Problem with URLs and IDs

Antibug

Hello, Im an absolute newbie in PHP,
I know just enough to install simple pre-created scripts...

Im trying to create a new web site, but im having problems with, what I think, clashes of ID urls.
Let me explain...

Without any add-on scripts, each page on my site opens in the central so-called frame using this URL: ../index.php?id=PageName (where PageName is the name of the file located in the same directory as index.php

Just to make it clear, my site (before any add-on scripts are added) has absolutely no php statements added....

Anyway, after I installed an add-on article script, which uses the same urls, but using number at the end of the IDs, like index.php?id=3

So now, when I try to open features.php page using this url (index.php?id=features) i get an error saying that the following article doesnt exist and I have no way to link to that page... opening www.mysite.com/features.php will open the page itself, but I need this page to be opened in the "frame" (its not actually a frame, but a table) so the visitor would be able to select another page from the side links located on the left side...

As far as my php knowledge goes (which is not far), I think thats because the IDs of my site and the IDs of that add-on article script clash together producing the error message...

So my question is, how do i fix this...?
For example is there a way to link to the features.php page using a url like this: index.php?id2=3 (notice the 2 after id)?
Or is there another solution to this problem?

Thank you in advance 🙂

drew010

id try changing the id for your pages to page or something else. like index.php?page=features or modify the article script to look for something other than id. could just be a simple search and replace for $GET['id'] to $GET['somethingelse'] in all scripts that the articles one uses.

Antibug

Thanx, but that script is quite big...
I thought that it would be better to simply make the feature.php open in
index?page=feature, for example, but can you tell me how do I define it to look for "page" instead of "id"
What script does that and where do i put it...

Thank you again 🙂

drew010

in index.php there should be a variable in there called $GET['id'] which will represent the index.php?id=xxx
to make it require page instead of id, change all instances of $GET['id'] to $_GET['page']

Antibug

Ok, i manage to do this somehow...

at the top of the index.php page i added this code:

<?php
$midPage = "$_GET[page]" . ".php";
?>

then, in the place where the page was to be opened in the middle part of the page i added this code...

<?php
include ("/home/mysites/url/$midPage");
?>

So now when i link to index.php?=main, it opens main.php and so on...
Its all great BUT, when I open www.mysite.com, it opens by default the index.php page (www.mypage.com/index.php) and produces an error message:

Warning: main(/home/mysites/url/.php): failed to open stream: No such file or directory in /home/mysites/url/index.php on line 145

How do i fix this...
the only thing that comes to my mind is to redirect index.php to index.php?page=main so it would open the main.php script in the middle part of the page...
But, first of all i dont know if thats the best way to do, whether it would work altogether and finally i dont really know how to create such redirect and where to add it... 🙁

Any help is appreciated 🙂

drew010

you can use

if (isset($_GET['page'])) {
  //include necessary file
}

and it will prevent the error.

also look into using [man]file_exists[/man] to make sure the file exists before trying to include.

unify34

hmm try this

<?php


// if the page is set in q-string


if(isset($_GET['page'])){


$page = trim($_GET['page']);


}


// else page is not set


else {


$page = 'main';


}





// APPROVED of pages for inclusion





$pages = array('pages', 'pages'); // etc...

// if acceptable request, page in array


if(in_array($page,$pages)) {


$file = $page . '.php';


include($file);


}


else {


echo 'Page not found. Return to <a href="index.php">index</a>';


}


?>

where it says $page = "" in between put the page you want to dispaly at start

and in the pages array put in the pages you want to be iframed think of them like the target? (without not .php) just page name

and to link it its

<a href="index.php?page=main">name here</a>

the index.php should be the place where you want the stuff iframed at.....

if you need more help on this

go to page '4' and look for my name i had the same problem as you until some guy helped me out 🙂

so go look

FlyingWebGirl

Is it possible that the problem lies in the include statement ala an include that includes an include, which is actually outside of the current path?

If so, see http://us3.php.net/function.include

Antibug

Thank you for your replies, but unfortunatelly I still couldnt fix it...

<?php 


// if the page is set in q-string 


if(isset($_GET['page'])){ 


$page = trim($_GET['page']); 


} 
.......................

In this above example (by unify34) I changed 'page' to 'index.php?page=main' and placed the code above the <html> tag

The result wasnt really what i expected... The main.php part that was supposed to be in the middle of the page, for some reason got above anything else on the page... which screwed the layout a bit...

And yes, FlyingWebGirl is right, im using include statements to include another include statement... i.e. main.php has only 3 lines of code

<?PHP
include("cutenews/show_news.php");
?>

Its a news management script, which was supposed to be in the centre when the index page is opened...

unfortunatelly FlyingWebGirl, the stuff on that page you posted a link to is way too complecated for a beginner like me 🙁

Still looking for ideas to solve this...

FlyingWebGirl

Are you still getting the "...Failed to open stream..." error?

mediafly

This is a real easy way of doing it.

<?php
###### set the default homepage ##########
{
$current = "index";
}
if (!isset($page)) { $page=$current; }
{
if (file_exists("case")) { include("case"); }
}
###### index ##########

switch ($page) {
case "index": {
include ("yourpage.php");
}
}

###### next page ##########

switch ($page) {
case "next": {
include ("nextpage.php");
}
}
?>

Antibug

Hello, thank you all for you help... especially unify34... Previously I said that the code didnt work, but I simply made a mistake by editing too much staff... the only thing i should've edited from that code was to add all pages in the array...

I have one more question thouhg... I got suggested this code by one guy a long time ago and i was just wondering if you could check it...
It seems to work fine on another site of mine, but when i copy that code to this new site, it doesnt work...

<?
if ($userdata['user_id'] > 0) {
        if (!isset($_REQUEST['page'])) $_REQUEST['page']='main';

    if (!file_exists($_REQUEST['page'].".php")) includE("error.php");
    else include($_REQUEST['page'].".php");
}
else {
    if (!isset($_REQUEST['page'])) $_REQUEST['id']='home';

if (in_array($_REQUEST['page'], array('all', 'pages', 'to', 'be', 'included', 'in', 'this', 'array'))) {$err = 'anon';  includE("error.php");}
else {
    if (!file_exists($_REQUEST['page'].".php")) includE("error.php");
    else include($_REQUEST['page'].".php");
}
}
?>

This code looks for an error.php page and displays it, if the page requested doesnt exist...
so my questions are:
1. Whats wrong with this code?
2. Which code is better/efficient/secure to use: the one above or the one unify suggested (reply #8)?
3. What changes do I need to make to the code in reply #8 to include an error.php page instead of notifying the user that the page was not found...?

Thank you all again... You've been a great help 🙂

Antibug

another question regarding this subject:

what if the file i want to include in the array is in a folder...?
Would i include it this way: array('folder/file')

This way the url to the file would be

http://www.mysite.com/index?page=folder/file

is this a normal way of doing it... also the links in the folder/file.php file dont work for some reason... So i guess this way is not right...

How do i do it...?

Thanks in advance

unify34

hmm well i had the same problem like you but did is what i used for my url

http://hostultra.com/~Unify/thegold.php?page=user/register

dont put in .php in the files or in the ARRAYS

n it should work