[RESOLVED] Problem with include, code pasted in works, but with include it shows the code itself

arjuna

Hello all,

This is my first post here, i have come to php from the world of python. Things seem more stable there.

I am having a bizarre problem with Include, which is a simple enough statement and is straightforward in python. It should just include the code in the file. I call it as such:

include("include/arjunaClassLib.php")

arjunaClassLib.php just has a regular class (Shown at the botton of this post for reference)

However instead of including the code when i see this in the browser, the code appears on my browser. Ie instead of running it, it is showing it. Yes it is not a tag issue, because, and check this out, if i copy and paste the code into my file instead of including it, it works beautifully.

Why could this be?

arjunaClassLib.php

php?

class ajSelectBox {

function conDb ($dbName,$sql)
{
$con = mysql_connect("localhost","root","karunaworks");
if (!$con)
{
die('Could not connect: ' . mysql_error());
}
mysql_select_db($dbName, $con);
$result= mysql_query($sql);
mysql_close($con);
return $result;
}

function makeSelectBox($selName, $selValue, $selText, $onchangeWhat, $srcTable)
{
#Get the data for the select box from the database
$sql="SELECT " . $selValue ." , " . $selText . " from " . $srcTable;
$result=conDb("nbc", $sql);

# Construct the select box
$a="<select id=".$selName .  " name=".$selName . " onchange='" . $onchangeWhat . "(this.value)'>"; 	
$a=$a . " <option value=''>Select a " .$selText . "</option>";
while($row = mysql_fetch_array($result))
  	{
  		$a=$a. "<option value=" . $row[$selValue] . ">" . $row[$selText]."</option>";
  	}	
$a=$a ."</select>";
return $a;

}
}

arjuna

It appears as such in the browser window when an include is used:

"; $a=$a . " Select a " .$selText . ""; while($row = mysql_fetch_array($result)) { $a=$a. "" . $row[$selText].""; } $a=$a .""; return $a; } function makeSelectBoxTwoFieldsDisplayed($selName, $selValue, $selText, $selText2, $onchangeWhat, $srcTable) { #Get the data for the select box from the database $sql="SELECT " . $selValue ." , " . $selText . " , " . $selText2 ." from " . $srcTable; $result=conDb("nbc", $sql); # Construct the select box $a=""; return $a; } } ?>

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The above code should not be displayed it should be included...Please help!:mad:

halojoy

remove your password! or put $password='xxxxx'

you should always, I said ALWAYS use

<?php

///

?>

using: <? .... ?> and <?=$x .... ?>
is very bad and more, more bad for future and PHP 6.0

always: <?php ...... ?>
<?php

I can see nothing wrong with your code.
It is a good php class. Should work perfect like this:

<?php

class ajSelectBox {

function conDb ($dbName,$sql)
{
	$con = mysql_connect("localhost","xxx","xxx");
	if (!$con)
	{
		die('Could not connect: ' . mysql_error());
	}
	mysql_select_db($dbName, $con);
	$result= mysql_query($sql);
	mysql_close($con);
	return $result;
}

function makeSelectBox($selName, $selValue, $selText, $onchangeWhat, $srcTable)
{
	#Get the data for the select box from the database
	$sql="SELECT " . $selValue ." , " . $selText . " from " . $srcTable;
	$result=conDb("nbc", $sql);

	# Construct the select box
	$a="<select id=".$selName . " name=".$selName . " onchange='" . $onchangeWhat . "(this.value)'>";
	$a=$a . " <option value=''>Select a " .$selText . "</option>";
	while($row = mysql_fetch_array($result))
	{
		$a=$a. "<option value=" . $row[$selValue] . ">" . $row[$selText]."</option>";
	}
	$a=$a ."</select>";
	return $a;
}
}

?>

arjuna

Hi Haojoy:

That worked perfectly! However i need a clarification from you after banging my head against this for several hours:

1) Your code and my code seem identical to me. Why does yours work and mine not. What did you change?

2) About the <?Php ?> tags i was using the <? ?> tags because in trying to separate my presentation from my logic, i was using these tags because they are short, and using php as the templating language rather than going for smarty. Are you saying even when i need to insert varibles in my presentation i should be using <?php This is kind of verbose...dont you think or do you think it is necessary

I didnt realize i was pasting my password there, will change it immediately....

I await your clarification on this eagerly, what is different in your code and mine, why did yours work while mine posted the code to the browser?

I am using the bluefish editor and sometimes i use leafpad...

arjuna

Also in this forum how do you post your code with all that beautiful formatting in the greyed out box? what php editor do you use? a

bradgrafelman

arjuna wrote:
1) Your code and my code seem identical to me. Why does yours work and mine not. What did you change?

He added <?php .. ?> tags. As the manual for [man]include[/man] states, the PHP parser drops out of PHP mode for included files. Thus, if the first line of your include()'ed script isn't "<?php", then it will be parsed as plain text (a.k.a. sent to the browser as normal, unparsed output).

arjuna wrote:
2) About the <?Php ?> tags i was using the <? ?> tags because in trying to separate my presentation from my logic, i was using these tags because they are short, and using php as the templating language rather than going for smarty. Are you saying even when i need to insert varibles in my presentation i should be using <?php This is kind of verbose...dont you think or do you think it is necessary

You should always use the full '<?php' tag, and never use the short '<?' or '<?=' tags. The short tags have been deprecated for some time now and even removed from future versions of PHP.

