Array Help

jeffgman

I need some help with arrays.

Here is the code I have for a page. The user will type in a SKU number and the page will loop through itself adding the SKU number to an array. This continues to happen until the user enters in a zero for the SKU number, at which time the look will break and it will go to a different page. I cannot get the array to POST between page views.

<?php
$skuarray = urldecode(unserialize($_POST['skuarraysend']));
$sku = $_POST['sku'];
if (!empty($sku)) {
	if ($sku == '0') {
		header("Location: whselocation2.php");
		exit();
	} else {
		$skuarray[] = $sku;
	}
}
$skuarraysend = urlencode(serialize($skuarray));
?>

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
<head>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1" />
<title>Title</title>
<link rel="stylesheet" href="main.css">
</head>

<body>
<p>Enter in a SKU number</p>
<form id="form1" name="form1" method="post" action="whselocation.php">
	<input type="hidden" name="skuarraysend" value="<? echo "'$skuarraysend'" ?>" >
  <label>SKU:
  <input type="text" name="sku" />&nbsp;&nbsp;<font size="-2">Enter 0 to quit</font><BR /><BR />
  </label>
  <input type="reset" name="Reset" />&nbsp;&nbsp;<input type="submit" name="Submit" />
</form>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
</body>
</html>

Scriptmaker

value="<? echo "'$skuarraysend'" ?>"

so it's going to echo

value="[SIZE="5"][COLOR="Red"]'[/COLOR][/SIZE]serializedskudata[SIZE="5"][COLOR="Red"]'[/COLOR][/SIZE]"

Do you need the double quote and then the single quote? I'm not too familiar with serializing arrays, but that's the first thing that stuck out for me.

try

value="<?php echo $skuarraysend ?>"

maybe?

jeffgman

Thanks for the reply. Actually, it used to be echo "'{$skuarraysend}'". That is why I had the double and single quotes. I removed the quotes and it still does not work.

Jeff

Scriptmaker

Ok, then it could be the way the form is encoding the data, or a problem with the serializing. I remember someone having a problem with serializing before where it wasn't writing the correct number of keys. Try troubleshooting by using print_r on the array and by echoing the serializedarraypost and making sure it matches the format php.net says it should.

You may want to try using sessions too. Makes it a little easier to pass data around.

jeffgman

OK. Here are the results. This is what the data looks like before it is posted via the form but after it is serialized:

a:1:{i:0;s:6:"000123";}

And, here is the data after it is posted, but not unserialized yet:

a:1:{i:0;s:6:

OK, so there is a problem. Here is what happens when I use urlencode and urldecode.

Before I post but after I serialize and then urlencode:

a%3A1%3A%7Bi%3A0%3Bs%3A6%3A%22000123%22%3B%7D

And after I post the data but before I decode and unserialize it:

a%3A1%3A%7Bi%3A0%3Bs%3A6%3A%22000123%22%3B%7D

So, that method looks like it keeps the data intact, but after I run the unserialize and urldecode, the $skuarray variable is blank.

Any ideas?

Thanks for your help so far.

Weedpacket

First off, it would almost certainly be better to use sessions for this, because then you wouldn't have to trust your data to the client and whoever is using it. (As it is at the very least you'll need to check that the data is still valid when it comes back.)

But putting the bigger picture aside...

$skuarray = urldecode(unserialize($_POST['skuarraysend']));
//...
$skuarraysend = urlencode(serialize($skuarray));

If you shrinkwrap something and then pack it in a cardboard box, you have to take it out of the box before removing the shrinkwrap, right? You're trying to do it the other way around.

Incidentally, [man]htmlspecialchars[/man] would be a better choice of encoding. You wouldn't need to decode it, then.

jeffgman

OK. I have given up on trying to make it work. I am going to try sessions like everybody has suggested. It has been a while since I have used sessions, so is this correct?

<?php
session_start();
$sku = $_POST['sku'];
if (!empty($sku)) {
	if ($sku == '0') {
		header("Location: whselocation2.php");
		exit();
	}

if (empty($_SESSION['skuarray'])) {
	$_SESSION['skuarray'] = array($sku);
} else {
	$_SESSION['skuarray'] = array_push($_SESSION['skuarray'], $sku);
}

}
?>

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
<head>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1" />
<title>Title</title>
<link rel="stylesheet" href="main.css">
</head>

<body>
<p>Title</p>
<form id="form1" name="form1" method="post" action="whselocation.php">
	<input type="hidden" name="skuarraysend" value="<? echo $_SESSION['skuarray'] ?>" >
  <label>SKU:
  <input type="text" name="sku" />&nbsp;&nbsp;<font size="-2">Enter 0 to quit</font><BR /><BR />
  </label>
  <input type="reset" name="Reset" />&nbsp;&nbsp;<input type="submit" name="Submit" />
</form>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
</body>
</html>