[RESOLVED] Simple php Mail form not working, help!

ryarwood

Sorry dudes, my first post and I double posted. This thing is explained better in the post below. My bad.

I have this thing called an i-postcard. Basically it is a script that builds an HTML email based on some options in a flash file. It has a php script that sends the email. It works fine in php4, but once I switched it to php5 some of the POST variables inside my html won't work.

I won't bore anyone with the whole script, but pretty much I have

<?php

.... lots of fun code

ob_start();

...fun html with this...

<?= $POST['cardnum'] ?>
<?= stripslashes( nl2br( htmlspecialchars($POST['greeting']) ) ) ?>

...more fun html...

<?php

...more php code (that works)

The only thing that won't work (but also doesn't error out) are the two $_POST variables in the middle of the html. Any idears?

stolzyboy

Just for giggles, change this:

<?= $_POST['cardnum'] ?>

to this:

<?php echo $_POST['cardnum']; ?>

and change this:

<?= stripslashes( nl2br( htmlspecialchars($_POST['greeting']) ) ) ?>

to this:

<?php echo stripslashes(nl2br(htmlspecialchars($_POST['greeting']))); ?>

ryarwood

It fixed the top piece of code. Thanks!

The second for 'greeting' is still a bit off. I'm trying some thing myself, but you got any other ideas?

ryarwood

Never mind that worked fine. I just tried to do another part of the script (the multiple recipients) and it messed up there. I'll figure that part out on my own. Thanks again!

stolzyboy

Just remember NEVER to use <? as your opening PHP, always use <?php and NEVER use the short echo like <?= always use <?php echo

The versions you used are OFF by default in a PHP installation. Using the ones I provided will guarantee they will work in any installation.

ryarwood

Is there any reason it's bad to turn those options on. I have a bunch of scripts that use that syntax (ex-employee's method of choice).

Also if I already have php installed, what's the easiest way to alter settings? SSH in?

Update: I went ahead and made that change (through pico and then restarted the server) and thing seem to be working fine. Are there any other things that are turned off by default that you suggest turning on?

stolzyboy

Yes, SSH is the best.

I wouldn't change any default settings personally. I would do search and replaces on the <?= and replace with <? echo. Many text editors will do this for you, on multiple files/folders/subfolders. That way, should you move it to a server where you don't have control over the php.ini, you're code will work. Better to be proactive rather than reactive.

If this is an inhouse server and you'll always have access to the php.ini, then you are probably safe doing that change.

Whatever you do, leave register_globals OFF and always sanitize user input.

ryarwood

It's a co-lo server that I (with little knowledge) control, so I think I'm safe.

The alternate is making the revisions to about 200-250 php files in one place or another. We don't exactly have one site. Like I said it was the coding preference of an ex employee. I'll be sure to do things in best practices in the future.

Thanks again for all your help!