return value from php script to calling form

kdunlop123

hello,

I'm trying to test a script the uses "echo" to return a response to a calling form.
The form will pass on a variable through "POST" method to the script which will respond with either a "acknowledge" or "decline".
My question is how do I call the script and wait for it inside the form?
the basic script is:
<?php
function clean($words) // function to clean slashes
{
global $dbc;
if (ini_get('magic_quotes_gpc'))
{
$words = stripslashes($words);
}
return mysql_real_escape_string($words, $dbc);
} // end clean function

 $type = clean($_POST['notify_type']);

 if($type == "CHECK")
 {
   echo "acknowledge";
 }

 if($type == "PAYMENT")
 {
    echo "decline";
 }

the form will pass the notify type but then must wait for the response before completing it's update/response of "accepted".
Do I just call the script as the action of the form or does it need to be included in an "if(isset($_POST['submit']))" statement?

Obviously it's for an online merchant. Using a 3rd party credit checker, it verifies through the script if the transaction is valid, and then completed the charge. I just want to test my script myself before submitting it.

Any help on this is greatly appreciated.

Kevin

bretticus

I have setup a number of payment gateway implements, so hopefully this is the same thing you are trying to do.

I don't always follow questions very well, and I'm not absolutely sure we are "on the same page." However, I usually do this in the following order:

1) Send the form to itself (...action = $PHP_SELF...)
2) Validate form (yes, use isset so you know the user intended to send the form.)
3) If simple validation fails, do not enter the gateway code block. (errors can be stored in an array. You can check for count($array) in this scenario.) Print errors.
4) If Validation passes, enter gateway block. Most gateway APIs will return error codes that are documented. If error code, they will include an error description, print it out. Else, tell them the transaction is good. Proceed with database inserts, etc.

kdunlop123

thanks bretticus.

I think we're almost on the same page <grin>

the company that will be handling my e-commerce is called "ezybonds". They create an account for the user, take all of the credit info and then when the customer submits their payment:

their (ezybonds) form sends the merchant info and customer info to my script on my server
my script will validate the purchase using a PIN system and validate that they are sending the info to the correct merchant
my script will then send back the "accept" or "decline" notification. (which I'm doing through a simple "echo" statement).

What I want to do is create a basic form that will test my script. Allowing me to troubleshoot it as I build it. I'm just not sure how to go about calling my script and then receiving back the "echo-ed" answer.

Does that make more sense as to what I'm trying to do?

I, of course, will be validating everything on the form and the script will be much more in depth in the final draft but, I just want to get the basics down first.

Thank you again for your time

Kevin

bretticus

So you have users submitting DIRECTLY from ezybonds Website to yours? Or is ezybonds using proxy to submit to your form? If it's the latter, consider using cURL either from command line function (such as exec) or via PHP curl functions (requires library More Info )

kdunlop123

Thanks again Bret...

Giving me lots to think about here....

I'm not entirely sure.
They are not being very helpful to me when asked questions and their documentation doesn't say.

What I can tell you is that their server sends information to my server where my script processes it's validity and then sends back the message to their server which then completes the transaction.
Their server then sends my server a confirmation through POST to my confirmation form - which then updates my database with all of the relevent information.

does this sound like I'd use curl? The webhost I'm using is a Windows based server, does that make it more difficult for me?

Should I just find a way to write the whole thing in Perl instead?

Thank you for all of your time, it is appreciated.

bretticus

Is your script even written in PHP? If so...does it have something like

// Form handlers will have lines similiar to this one..
$variable = $_POST['variable'];

Unless you can tell me more details on how your script interacts with their server, I can't really give you accurate advice.

Can you tell me if their server POSTs to your initially (again, script will have something similar to code above) ?

Assuming, that the above is true, I found the following example at http://www.phpfreaks.com/tutorials/49/2.php

switch($_REQUEST['cmd']){
    default:
        include 'form.html';
    break;

case "post":
    $postfields = array();
    $postfields[] = array("firstname", $_POST['firstname']);
    $postfields[] = array("lastname", $_POST['lastname']);
    $postfields[] = array("ccnumber", $_POST['ccnumber']);
    $postfields[] = array("expmonth", $_POST['expmonth']);
    $postfields[] = array("expyear", $_POST['expyear']);

    foreach($postfields as $subarray) {
         list($foo, $bar) = $subarray;
         $bar = urlencode($bar);
         $postedfields[]  = "$foo=$bar";
    }

    $urlstring = join("\n", $postedfields);
    $urlstring = ereg_replace("\n", "&", $urlstring);
    // echo $urlstring;

    $ch = curl_init("http://mysite.com/curl/curlresponse.php");
    curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_HEADER, 0);
    curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_POST, 1);
    curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS, $urlstring);
    curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_FOLLOWLOCATION, 0);
    curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_REFERER, "http://www.mysite.com/payment_form.html");
    curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, 1);
    $data = curl_exec($ch);
    curl_close($ch);

    $response_start = strPos($data, "Server Response:");
    $response_end = strPos($data, "\n");
    $temp_code = substr($data, $response_start, ($response_end - $response_start));
    $temp_code = str_replace("Server Response:", "", $temp_code);
    $temp_code = strip_tags($temp_code);
    $transaction_code = trim($temp_code);

    switch($transaction_code){
        case "Transaction Success!":
            //redirect person to thank you page
            echo "Thank you for your purchase!";
        break;

        default:
            echo '<font color="red">Transaction Error: '.$transaction_code.'</font>';
            include 'form.html';
        break;
    }
break;
}

if ezbonds uses PHP to send information to your server, they will use a similar script.