bookmrk'd + other views not posting var's

ATS16805

i'm dealing w/ a rather confusing situation (at least for me because i'm yet unfamiliar w/ several functions). i think if i knew what each of the elements of $_SERVER did, i'd be able to figure this out. however, i also realize that all of those elements aren't neccessarily going to be available to me in every situation because different servers vary on this sort of thing, etc.

	// form-page.php
if (empty($_POST['op'])) {
//...snip...
echo "<form method=\"post\" action=\"$_SERVER[PHP_SELF]\">";
// ...snip...
echo "</select></label>\n";  

echo "<input type=\"hidden\" value=\"showit\" name=\"op\" />";  

echo "<input type=\"submit\" value=\"Show Profile\" />\n";
echo "</p></form>";
} else {
$artist_name = $_POST['artist_name'];
header("Location: showresults.php?var=$artist_name");

// results-page.php
$var = $_GET['var'];
if (empty($var)) {
header("url($_SERVER[ORIG_SCRIPT_NAME]"); /* one of the many WRONG things, for example, i've tried to get back to form-page.php instead of the absolute URL, but unless someone has an idea, i guess i'll just use the Absolute URL here */
} else {

if i try to load results-page.php from a bookmark, for example, i want this to send the user back to form-page.php, but the script fails because of the undefined index 'var'.

how should i handle this instead? my reasoning for using the less secure $GET instead of posting from the form directly to the db results query page is so i could get this bit to work w/ less code...

if (empty($_POST['op'])) {... } else heder("Location...

but now i'm just all messed up and short of starting over, i'm just looking for some advice on how to fix this.

my next problem however, is to deal w/ what happens if someone links directly to the results page-- i need for it to re-direct the user to the form page. i'm currently getting an "Undefined Index 'var'..." error because of my $_GET['var'] being empty... but i need to fix this other part first of course.

suggestions? thanks!!

bpat1434

$SERVER[ORIG_SCRIPT_NAME]

$SERVER['REQUEST_URI'] would be better....
Or even FILE woudl work....

how should i handle this instead?

Test to see if $POST is empty/set. You get the var error because $POST isn't set or is empty, and thus the problem occurs.

if( empty($_POST) || !isset($_POST) ){  // redirect }

ATS16805

to start w/ half of my problem is that i've been fooling around w/ this Zend Development Environment Studio thing which i just d/l for evaluation. so, i got into the habit of "debugging" and "analyzing" each bit of code that i added-- just playing w/ it at first, and then of course obsessing over getting "no warnings, notices, etc"-- which i realized, i was probably better off after i turned off the Notices-- and, for example, it doesn't like this expression (and i understand the logic behind why it calls it an error...), but i never had a problem with

while ($row = mysql_fetch_array($result))  {

so you might understand why i seem to be having problems w/ rather elementary stuff-- i'm thinking here "normally, i'd have had this finished already-- what the...!?"... but, anyway--

the other part of the problem is the context-- i would have explained, but it takes me a g.d. novella to explain stuff, and i wanted to spare it-- but, here goes...

the HTML form is part of an include(), which itself is part of a sub-directory whose navigation works off of this function which Drakla helped me with a while ago (which i happen to like very much, but which i also had to butcher somewhat due to my client's requests -- so now it's only about 50% efficient -- NOTE: it used to have only one navigation include(), but now, because she wants these sub-groups, which you'll have to view to get it, i of course had to make sub-grouped includes() -- or i could have done some CSS madness, but... sigh...ANYWAY...).

re:$SERVER['REQUEST_URI']
i couldn't get Apache to work on this HDD, so i've got PHP5 as a CGI binary on IIS 5.1 because i couldn't get ColdFusion and ASP to co-habitate peacefully (work purposes... ech!) -- in other words-- one or the other wouldn't function, and for whatever reason, i couldn't get Apache2 to work. one only has so much time to fiddle when projects are due, ya know how it can be? frustrating indeed!
so, far as i understand, this is why $SERVER['REQUEST_URI'] doesn't work for me. i've attached a file so you can see the several different things i tried (which i found to be educational) -- FILE being the only one which identifies the include file itself, the others showing the larger file which calls the include.

so-- i think what you've told me about if (empty($_GET['var'])) is what i was looking for-- instead i was trying to use $var...

knowing now that i'm dealing w/ an include(), if you were able to suffer through this verboseness (sorry-- obessive disorder... honest!), do you have any other ideas which come to mind?

