that's not confusing....or wrong! that's how it works on my computer anyway. i experienced this working with phpGallery.

dougyitbos

Yes that's in essence what the set up is.

The path is ok though so that's not my problem.

I do NOT get an error.

It finds the file and renders it ok.

But the if statment doesn't fire correctly becase a variable doesnt seem to be set.

sneakyimp

not sure what problem is. you're being pretty vague about 'statements not firing' and such. not sure i can give any diagnosis without more detail.

dougyitbos

Ok I wasn't trying to be vauge... just avoid a huge 10 page plea for help. 🙂

Here's the deal.

I have a CMS application that I built.
It allows the site admin (who may not be real computer savvy) to run the site.

Now I'm installing phpBB on this site so that I can take advantage of it's cool features.. like a well defined site userbase.

I built some code that I include on my main page (when outside of the forum) that lets me access the user's phpBB data once they have logged in.

All that works just fine.
So now I can read phpBB data and userdata even outside the forum.

It's pretty neat.

Anyway the check for whether a user is logged in or not is this:

if ($userdata['session_logged_in'] == 1) {

   // Say welcome back USERNAME.

} else {

   // Build Link to login page

}

If on my main page I include a page with that code it works like champ.

But if I instead include a page that goes to the database to get the path to the login check code and then includes it right there in the current include the variable $userdata['session_logged_in'] isn't set as 1 even though it should be.

I want to accomplish this because in order for some non-savvy site admin to move this login conent to another section of the page... it has to be a "component" that they add via a drop down list.

So the intermediate inlcude would go read from the database to determine which "component" should be included in the current area of the page. So it figures out what to grab and pulls the path from the DB.

Like I said ... every thing is rendering but the variable $userdata['session_logged_in'] isn't set as 1 even though it should be.

.... wow does anything in there make sense ?

🙂

sneakyimp

hmmmm.

i understand not wanting to post 10 pages of code.

I'm guessing that $userdata['session_logged_in'] is somehow pulled from session data.

my instinct tells me that your problems probably have something to do with the order in which you include certain files and start session variables and stuff. like if you log into phpBB and then go to your CMS pages there might be some slight difference i the way that session variables are handled that means they don't always end up in the same place.

remember how you said that simply including the file works, it's when the database is involved that the problem occurs? go to the include line that works and try something like this instead:

$which_file = "file_to_include.php";
include($which_file);

does that break it? if not, the problem is elsewhere.

compare the location of your include in your code that works with the location in the file that's broken. are there any other include statements that are going first now?? do you start any sessions or assign any session data?

i find that it's very helpful to trace variable values. i like to write a little function that lets me write to a log file and i can trace variable values like this

debug("logged in:" . $userdata['session_logged_in']);

you can use those to check any variable that you think might be misbehaving without interrupting your code output. there are probably more sophisticated debugging environments but that's how I do it.

sorry i can't be more help here...if you can't make any progress, you should think about posting some code (maybe in a zip file or something).

tekky

Originally posted by dougyitbos
Ok hope some of the gurus here can help.
.....Anyone done anything like this?

2,000,015 cool points goes to the first person to tell me what the heck I'm doing wrong here.

Thanks!!!!!

Yes, I have, the problem most likely comes from some of the key variables in phpBB, let me fetch a copy of a file I put outside of the phpBB dir and see how it lokos again

[edit -- here is the top of my file -- i set up a page that would display the forum index outside of the forum directory --]

<?
define('IN_PHPBB', true);
$phpbb_root = $phpbb_root_path = '../path/to/forums/';
$relative_script_path ="../../test/test.php"; //relative path back to this page... could easily be coded to be dynamic -- since this was a test I hardcoded it

include($phpbb_root . 'extension.inc');
include($phpbb_root . 'common.'.$phpEx);

//
// Start session management
//
$userdata = session_pagestart($user_ip, PAGE_INDEX);
init_userprefs($userdata);
//
// End session management
//
//page as normal here

dougyitbos

Thank everyone ... let me try to reply

tekky - I have that code at the top of the page.
It all works fine.

Like I said it works like a champ as long as the include goes directly to it.

sneakyimp - Thanks thats inline with what I was thinking.
Remember that the include is working.. the page does render.
There isn't a BROKEN page... because the file to that the database pulls the path for is the SAME file as the one the one that worked when I link directly to it.

Thus my confusion.

Thanks guys.

dmeade

Let me see if I understand this...

You actually have 3 files.
1) The file the user browses to
2) a page which is included in the above file
3) a page which is included in the included file.

file1:
 ==============================
 +													
 +	$user_loggedin = true; 	
 +	include('file2')					
 +														
 +														
 +														
 +														
 +														
 +														
 ==============================

file2:
 ==============================
 +														
 +	path = getpath();					
 +	include(path.'file3')			
 +														
 +														
 +														
 +														
 +														
 +														
 ==============================

file3:
 ==============================
 +														
 +	if $user_loggedin {} 			
 +														
 +														
 +														
 +														
 +														
 +														
 +														
 =============================

And what you're saying is that when the user browses to file1 they see the content of file3 (it's path is correctly found and included), however $user_loggedin is not appearing to be set?

Also if file3 is included in file1 directly (without having to through file2 ... then everything works perfectly?

dougyitbos

Yup!