[RESOLVED] How to capture text output as variables

Connie_Goss

I am trying to make my shopping cart compliant with new WA state sales tax rules. These require that sales tax be charged according to the destination address. I have to do a lookup of the customer's address against the state's address and tax location code files. The state has furnished a program that will do this, but the output goes to the browser window as text.

Below are two short test scripts. Enter a valid Washington state address and you will get output showing you the 4-digit tax location code, a tax rate, and a return code.

How do I redirect the output so that I can (a) capture the return code as a php variable, and (b) stop the output from going to the browser window?😕

Script #1:

<html>
<Head>
</head>
<body>
<form method='post' action='GetSalesTax.php'>
<p>Enter address, city and zip:</p>
<input type='text' name='address' size='30' >&nbsp &nbsp
<input type='text' name='city' size='30' >&nbsp &nbsp
<input type='text' name='zip' size='9' >
<br><br>
<input type=submit value='Find Tax Code & Rate'> &nbsp &nbsp
<input type=reset value='Reset'>
</form>
</body>
</html>

Script #2:

<?php
$address = $POST['address'];
$city = $POST['city'];
$zip = $_POST['zip'];
header( "Location: http://dor.wa.gov/AddressRates.aspx?output=text&addr=" . $address ."&city=" . $city . "&zip=". $zip );
?>

dagon

instead of header location, use file_get_contents() or file() or curl.

hws

and to display the info in script 2 add:

<?php echo $address; ?> etc. to show what you want displayed back to the user.

Connie_Goss

Thank you for your replies, but I don't think I've communicated the problem correctly. If you run the two scripts I furnished (use sample address "123 West Main St., Monroe, 98272", you will see that the browser refreshes and displays the tax code information for that address. I don't understand how reading a file will help me here, unless you can tell me how to pipe the screen output to a temporary file - then I can read it no problem. Also, I don't need to echo the information to the screen - it's already doing that, and I don't want it to. All I need is to capture that output as an array or a text string so I can use it in my program, and SUPPRESS the screen output. Thoughts?

dagon

you where clear the first time, the value you want from a page is a file, look at those functions in the manual,

$foo =file_get_contents('http://dor.wa.gov/AddressRates.aspx?output=text&addr=' . $address .'&city=' . $city . '&zip='. $zip );

is one way of doing it

Connie_Goss

Okay, it's almost working, but I am getting some strange results. If I enter garbage data in all three fields, I do get a valid string returned like this:

LocationCode=-1 Rate=-1 ResultCode=4 debughint=Invalid ZIP

However, if I enter a valid address, it says $foo is boolean. If I enter this same address using the header-location method, the tax data shows correctly on the screen, so I can't figure out why file_get_contents can't seem to parse it.

Here's the latest revised test script. Try this with "123 west main st", "monroe",
"98272":

<?php
$addr = $POST['address'];
$city = $POST['city'];
$zip = $_POST['zip'];
$foo= 'nothing';

// header('location:http://dor.wa.gov/AddressRates.aspx?output=text&addr=' . $addr .'&city=' . $city . '&zip='. $zip );

$foo = file_get_contents('http://dor.wa.gov/AddressRates.aspx?output=text&addr=' . $addr .'&city=' . $city . '&zip='.

$zip );

echo 'The address is ' . $addr . ' ' . $city . ' ' . $zip;

echo '<br>';
echo "Foo is: ". $foo;
echo '<br>';
echo 'Var type of foo is ' . gettype($foo);

dagon

$addr = urlencode($_POST['address']);

if city can have spaces, urlencode it also

Connie_Goss

Perfect!! That does the trick!! Thank you Dagon.

bradgrafelman

Don't forget to mark the thread resolved (if it is) using the link under the Thread Tools menu.