Problem with URL in query

[BIOSTALL]

Hey, i am trying to trace where abouts a user is in my forum.

On one of my pages i use this:

$currentlyviewing = mysql_query("UPDATE Forum_Users SET currently_viewing='Thread <a href=ForumReplies.php?threadid=$threadid&threadname=$threadname&sid=$sectid>$threadname</a>' WHERE username='".$_SESSION['username']."'",$connection) or die(mysql_error());

It works fine if $threadname doesnt contain a space BUT... if the variable $threadname does contain a space then the URL ends up broken in half and the variable $sectid isn't called.

Can someone please tell me how to pass the full URL regardless of whether $threadname contains a space.

If you need to know anything else, just ask

Thanks, BIOSTALL

[leatherback]

I think it is urlencode you are looking for. But I am not sure.

Can't you just store the threadid? Seems a bit over-complex what you are doing. But well.. There probably is a reason for it

J.

[drew010]

try to [man]rawurlencode[/man] the variables that will contain spaces or special characters.

[BIOSTALL]

So if i was to do something like:

$threadname = $_GET['threadname'];
$threadname_encoded = rawurlencode($threadname);

$currentlyviewing = mysql_query("UPDATE Forum_Users SET currently_viewing='Thread <a href=ForumReplies.php?threadid=$threadid&threadname=$threadname_encoded&sid=$sectid>$threadname</a>' WHERE username='".$_SESSION['username']."'",$connection) or die(mysql_error());

???

[leatherback]

Nope:

$threadname_encoded = rawurlencode('Thread <a href=ForumReplies.php?threadid=$threadid&threadname=$threadname_encoded&sid=$sectid>$threadname</a>')

and:

$currentlyviewing = mysql_query("UPDATE Forum_Users SET currently_viewing=$threadname_encoded WHERE username='".$_SESSION['username']."'",$connection) or die(mysql_error());

[drew010]

You really only want to rawurlencode the variables that are in the query string. Mostly because it replaces the space you are worrying about with %20, which is what spaces should be represented as in url query strings. urlencoded translates space to a + which is wanted for form posts, but not query strings.

[Davidc316]

I normally just use good old fashioned string replacement functions.

So, any items with a space would get a "~". At the receiving end of the form there would be a function to convert all ~'s back into spaces.

[BIOSTALL]

The problem with that is if a user uses a ~ in their thread title... it wont appear when output. But i know what u mean.. Thanks 🙂

[leatherback]

Hi Biostall,

Have you considered just storing the information, and not the full URL?

Like:

$datatostore = $threadid."|".$threadname_encoded."|".$sectid;

and inserting this? Would save you headaches?

J.