[Resolved] Help with class & method

[travelbuff]

Hi all - burnin' up the board today 😃

I am writing a class for handling a personal ad and I have a few questions:

class ntgpersonals {

//define the vars
var $personal_id
	$ibf_members_id, 
	$ntg_places_place_id, 
	$arrival_date, 
	$departing, 
	$personals_title, 
	$personal_desc, $date_submitted, 
	$status;

function insert_personal($personal_id='NULL', $ibf_members_id=$_COOKIE[member_id], 
	$ntg_places_place_id=$_POST[place_id], $arrival_date=$_POST[arrival_date], 
	$departing=$_POST[departing], $personals_title=trim($_POST[personals_title]),
	$personals_title=$_POST[personals_title], $personals_desc=$_POST[personals_desc],
	$date_submitted=now(), $status='0') {

$insert = $ntgdb::query("INSERT INTO personals (personal_id, ibf_members_id, ntg_places_place_id,
 arrival_date, departing, personals_title, personals_desc, date_submitted, status) VALUES 
 ($personal_id, $ibf_members_id, $ntg_places_place_id, $arrival_date, $departing, $personals_title, 
 $personal_desc, $date_submitted, $status;)");
 if ($ntgdb::isError($insert)) {
 	DIE('Could not insert: '. $ntgdb::$insert->getMessage());
	}
} //## END function insert_personal 

My questions are:
1. It is ok that I am defaulting the vars in the insert_personal method to the $_POST values, right? I figure it will save me some coding and allow me to do the insert just by calling the function:
insert_personal();

2. I am correct in not using curly braces or single quotes in the $_POST keys because they are variables - - right?

3. Am I calling the DB methods right? $ntgdb is an instance of the PEAR DB class.

Thanks

[Bloodwine]

change:

function insert_personal($personal_id='NULL', $ibf_members_id=$_COOKIE[member_id], 
	$ntg_places_place_id=$_POST[place_id], $arrival_date=$_POST[arrival_date], 
	$departing=$_POST[departing], $personals_title=trim($_POST[personals_title]),
	$personals_title=$_POST[personals_title], $personals_desc=$_POST[personals_desc],
	$date_submitted=now(), $status='0') {

to

function insert_personal($personal_id='NULL', $ibf_members_id=null, $ntg_places_place_id=null, $arrival_date=null, 
                $departing=null, $personals_title='', $personals_desc='', $date_submitted=null,
                $status='0') {
   if (is_null($ibf_members_id)) {
      $ibf_members_id = $_COOKIE['member_id'];
   }
   if (is_null($ntg_places_place_id)) {
      $ntg_places_place_id = $_POST['place_id'];
   }
   if (is_null($arrival_date)) {
      $arrival_date = $_POST['arrival_date'];
   }
   if (is_null($departing)) {
      $departing = $_POST['departing'];
   }
   if (strlen($personals_title) == 0) {
      if (isset($_POST['personals_title'])) {
         $personals_title = trim($_POST['personals_title']);
      }
   }
   if (strlen($personals_desc) == 0) {
      if (isset($_POST['personals_desc'])) {
         $personals_desc = $_POST['personals_desc'];
      }
   }
   if (is_null($date_submitted)) {
      $date_submitted = now();
   }

I don't think either PHP4 or PHP5 will work if you use anything other than a number or string as a default argument value (calling functions such as now() or using variables are not allowed, at least not since PHP3).

My workaround above is a bit more coding to do in the function, but still allows you to omit all the arguments if you just want the defaults.

as for $POST[personals_desc] vs. $POST['personals_desc'], always use single or double quotes around the array key, unless you mean to use a constant.

$_POST[personals_desc] works fine until you do:

define("personals_desc", "Default description");
echo $_POST[personals_desc]; // actually echos $_POST["Default description"];

As for the DB stuff, I'm not too familiar with PEAR:😃B so someone else will have to help you with that.

Hope that helps!

[travelbuff]

thanks bloodwine.

I can probable even shorten that as I expect my usage to be completely through $_POST but I wanted to have the ability to override that in case I wanted to extract the data, reformat or something and put it back in a script. So this would work too, right?:

function insert_personal($personal_id='NULL', $ibf_members_id=null, $ntg_places_place_id=null, 
	$arrival_date=null, $departing=null, $personals_title='', $personals_desc='', 
	 $date_submitted=null,$status='0') {

  if (is_null($personal_id)) {
     $insert = DB::$ntgdb->query("INSERT INTO personals (personal_id, ibf_members_id, 
	 	ntg_places_place_id, arrival_date, departing, personals_title, personals_desc, 
		date_submitted, status) VALUES  ($personal_id, $_COOKIE[member_id], $_POST[place_id],
		$_POST[arrival_date], $_POST[departing], trim($_POST[personals_title]),
		trim($_POST[personals_desc]), now(), 0)");
	} else {
$insert = DB::$ntgdb->query("INSERT INTO personals (personal_id, ibf_members_id, ntg_places_place_id,
 arrival_date, departing, personals_title, personals_desc, date_submitted, status) VALUES 
 ($personal_id, $ibf_members_id, $ntg_places_place_id, $arrival_date, $departing, $personals_title, 
 $personal_desc, $date_submitted, $status;)");
 	}
 		if (DB::isError($insert)) {
 			DIE('Could not insert: '. DB::$insert->getMessage());
		}
}

[Bloodwine]

Yes, as long as you know the data will be in $_POST, then your revised code should work just fine.