Webcomic Problem

[shinkaide]

Hi, I'm fairly new at PHP coding and I've some problems with the code I've written for my webcomic site.

I'm stumped whenever I get a Parse error: parse error, unexpected ':' in /home/andre/public_html/comarc/esd19.jpg on line 198

Could someone please help me? Here's the code I've written (there's no line 198 in it, and the included files are barely 20 lines each).

<?php

ini_set ('display_errors', 1);
error_reporting (E_ALL);

include ('http://www.evergreensd.com/templates/header.html');

//Start comic archive code

$latest_strip = 19;
$strip_id = 19;

$prev_strip = $strip_id --;
$next_strip = $strip_id ++;

// The following arguments loads the Comic Archive navigation menu into a variable

if ($strip_id = $latest_strip)
{
$comnav = '<center><p class="comnav"><a href="http://evergreensd.com/view.php?strip_id=1">FIRST</a> | <a href="http://www.evergreensd.com/view.php?prev_strip">PREV</a></p></center>';
}
else if ($strip_id >= 2 AND $strip_id <= $latest_strip)
{
$comnav = '<center><p class="comnav"><a href="http://evergreensd.com/view.php?strip_id=1">FIRST</a> | <a href="http://www.evergreensd.com/view.php?prev_strip">PREV</a></p> | <a href="http://www.evergreensd.com/view.php?next_strip">NEXT</a></p></center>';
}
else {
$comnav = '<center><p class="comnav"><a href="http://www.evergreensd.com/view.php?next_strip">NEXT</a></p></center>';
}

$strip_file = 'esd'.$strip_id.'.jpg';
$strip_address = 'comarc/'.$strip_file;

include ($strip_address);
echo $comnav;

//End comic archive code

include ('http://www.evergreensd.com/templates/footer.html');
?>

You can access the page at www.evergreensd.com/view.php

Need help pls!

[wilku]

You're trying to include jpg file, so php is tryin to parse it. Do not include - echo img tag insetad:

echo "<img src=\"$strip_address\">"

[shinkaide]

Thanks, I can see it now... but then I have another problem...

It seems that the code I made for the navigaition (the if-else statements) don't work. I made them so that depending on the strip that loads currently, the relating previous/next/first links will appear.

I coded it so that when clicking on "previous" it would de-increment the $strip_id and when the php script got to

echo "<div id=\"body\"><img src=\"$strip_address\">"

it would load the file again based on the de-incremented variable...

But I don't think it works that way since It only loads the same image... I think I did something wrong.

Same thing with clicking on "first" which is supposed to load the first script, and next, etc...

Help...

[wilku]

Let's analyze your script (I will only add some comments):

<?php

ini_set ('display_errors', 1);
error_reporting (E_ALL);

include ('http://www.evergreensd.com/templates/header.html');

//Start comic archive code

$latest_strip = 19;
$strip_id = 19;//***read this from $_GET['strip_id']

$prev_strip = $strip_id --;
$next_strip = $strip_id ++;

// The following arguments loads the Comic Archive navigation menu into a variable

if ($strip_id = $latest_strip)//***this will always be true, change = to ==
{
//***prev and next doesn do anything in url
//***replace them with ?strip_id=$prev_strip and $next_strip
$comnav = '<center><p class="comnav"><a href="http://evergreensd.com/view.php?strip_id=1">FIRST</a>
//***and here echo
 | <a href="http://www.evergreensd.com/view.php?prev_strip">PREV</a></p></center>';
}
else if ($strip_id >= 2 AND $strip_id <= $latest_strip)
{
//***the same here
$comnav = '<center><p class="comnav"><a href="http://evergreensd.com/view.php?strip_id=1">FIRST</a> | <a href="http://www.evergreensd.com/view.php?prev_strip">PREV</a></p> | <a href="http://www.evergreensd.com/view.php?next_strip">NEXT</a></p></center>';
}
else {
//***and here
$comnav = '<center><p class="comnav"><a href="http://www.evergreensd.com/view.php?next_strip">NEXT</a></p></center>';
}

$strip_file = 'esd'.$strip_id.'.jpg';
$strip_address = 'comarc/'.$strip_file;
//***you know what to do with that
include ($strip_address);
echo $comnav;

//End comic archive code

include ('http://www.evergreensd.com/templates/footer.html');
?> 

[shinkaide]

Originally posted by wilku

$latest_strip = 19;
$strip_id = 19;//***read this from $_GET['strip_id']

From what you wrote, does that mean I have to create a separate index that I write the strip_id to using view.php, and then whenever a user clicks on next and previous, will retrieve the strip_id and load the strip?

forgive my n00bishness. :p

this is my current code with some of the mods you did...

<?php

ini_set ('display_errors', 1);
error_reporting (E_ALL);

include ('http://www.evergreensd.com/templates/header.html');

//Start comic archive code

$latest_strip = 19;
$strip_id = 19;

$prev_strip = $strip_id --;
$next_strip = $strip_id ++;

// The following arguments loads the Comic Archive navigation menu into a variable

if ($strip_id == $latest_strip)
{
$comnav = '<center><p class="comnav"><a href="http://evergreensd.com/view.php?strip_id=1">FIRST</a> | <a href="http://www.evergreensd.com/view.php?strip_id=$prev_strip">PREV</a></p></center>';
}
else if ($strip_id >= 2 AND $strip_id <= $latest_strip)
{
$comnav = '<center><p class="comnav"><a href="http://evergreensd.com/view.php?strip_id=1">FIRST</a> | <a href="http://www.evergreensd.com/view.php?strip_id=$prev_strip">PREV</a></p> | <a href="http://www.evergreensd.com/view.php?strip_id=$next_strip">NEXT</a></p></center>';
}
else {
$comnav = '<center><p class="comnav"><a href="http://www.evergreensd.com/view.php?strip_id=$next_strip">NEXT</a></p></center>';
}

$strip_file = 'esd'.$strip_id.'.jpg';
$strip_address = 'comarc/'.$strip_file;

echo "<div id=\"body\"><img src=\"$strip_address\">";
echo $comnav;
echo "</div>";

//End comic archive code

include ('http://www.evergreensd.com/templates/footer.html');
?>

[wilku]

if you've got an url http://www.yourdomain.com/yourscript.php?myvar=whatever it means that inside yourscript.php you will have $GET['myvar'] set to "whatever".
Now, in your script you've got something like http://evergreensd.com/view.php?strip_id=1 and after clicking this link you have $GET['strip_id'] automatically set to 1. So instead of
$strip_id = 19;
write
$strip_id = isset($GET['strip_id'])?$GET['strip_id']:1;
which will ensure that if view.php was called without strip_id, you'd get first strip.

Another thing I failed to notice last time - you use single quotation mark when echoing strings. Varibles are not translated inside them:

$prev_id=5
//this would actualy output blah blah blah $prev_id blah
echo 'blah blah blah $prev_id blah';

//this would output blah blah blah 5 blah
echo "blah blah blah $prev_id blah";
//but beware - when using " inside "" you have to escape them with backslash
//this would output something="5"
echo "something=\"$prev_id\"";

[shinkaide]

Wilku, thank you so much for your patience! Everything works great now!

Yes, you were right - I failed to remember what the manual said about single and double quotes...

single quotes - items are treated literally
double quotes - extrapolates - variables are replaced with their value...

Man, you don't know how much of a boost this gives meh!

Again, thank you!