Problems with if test and would want some advice what to look for.

[god0fgod]

Hello. I'm developing a news submittal system for my website (completely blind on php lol) and at the moment I'm creating a php script to submit news with information into a database until it is approved by mail. I wanted to test the script to see if it placed data into the database correctly before I continued. I have an error message with the if test. Anyone know what to do. also can anyone give me any advice to how I will accomplish the rest by directing me to useful resources or telling me what i'd need to do? Thanks.

$email = $_GET['email'];
$category = $_GET['category'];
$article = $_GET['article'];
$title = $_GET['title']

if (in_array("General", $category)) {
$General = 1;
}else{
$General = 0;
}
if (in_array("Funny", $category)) {
$Funny = 1;
}else{
$Funny = 0;
}
if (in_array("Help related", $category)) {
$Help = 1;
}else{
$Help = 0;
}
if (in_array("Quizzes", $category)) {
$Quiz = 1;
}else{
$Quiz = 0;
}
if (in_array("Chatbots", $category)) {
$Chat = 1;
}else{
$Chat = 0;
}
if (in_array("Video game related", $category)) {
$Game = 1;
}else{
$Game = 0;
}

mysql_connect(localhost,root,********);
@mysql_select_db(subbmission) or die( "There has been an error in your request. Please try again! Error: Unable to select dadabase.");
$query="INSERT INTO pending VALUES ('$title','2007','$article','$General','$Funny','$Help','$Quiz','$Chat','$Game')";
mysql_query($query);
mysql_close();

$subject = "New article submission" . $title;
$body = $article . $General . $Funny . $Help . $Quiz . $Chat . $Game;
mail('[e-mail]',$subject,$body,"From: $email\n");

if(mail('[e-mail]',$subject,$body,"From: $email\n")){
echo "<font face=\"arial\">Your submission has been entered successfully and is pending approval</font>";
}else{
echo "<font face=\"arial\">There has been an error in your request. Please try again! Error: Unable to mail.</font>";
}

[kkobashi]

You should test the result of the query before sending the email.
$result = mysql_query($query);

If the insertion failed, you don't want to send an email out.

[god0fgod]

Thanks. I shal do that but it is my if tests that give a error code. I'll update this post with the error.

Parse error: syntax error, unexpected T_IF in C:\Program Files\xampp\htdocs\News test submittal\processstage1.php on line 7

I included the whole script without the <? and ?> so line seven is where the first if starts.

[laserlight]

You are missing the terminating semi-colon in the line where you initialise $title. You should also check if $_GET['title'] exists with [man]isset[/man] before using it to initialise $title.

It may be better to change:

if (in_array("General", $category)) {
    $General = 1;
}else{
    $General = 0;
}

to:

$General = in_array("General", $category) ? 1 : 0;

as the latter emphasizes that you are initialising $General. In fact, I would use $general instead of $General to have a more consistent variable naming scheme.

[god0fgod]

Aha I should have noticed the mission semi colon. Thanks for that.

Testing the query was a good idea since thats the error I get lol. Need to double check everything.