Php/javascript/html help

I_amp_I

Hi, I have a problem,

I am in a javascript function in a php file, where I am setting a variable called $country to a certain value. That much is working ok.

Then from inside that function, (when it gets called) I want to pass that variable with its value to another file called search.php, so I can continue to use that value in there.

I tried changing to php in the function and using require_once("search.php?x=$country"); and then using $_Get[x]; inside search.php, but nothing is being retrieved.

Any ideas or suggestions would be appreciated,

Thanks

devinemke

you do not want/need to pass it as a GET var. just do...

$country = 'USA';
require_once('search.php');

...and $country will be available within the variable scope of search.php

I_amp_I

Hi there, thanks a mil for your reply.

I think I tried that already, it should really be that simple, but you see the script is a little more complicated than I said here and the $country var actually gets it's value inside a function (which may affect scope). I'll give that another go though, and let you know if it works.
Another thing, I thought that because the command require_once was php, php being server-side, I would have to use GET, no?
Thank you.

I_amp_I

Hi,
That works when I just put that code in 2 files with no other code, but not with my code for some strange reason. The problem must lie elsewhere, I'll look,
Thanks again,

Blulagoon

If you show us the javascript function in which you set the $country variable, I think we may well be able to tell you what is going wrong.

Blu.

I_amp_I

Would be great if you could, thanks,
I'll see if I can fish it out, hold on 🙂

devinemke

you should read up on variable scope. any variable that is set inside a function will not be available outside of that fucntion unless you explicitly make it so.

I_amp_I

Ok, here is an excerpt of it. Below is a php file, which consists of html mainly. Ignore the variablenames and filenames I mentioned above.
In this current file, I have a dropdownmenu of countries. The onchange event calls the function I mentioned, giving it the value of the country a user selects as an argument. The file I want to pass this value to next is called index.php, which I then want to pass to a subsequent file called search.php. Here's the code:

<p><select name="Country" size="1" onChange="countryads(this)">
<option>WORLD-WIDE</option>
<option>AFGHANISTAN</option>
<option>ALBANIA</option>
<option>ALGERIA</option>
<option>ZAMBIA</option>
<option>ZIMBABWE</option>
</select> </p>

Help much appreciated

I_amp_I

Thanks again divinemke,
I did read up on that, and it said that if you define a variable without the var keyword, this makes it global, so the var I used should work. Your code worked between files, without all my other stuff in the files.
Thanks again!

I_amp_I

I'll try using the global keyword, hang on, although I saw on another website it wasn't needed, provided you didn't use var.

I_amp_I

Ok, I changed my code to using global before the variable name as below:

and I changed the file I call to index1.php, a new file I set up for test purposes, which has just one statement: echo $countryvar;
and nothing happened, doesn't work!

Thanks for your help guys.

I_amp_I

Wait a sec, I'll try putting:
global $countryvar = selectedC.options[selectedC.selectedIndex].text;
after the <? and see if that makes any difference.
Can get confusing using php with javascript and html 🙂

I_amp_I

Nope it doesn't like that, gives me a parse error, hmmm

devinemke

you are getting completely confused between server-side code (PHP) and client-side code (javascript). what you are trying to will not work as you expect. PHP has no idea what the user has selected in your form until the form has been submitted to the server, thus the $country var does not exist yet. consider this example:

<?php
if (!isset($_POST['submit']))
{
	echo '
	<form action="" method="POST">
	<select name="country">
	<option>WORLD-WIDE</option>
	<option>AFGHANISTAN</option>
	<option>ALBANIA</option>
	<option>ALGERIA</option>
	<option>ZAMBIA</option>
	<option>ZIMBABWE</option>
	</select><br>
	<input type="submit" name="submit" value="submit">
	</form>
	';
}
else
{
	echo 'you selected: ' . $_POST['country'];
}
?>

it is only after we have submitted the form that we can refer to the "country" variable.

I_amp_I

Hi, Ok, thanks a lot for that dm. I don't know a lot of php, so am having difficulty understanding what your code is doing. In your first post, you didn't use any submit, but the value was still passed to the second file, so I thought you were keeping it all in the client, without having to use GET/POST etc.
So you think it is not possible without submitting it? I was hoping not to have to use a submit button on my form, and just to use the onchange event. Do you know if that is possible?
I'll try your suggestion if I can, many thanks!

I_amp_I

I see, I guess you couldn't have been using client-side code in your first post, since you used no javascript. But you did this without any submit, you just used require_once, so would it be possible for me to just use require_once in my function at all, or would this be impossible since the value of the variable is got/set outside of php?

devinemke

let's go over some basics:

your have 2 computers: the client and server. both are running special software to do their jobs. in the case of the client that software is the web browser whose job is to parse thru client side code (HTML/javascript/css). the server is running web server software (apache/IIS) which has been configured to run certain page requests (.php files) through the PHP interpreter.

the client makes a request of the server and the server spits back a response to the client. the client requests a page from the server whcih includes an HTML form, the browser renders out that form to the screen. anything that is filled out in this form must be sent back to the server before the server can do anything with it. Apache/PHP/ASP or anything else server-side has absolutely no idea what is going on in that form until the form data is sent back to it. any client-side things that are going on (javascript functions) happen puerly on the client within the browser.

you can create any PHP variables you wish and include/require any files you want but for PHP to know anything about the data filled out in the form that data must first be sent back to the server.

make sense?

note: you may want to look at AJAX for ways to asynchronously establish communication between client and server.

I_amp_I

I already know what client and server are.

devinemke

I&I wrote:
I already know what client and server are, are you trying to make me look like a total dumbass here?

no, i am simply trying to help you. if you feel that you do not want or need my help then that is fine. perhaps you can find more useful help from someone else here or elsewhere. good luck and goodbye.

I_amp_I

Ok, thanks