Using a Variable in a URL

bartendjoe

I'm trying to use a php variable in a menu link on my website.

Here is the way I have it coded:

"<img src=images/newsimage.gif border=0> Forms",'http://www.anysite.com/grouplogin.asp?gn=xxxx&gp=xxxxxx&un=xxxx_"$guard_username"',,"Forms",1

The variable is $guard_username. The link doesn't substitute the value of the variable but instead tries to go to

http://www.anysite.com/grouplogin.asp?gn=xxxx&gp=xxxxxx&un=xxxx_"$guard_username"

What do I need to change to have the value populated instead of the actual words $guard_username?

Thanks.

drew010

strings inside ' ' dont undergo and variable substitution, therefore the following is true

$var = "hello";
echo '$var';  //prints $var
echo "$var"; //prints hello

switch your single quotes around the url to double quotes, and there is no need to quote the variable itself.

bartendjoe

My code is not inside a <?php. Do I need to have my code like this to use the php variable?

<?php

"<img src=images/newsimage.gif border=0> Forms","http://www.anysite.com/grouplogin.asp?gn=xxxx&gp=xxxxxx&un=xxxx_$guard_username",,"Forms",1

<?php

This code is part of a menu created using dhtml/javascript that I got from www.simplythebest.net .

drew010

ahh i see. well yes if you ever want to use a php variable it must be inside <?php ?> tags. the other problem i see now is that javascript/dhtml are client side scripting languages, and php is server side. what that means is that, by the time a webpage is sent to the users browser, and all php code is already executed and run. that means its not directly possible to use a php variable in javascript. what you can do is create your javascript code using php echo's so when the javascript code is sent to the clients browser, any php variables are hardcoded into the javascript with their values.

for example

$name = "drew";

echo "<script type=\"text/javascript\">alert('$name')</script>";

then when the output is sent to the browser, it actually looks like

and my name will be shown in an alert box.

but alert('$name') would just show $name since php is out of the picture by the time the client sees the page

bartendjoe

Drew,

Thanks. Will I need to change any syntax in the script? The menu script is over 600 lines of code.

Here is my first lines

<?php
echo "<script type="text/javascript" language="JavaScript">
.
.(script)
.
addmenu(menu=["services",,,150,1,,style1,0,"left",effect,0,,,,,,,,,,,
,"<img src=images/newsimage.gif border=0> Forms","http://www.anysite.com/grouplogin.asp?gn=xxxx&gp=xxxxxx&un=xxxx_'$guard_username'",,"Forms",1
.
.(script
.
</script>";
?>

The script is erroring with the following:

Parse error: parse error, unexpected T_STRING, expecting ',' or ';' in /home/sylkatis/public_html/services.php on line 8.

Line 8 is the echo line in my code.

drew010

i think you could combine php and html together there and only use php where you need the variables. the really easy way to do it is using whats called here document syntax. with that you are able to use quotes, variables and newlines in your echo without having to escape quotes or anything. basically it looks like this...

echo <<<EOD
<script type="text/javascript">
  alert("welcome $username");

  ...... other js code here
</script>
EOD;