(i really do wish i could be more concise-- i try, as you might see from my much abbeviated first post! i realize it sucks to read-- i just can't "talk" any other way. i'm screwed up, sorry.)

bpat1434

$_SERVER['SCRIPT_NAME'] should get you something (it's in the CGI specs, so each CGI should report it)

as for the empty() thing, you check to see if the array $_GET is empty, not if you have an empty key in the array. Understand?

So empty($GET['var']) should be empty($GET)....

ATS16805

bpat1434 wrote:
check to see if the array $_GET is empty, not if you have an empty key in the array. Understand?

So empty($GET['var']) should be empty($GET)....

aaaahhhhh! yes! now, i do understand.... finally!!! after all this time! thanks, man!

and thanks for the help w/ the $_SERVER elements too-- i'll give 'er another shot.

am i wise to try to find this $_SERVER solution considering the include() the way i have it setup? because i'm thinking if i use an absolute URL, i won't get what i'm looking for-- but, maybe i'm wrong-- i guess i'm just trying to learn in theory as well what is the way in addition to what works in practice-- hence the thickness of my skull at times. 😉

thanks again!
note:bold added by me in quote above for my own reference

EDIT: what do you mean by "it's in the CGI specs"?

bpat1434

Well, honestly, look at how others do it. If you're designing an app that runs from a folder (like phpBB, WordPress, Drupal, whatever), then you'd probably want to define a static route to your includes. phpBB achieves this by doing:
define('phpBB_root', '../');

There are many ways around it, but that is just one option. Absoluteness doesn't necessarily mean portability. I'd honestly say that you should not worry about the $_SERVER thing because, as noted in the PHP manual, not all servers will give all items. To truly make your application global, you'd want to use a static relative path definition (like phpBB has).

And by CGI specs, I mean I saw in the manual for $_SERVER global array that a large number of the array elements are found in the CGI 1.1 specifications and you can expect those.

ATS16805

i've been thinking about this on my own coincidentally-- and i think i'm resolving basically the same as what you're saying bpat, about the static path in this situation-- only it's taken me a lot of error to realize it.

i think as per the usual w/ a "self-taught" type such as myself, i tend to try to figure out how to fix some little bit-- which ends up being arbitrary to the larger picture...

my point is this-- what i should be asking for, instead of focusing on a way to fix some small part within my guesswork attempt, and the erroneous, inexperienced scripting thus far, i should really instead be asking for help w/ the plain and simple-- specifically, "What is it that i want to achieve?" so, please allow me to start over here, and restate the problem:

all of my pages have static content. the only php being used for the most part is that which i've used to organize the navigation by way of Includes (see explanation above, re: drakla,etc).
for one tiny part of the web site, however, i'm offering an html SELECT dropdown, the OPTIONS of which are dynamically pulled from MySQL.

this SELECT <form> script itself i have setup as an include being pulled into an otherwise static page. perhaps now all of my aforementioned attempts will make a little more sense-- the fact that i'm trying to compensate for pulling dynamic content into a static page. all i really want to do here is to compensate for what might happen if a user bookmarks the query results instead of the html <select> box (i don't know if putting it all into one file is an option or not, but maybe that could solve my problem?) so, w/ all of that in mind, am i totally approaching this the wrong way, or do you think i'm on the right track?

thanks!

bpat1434

Send the "query" through the URL. That's what google does so you can bookmark search results. If you go through the URL (using $GET method, not $POST), then if the user bookmarks your page, and the GET values are filled in, your search will run, and the user would be shown the results.

ATS16805

cool deal. makes sense to me-- and i've recognized it as i'm testing-- i bookmarked it w/ the ?var in the URL, and i thought-- "hey, this works every time-- why? -- shouldn't it be finding an empty $GET???"-- and then i realized that $GET wasn't empty because of my bookmark!!

what about security though? since i've been a victim of some un-secured script exploitation-- i'm all paranoid about that now! i suppose this is a time when $GET is safe? should i take some precautions somewhere? am i being unfair to $GET when $_POST is just as insecure a method of query? (sorry for the shotgun blast there!)

as for the resolve of this whole thread-- i think what i should do -- i think, no, i KNOW i can get away w/ eliminating the include file-- i realized i was doing that ONLY for the reason of wanting to try out different query types-- different db stuff-- and then, when i settled on what i wanted, to just select that include() as the production include-- but, i guess i can do that-- just cut / paste the code and be done w/ all this headache! is that a cop-out, or common sense!? 😉

thanks again!

EDIT: bpatt -- i love your illustration re: Resolved Threads -- i can TOTALLY appreciate the screen shots! i do them all the time for stuff! 😉 cheap and easy, and to the da#n point! in case you haven't tried it, Gadwin PrintScreen might interest you for its ability to capture any rectangular area-- as in photoshop crop style..