Yes, '<?php' is three characters longer than '<?', but do you type <h> instead of <html>? Or <s> instead of <script> ?

arjuna wrote:
Also in this forum how do you post your code with all that beautiful formatting in the greyed out box?

That's the [noparse]

..

[/noparse] bbcode tags. See this page for a list of bbcode tags.

arjuna

🙂

Thanks for the clarifications, they are much appreciated!

Moral of the story is to always use <?php> <?> tags...rather than <? or <%

Thanks again...

halojoy

I can add and tell what made me pretty sure
that this was a case error by bad habbit of using <?
eventhough you never posted your code with any tags in your first post.

You told in your second post

It appears as such in the browser window when an include is used:

"; $a=$a . " Select a " .$selText . ""; while($row = mysql_fetch_array($result))

The code just right before "; $a=$a is where something happend.
What happend was that PHP jumped into HTML/TEXT
and just put it out as plain text.

What caused php to jump out?
Yes, one end tag: >

In this case, the opening tag <? was matched by an endtag: >
What can be found inside a quoted text:
"(this.value)'>";

And it is exactly before the begining of text posted in your second post:
";$a=$a .

# Construct the select box
$a="<select id=".$selName . " name=".$selName . " onchange='" . $onchangeWhat . "(this.value)'>";
$a=$a . " <option value=''>Select a " .$selText . "</option>";

Bottomline:
One bad opening tag ( <? )confused PHP and HTML so it made no longer sense.
The sense that the programmer wanted.

arjuna

Halojoy:

Thanks for the detailed explanation. This bug wasted 1 day of my time. Since i am new to php i didnt realize the tags could be misinterpreted as such. In the html for the select box, the "< >" symbols are used. I am surprised that php confused this with the php ending tag. Anyway given your recommendation i am only using <?php ?> tags now.

you are right when i posted, I neglected to copy the initial tag properly.

Thanks again...

bradgrafelman

PHP will never jump out of PHP mode just because of a '>' character - it must be '?>' (outside of a string, as well).

I'd bet money that more than "; $a=$a . " Select a " .$selText . ""; while($row = mysql_fetch_array($result)) was outputted to the browser - you just didn't view the raw source of the page and instead copied what was rendered by your browser.

arjuna

I spent a day debugging this irritating issue. I did copy what the browser rendered.

However here are the issues:

1) Why is it that when i "included" the code it rendered this stuff... however when I copied and pasted the code in my file it worked perfectly? Is this an issue with the include or with the tags? For if it were an issue with the tags then the same problem should have cropped up when i copied and pasted the code at the head of my file.

2) How come when I copied and pasted Halo's code into the include file, it worked just fine?

3) You are right, there was only a '>' from the select in the string. No ?> So then why did PHP garble it all up?

Strange ways.... Coming from python i find this behaviour somewhat unstable and unpredictable.

In any case it is working now....

bradgrafelman

arjuna wrote:
1) Why is it that when i "included" the code it rendered this stuff... however when I copied and pasted the code in my file it worked perfectly?

I'm assuming by "rendered this stuff" you mean showed the code in your browser? If so, I explained that - when you include() a file, the first thing that happens is the PHP parser automatically drops out of PHP mode. If you don't have a valid opening PHP tag at the top of the include()'ed file, then PHP is going to treat the data as plain text (e.g. output it to the browser unparsed) until it encounters a valid opening tag (or the end of the file, of course).

You said you used the short '<?' tag, which has been deprecated and disabled by default for some time now. I'm guessing that the short tags weren't specifically enabled in your php.ini (and/or .htaccess file), thus they are not valid opening PHP tags, thus the PHP parser never interpreted the code as PHP code.

arjuna wrote:
2) How come when I copied and pasted Halo's code into the include file, it worked just fine?

halojoy didn't use the deprecated short '<?' open tags.

arjuna wrote:
3) You are right, there was only a '>' from the select in the string. No ?> So then why did PHP garble it all up?

PHP didn't garble it up. In fact, PHP didn't do anything to the code - it just sent it directly to your browser as plain text.

As you said, however, you showed us what the browser rendered and not the actual data it received from your script. Your browser tried to parse the PHP code as HTML code. Obviously, it tried to treat '<?' as the start of an HTML tag and eventually choked and spit out some odd parts of the code.

That's why showing us what your browser rendered is useless - it doesn't show us what was actually sent to your browser. Instead, you should have viewed the source code of the page and pasted the raw, un-rendered/un-garbled data.

arjuna wrote:
i find this behaviour somewhat unstable and unpredictable.

It's actually very stable and very predictable. The '<?' short open tags are deprecated and disabled by default. You used the short open tags. The PHP parser didn't recognize this is a valid open tag and thus treated the code as plain text, just as it's supposed to do.