Passing variable and accessing a table

lala

Hello,

I THINK I finally got the variable passing from page to page using SESSION. The problem I have now is that the 3rd page will not produce the desired results using that variable.

When I echo the variable value, it displays properly. But when I try to pull data from a table using that value, I get a blank. If I remove the WHERE comparison from the query, all the rows display. Help?? Thanks.

<?php
session_start();
?>

<body>
<form method="POST">
<?php $_SESSION['user_id']; ?>
</form>
<?

$query = "SELECT * from properties where id = '$user_id'";
$result = mysql_query($query,$dbconnect);
?>

<table width="100%" border=0 align=center class="copy">
<tr>
<th width="160">Client</th>
<th width="140">Doc 1</th>
<th width="140">Doc 2</th>
<th width="140">Document 3</th>
<th width="140">Document 4</th>
</tr>

<?
while($row = mysql_fetch_row($result))
{
?>
<tr>
<td><?=$row[0]?></td>
<td><?=$row[1]?></td>
<td><?=$row[2]?></td>
<td><?=$row[3]?></td>
<td><?=$row[4]?></td>
</tr>
<?
}
?>
</table>

Piranha

What exactly does the row below do?

<?php $_SESSION['user_id']; ?>

If I'm not totally wrong you mean to set $user_id to the value in the session, but you are not.

lala

Right, that is what I was trying to do. (I'm fairly new to PHP and totally new to SESSION.) So, do I need some other line of code to accomplish this? And if I do, will the rest of the script work?
Thanks.

bogu

One stupid question...

How is that form going to help u? u have no elements in it ...

lala

My intent is that the first page is the form where the user enters an id and pw. The second page processes the script and authenticates the entries from the table 'logins'. The third page displays the values from the table 'properties' connected to that user.

The problem I am having is that once I verify the user id and pw, the third page is blank, displaying no data from the table 'properties'. If I leave out the where part from the query, I do get results, but once I try to select only values associated with the user_id, it breaks.

I'm piecing together this code from a variety of sources. The form, I thought, is one way to pass the variable to the 3rd page. Then I can use the variable $user_id to pull from a table called 'properties'.

rincewind456

Just a basic, but you have to have [man]session_start/man called on all your pages that you wish to use the session variables in.

And as Piranha said you have to assign a value to the $SESSION var like so

<?php $_SESSION['user_id'] = $user_id; ?>

you can do this with all the vars you need to move around. Also if you want to use the $SESSION['user_id'] (that has been transferred from another page) as $user_id, then you need to reverse the process like

<?php  $user_id = $_SESSION['user_id']; ?>

In you code you don't show where you get the $user_id variable from.

lala

I'm trying, I really am. But still, it's not working. Here's the code for the page that displays after the user logs in correctly, with data from the logins table.

<?
session_start();
$_SESSION['user_id'] = $user_id;
?>

<body>

<?
$dbconnect = mysql_connect("localhost","mfmgmt","stoneham");
mysql_select_db("mfmgmt");

$user_password=$_POST["user_password"];

$query = "SELECT * from logins where id = '$user_id' AND password = '$user_password' ";

$result = mysql_query($query,$dbconnect);
if($row = mysql_fetch_row($result))
{
print"<div id='main' class='copy'><h1>Welcome to the Client Only Area</h1>";
print"<span class='copy'>Client Account</span><br><br><a href='properties-a.php'>View My Property Details</a>";

 } 
 else
{
print"<div id='mainl'><h1>Client Area</h1><br><br><br><br><br><br><br>
Sorry, you have entered incorrect login information. Please note that the password is case sensitive.  To try again, <a href='login.php'>click here</a> or <a href='mailto:xxxxxx'>contact us</a> for assistance.<br><br><br><br><br><br><br><br><br></div>";
}
?>
</body>
</html>

And here is the code for the following page that uses the var $user_id to pull relevant data from the other table.

<?php
session_start();
$_SESSION['user_id'] = $user_id; 
$user_id = $_SESSION['user_id'];
?>

<html>
<head>
</head>

<body>

<?

$dbconnect = mysql_connect("localhost","xxx","xxx");
mysql_select_db("xxx");

$query = "SELECT * from properties where id = '$user_id' ";
$result = mysql_query($query,$dbconnect);

?>


<table width="100%" border=0 align=center class="copy">
    	<tr>
		<th width="160">Client</th>
		<th width="140">Doc 1</th>
		<th width="140">Doc 2</th>
		<th width="140">Document 3</th>
		<th width="140">Document 4</th>
		</tr>

<?
while($row = mysql_fetch_row($result))
{
?>
		<tr>
		<td><?=$row[0]?></td>
		<td><?=$row[1]?></td>
		<td><?=$row[2]?></td>
		<td><?=$row[3]?></td>
		<td><?=$row[4]?></td>
		</tr>
<?
}

?>
		</table>
</body>
</html>

So, I think I've been following all of your helpful instructions, but it's not working. Do you see anything I've missed? I really appreciate all the help.

Thanks.

rincewind456

if this

<?php
session_start();
//$_SESSION['user_id'] = $user_id;
?>

<html>
<head>
</head>

<body>
<?php
$dbconnect = mysql_connect("localhost","mfmgmt","stoneham");
mysql_select_db("mfmgmt");

// assign the vars from $_POST['user_id']  to $user_id
$user_id = $_POST['user_id'];
$user_password=$_POST["user_password"];

$query = "SELECT * from logins where id = '$user_id' AND password = '$user_password' ";

$result = mysql_query($query,$dbconnect);
if($row = mysql_fetch_row($result))
{ // if the query is a success then assign $user_id to $_SESSION['user_id']
	$_SESSION['user_id'] = $user_id;
	// _SESSION['user_id'] is now avalable to the next page
	print"<div id='main' class='copy'><h1>Welcome to the Client Only Area</h1>";
	print"<span class='copy'>Client Account</span><br><br><a href='properties-a.php'>View My Property Details</a>";

}
else
{
	print"<div id='mainl'><h1>Client Area</h1><br><br><br><br><br><br><br>
Sorry, you have entered incorrect login information. Please note that the password is case sensitive.  To try again, <a href='login.php'>click here</a> or <a href='mailto:xxxxxx'>contact us</a> for assistance.<br><br><br><br><br><br><br><br><br></div>";
}
?>
</body>
</html>

is page 2 of 3 then I assume that you are getting the user id and user password from POST variables? If so then $SESSION['user_id'] = $user_id; does nothing. Take a look and you see I have changed a couple of bits, all commented to explain why.
and then in page 3

<?php
session_start();
//$_SESSION['user_id'] = $user_id; // you don't need to do this here as $user_id is empty at this point
$user_id = $_SESSION['user_id']; // it's here that you use the SESSION var to assign a value to $user_id
?>
<SNIP>

I've just commented out the one line.

You also need to add some checks to validate the input from the user before it is passed to the sql query.

And it's best not to use the short <? tag.

lala

Wow. Thanks a million. It works and I'm grateful to have this resolved. I love working with PHP and learning new things, but it seems like there's so much more it's capable of. The manual, to me, is so complicated. Is there any other resource you know of that would be good for digging in?

Thanks again.

bogu

lala wrote:
Is there any other resource you know of that would be good for digging in?

This is a good place to dig in: Newbies forum FAQ + Bookmarked threads