small script I wrote is breaking scripts that call it in an include

schwim

Hi there guys,

I wrote a very small script to show a random testimonial, and when I view it as it's own page, it operates as planned, and no problems arise.

But when I attempt to include it in a forum system, it breaks the forum system.

I know you can't be expected to know how different forum systems operate, but I was hoping someone might see something in my script that is causing my problem, and my problem is(From the error), it looks like my script has caused the forum to think that the data is in my script's database, and it's no longer using the forum database.

Here's my script:

include("config.php");



/*this query will get the needed information to create the block as you would like it*/

 $result = mysql_query('SELECT * FROM config') or exit(mysql_error());

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



$debug = $row['debug'];

$block_width = $row['block_width'];

$block_scroll = $row['block_scroll'];

$block_showtitle = $row['block_showtitle'];

$block_showdate = $row['block_showdate'];

$block_showauth = $row['block_showauth'];

$block_showauthweb = $row['block_showauthweb'];

$block_titlecount = $row['block_titlecount'];

$block_textcount = $row['block_textcount'];



if('debug'==1){

error_reporting(E_ALL);

}



/* this query will get a random testimonial result */



$query = "select * from testimonials WHERE active=1 ORDER BY rand() LIMIT 1";



$result = mysql_query ($query);

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

    /* display testimonials in a simple table */



	$id = $row['id'];

	$postdate = $row['postdate'];

    $author = stripslashes ($row['author']);

    $authorweb = stripslashes ($row['authorweb']);

    $authorwebname = stripslashes ($row['authorwebname']);

    $title2 = stripslashes ($row['title']);

    $testtext1 = stripslashes ($row['testtext']);

    $testtext2 = strip_tags ($testtext1);





	//global $block_textcount, $block_titlecount;



	function nicetrim ($s, $length) {



	          $str_to_count = html_entity_decode($s);

	          if (strlen($str_to_count) <= $length) {

	           return $s;

	          }



	          $s2 = substr($str_to_count, 0, $length);

	          $s2 = substr($str_to_count, 0, $length - 3);

	          $s2 .= "... [More]";

	          return htmlentities($s2);

	        }



	$testtext = nicetrim($testtext2, $block_textcount);

	$title = nicetrim($title2, $block_titlecount);



	/* display the data */

			echo("<div align=center>

			<table width=260 border=1 cellpadding=1 cellspacing=1>");

if($block_showtitle == 1) {

		echo("<tr>

					<td bgcolor='#ffffff' width=400>

					<font size=3><b>$title</b></font>

					</td>

				</tr>");

				}

		echo("	<tr>

					<td bgcolor='#ffffff'>

					<font size=2>$testtext</font><p>

					</td>

				</tr>");

if($block_showauth == 1) {

				echo("<tr>

					<td align='right'>

					<font size='1'>$author</font>

					</td>

				</tr>");

				}

if($authorweb != "") {



if($block_showauthweb == 1) {

				echo("<tr>

					<td align='right'>

					<font size='1'><a href='$authorweb' target='_blank'>$authorwebname</a></font>

					</td>

				</tr>");

				}

			}

			echo("<tr>

					<td bgcolor='#ffffff'>

					<font size=2>");

					include("$siteurl/includes/menu/menu.php");

			echo("</font><p>

					</td>

				</tr>

			</table>

			</div><br>

			<br>

	");

	}

}

The page gets called in the navigation pane of the forum application. When a page that shows it gets called, everything to my script shows properly, but immediately after my script, I get this error:

Fatal error: Database error: 1146: Table 'roughing_automonial.v_pm' doesn't exist - File: /home/roughing/public_html/templates/1/header.html(54) : eval()'d code on line 26 in /home/roughing/public_html/classes/database/mysql.inc.php on line 291

roughing_automonial is my script's database. Up until my script got called, it was pulling the forum data from roughing_portal.

What do I need to do to make my script allow the parent application to continue working after running it?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

thanks,
json

NogDog

I would suspect that the problem is in the config.php include file. It's probably doing a mysql_connect() and a mysql_select_db() which is clashing with the same functions being done by your forum script. You may need to specify the "new link" argument in the mysql_connect():

$thisLink = mysql_connect('localhost', 'username', 'password', [color=red]TRUE[/color]);

At the end of your include file you should then release this connection:

mysql_close($thisLink);

schwim

Hi there nogdog, and thanks very much for the reply.

I am indeed making a connection in the config file, here's the code:

$conn = mysql_connect("$dhost","$dusername","$dpwd") or die ("Unable to connect to database.");

$dbi=mysql_select_db($dbname,$conn) or die("Unable to make master connection to database from the config file!" . mysql_error());

Would I simply place this at the very end of the file:

 mysql_close($conn);

Or is $conn too common of a connection name? Do I need to change it to something different to keep from shutting down other connections?

thanks again very much for your help,
json

schwim

Hi there,

Just to be safe, I renamed the connection, but now I'm getting a new error:

My new db connection code in config.php:

$autoconn = mysql_connect("$dhost","$dusername","$dpwd") or die ("Unable to connect to database.");
$dbi=mysql_select_db($dbname,$autoconn) or die("Unable to make master connection to database from the config file!" . mysql_error());

My new block code(last 5 lines):

				<br>
		");
		}
	}

 mysql_close($autoconn);

and my new error:

Fatal error: Database error: : - File: /home/roughing/public_html/templates/1/header.html(54) : eval()'d code on line 26 in /home/roughing/public_html/classes/database/mysql.inc.php on line 291

Which doesn't mention any database in particular. Does this mean I managed to shut down all of the database connections? What do I need to do to fix this?

My block is still working fine as a standalone with this new configuration.

thanks,
json

schwim

Well, I'm completely stuck.

I read up on mysql_close at php.net, and it seems that others have my problem of the statement causing all connections to close, but I can't find anyone who explains how to solve this in a language I can understand.

I'm using two different databases, but the same user. I thought that the other database would stay connected if I closed the connection to my script's db, but it seems that it's not.

I tried "$autoconn=null;", but that put me back to the original error, that being that it didn't close the connection at all to my test script.

Can anyone help me with how to do this properly? I know it's possible, as I often integrate scripts into others with multiple connections. It's just that the other script authors are much smarter at this stuff than I am.

thanks,
json

schwim

Just an update:

It never got fixed. I inserted it using an iframe, which is awfully crappy, but three forums down, and nobody has been able to figure out a workaround.

thanks,
json