clear variables from url

[Paul_Ferrie]

Hi,

I am trying to clear variables from url after they have been passed.
example:

www.somedone.com/printView.php?theID=newsID=1%20OR%20newsID=2%20OR%20newsID=3%20OR%20newsID=4%20OR%20newsID=5%20OR%20newsID=6%20OR%20newsID=7%20OR%20newsID=8%20OR%20newsID=9%20OR%20newsID=10

So that i am left with:
www.somedone.com/printView.php

Anyone?

Thanks
Paul

[thorpe]

you would need to refresh the page.

header("Location: printView.php");

[Paul_Ferrie]

Tried that and it didnt work 🙁

[Paul_Ferrie]

Is there anyway to pass the variables without them showing in the url?

I did try setting up a first page to take variables then used header() to pass them to new page but the vars were not being passed.

[Rodney_H_]

Paul Ferrie wrote:

Is there anyway to pass the variables without them showing in the url?

I did try setting up a first page to take variables then used header() to pass them to new page but the vars were not being passed.

Hi, Paul.

Can you pass the variables from a form using the POST method (instead of via the query-string and using the $_GET[] array values to define the page)?

If not, would you be opposed to employing JavaScript?

[Paul_Ferrie]

I amusing flash to submit the vars to the php script

pv_view = new LoadVars();
pv_view.theID = ID;
pv_view.send(path2adm+"printView.php", "_blank", "POST");

If i set it to "post" in flash and set the php script to read "post" then it dosnt work theID dosnt get passed. but if i set the phpscript to "get" it works but still the issue with the adress bar full of vars.

[Rodney_H_]

I think you were right all along about using an intermediary page to help you here.
But instead of using a header redirect alone, store the values from the query string
in a session var, and then redirect.

Page1:

<p><a href="printViewPREP.php?theID=newsID=1%20OR%20newsID=2%20OR%20newsID=3">click</a></p>

Page2: (printViewPREP.php)

<?php
// start session
session_start();
// put variables into session
$_SESSION['newsID'] = $_SERVER['QUERY_STRING'];
// define redirect page
$redirect = 'http://www.somedone.com/printView.php';
// redirect and exit
header("Location: " . $redirect);
exit;
?>

Page3: (printView.php.php)

now you have the information from the query string stored in a PHP session, and the url is now 'clean',
so you can grab the info to conduct your query with it (or whatever).

[Paul_Ferrie]

Never used sessions before but dag nam it i think your right!

Thanks for your help.
I have had enough for one day. Will try this tomorrow. i will post how it went.

Thanks again

Paul

[Paul_Ferrie]

Hi again,

the url was cleared but i dont know how to access the $_session variables in the next page.

[thorpe]

well, you'd best read up on the use of sessions.

[Paul_Ferrie]

I did before i made the post.

You would think that echo $_SESSION['theID']; would echo the variables that it holds.
doesn't seem to be the case. If yo cant tell me what i can do that would be very much appreciated

[paulnaj]

Check out whether you need to put ...

session_start();

... on every page that uses sessions.

Paul 🙂

Note From the manual: If you are using cookie-based sessions, you must call session_start() before anything is outputted to the browser.

[Paul_Ferrie]

i dont knowwhat i need and where. I have never used sessions.

I am trying to use the code that Rodney supplied.

THanks

Paul

[paulnaj]

Hi Paul,

I just meant that while you were reading up on how to use sessions, that was one thing I'd look out for.

Anyway, I noticed that the query string that Flash is sending ...

theID=newsID=1%20OR%20newsID=2%20OR%20newsID=3%20OR%20newsID=4%20OR%20newsID=5%20OR%20newsID=6%20OR%20newsID=7%20OR%20newsID=8%20OR%20newsID=9%20OR%20newsID=10

... seems a little odd. This is saying that there is only one name/value pair in the string ...

name: theID

value: newsID=1%20OR%20newsID=2%20OR%20newsID=3%20OR%20newsID=4%20OR%20newsID=5%20OR%20newsID=6%20OR%20newsID=7%20OR%20newsID=8%20OR%20newsID=9%20OR%20newsID=10

There is a possibility that flash is having the problem sending this data (seems likely if you were having trouble using POST in the Flash function). I seem to remember it being a very fragile operation ... sensitive to spaces, new-lines etc.

You could be reformat (in Flash) as ...

value: 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10

... and the whole URL would then be ...

www.somedone.com/printView.php?theID=1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10

Otherwise, I can't see where the problem is.

Paul 🙂

[Paul_Ferrie]

There is nothing wrong with what flash is sending, the line of vars are as they should be.

All i want to do is pass the vars toa process script then inturn load another page with a clean url freee from vars and displaying information that was recalled using the vars.

Everthing is working fine. I just want the url cleaned when displaying the returned query.

Hope that makes things a bit clearer

[Paul_Ferrie]

My query

$query = "SELECT DISTINCT * FROM news WHERE ".$_GET['theID']."";

[paulnaj]

Paul Ferrie wrote:

If i set it to "post" in flash and set the php script to read "post" then it dosnt work theID dosnt get passed. but if i set the phpscript to "get" it works but still the issue with the adress bar full of vars.

Well, it should work ... so something is wrong.

[Rodney_H_]

Paul Ferrie wrote:

My query

$query = "SELECT DISTINCT * FROM news WHERE ".$_GET['theID']."";

Hi, Paul. That query may not work yet as the GET ID is url encoded, so for every space, ' ', there is now a '%20'. You need to filter/process the string first, and then echo it out to check the value. If it is cool, then use it in its new state in your sql statement.

I think this may be a good test for you:

$before = $_GET['theID'];

echo $before . '<br />';

$after = urldecode($before);

echo $after;

(may need to look at source code to make distinction.)

Hope that helps...

PS: As a general rule of thumb, it may be a good idea to process or validate GET array values prior to using them in querying the db to prevent any maliciousness from users.

[Paul_Ferrie]

I think the main problem is...
why is flash not letting me send it as "POST". As far as i am aware if it is in "POST" then the vars are not added to the url field. is that correct?

[Rodney_H_]

Here is a good definition of the two methods, paul: http://www.w3.org/MarkUp/html-spec/html-spec_8.html#SEC8.2.2