PHP code only shows Blank Window

mikerg

Hi to every one - Just Registered - First Post🙂

I am working on a PHP/MySQL driven site with many pages.

After calling a pure php page that updates the database, I am left with a blank window that needs to be closed.

Question 1;
Am I doing something wrong that causes the php page to show?

Question 2
Can I close the page without re-calling the original opener?

Sorry if this is trivial stuff, I am self taught on PHP and still learning.

Regards to All
~Mike~

NogDog

You may have some kind of fatal error, but have display_errors turned off. If it's not a parse error, you could turn on errors at the script level with:

<?php
ini_set('display_errors', 1); // set to 0 for production version
error_reporting(E_ALL);
/* rest of script . . . */

However, if it's a parse error, that won't help, in which case you'll either need to find the error in the PHP error log, change the error settings in php.ini or possibly a local .htaccess file, or check the code in a separate test server (which can be a properly set up PC running locally), or maybe even a good editor/IDE that does PHP parse checking.

mikerg

Thanks NogDog,

I understand what you are saying about the fatal php errors.
When I leave out a semicolon or make other php code errors, the page stops and displays errors OK.
Would this not indicate that display_errors is turned on?

I am currently working in a LocalHost environment.

The script does do its job, that is, it saves the contents of a form into the MySQL database tables. and if I put a final line

header( "Location: $v_userpage" ) ;

to take me to another page, the blank page does not show.

Would an 'All PHP' page normally show in a window and need to be closed?

Thanks again
~Mike~

NogDog

Well, if the PHP page does not actually output anything, then that's what you will see: nothing. There is no default output, only what your script explicitly echos, prints, or otherwise outputs (including text outside of the <?php ... ?> tags. Not sure if this is what we're talking about?

mikerg

NogDog;10965500 wrote:
Well, if the PHP page does not actually output anything, then that's what you will see: nothing. There is no default output, only what your script explicitly echos, prints, or otherwise outputs (including text outside of the <?php ... ?> tags. Not sure if this is what we're talking about?

Sorry if I am not explaining fully. Thanks for sticking with me on this..🙂
I think you are understanding what I am trying to explain..

There is nothing outside <?php ... ?> tags and no print or echo statements.

To re-phrase the question;-
Because, the page is not outputting anything, is it normal to show a blank window, or normal to not show the window at all, as there is nothing to show anyway.?

I am a retired VB programmer. With VB, when a subroutine or function is called, where no output is required, the task takes place in the background and no window is displayed.

I know PHP is completely different and am wondering if the same logic applies..

If the blank window is normal, I then know my code is OK and shall continue using;

header( "Location: $v_userpage" ) ;

On the other hand, if the blank page should NOT show, I need to find out why, and repair my code accoringly.

I hope this explains it a bit better.
I appreciate your help with this.
~Mike~

NogDog

Yes, if you do not output anything, then that's what the browser receives: some HTTP headers and then an empty content string, which is what gets "displayed". For a quick comparison, create an empty file, call it test.html, and then open that file in your browser.

foyer

Question, you say your page is updating the database. Is the script doing it's job and updating the database? If so then it sounds like everything is functioning normally.

mikerg

foyer;10965512 wrote:
Question, you say your page is updating the database. Is the script doing it's job and updating the database? If so then it sounds like everything is functioning normally.

Hi Foyer,

Yes the Script is Updating the database with no errors thats all it's supposed to do.

The Page containing the Script to update the database is 'update_letting.php'
After the script has executed, I am left with a blank page, and the browser address bar shows 'http://update_letting.php'

My Question is..
Should I be left with this empty page in the browser
or
Should the calling Page remain visible without showing the script window?

~Mike~

NogDog

If you want the calling page to remain visible, then you could call the PHP form-handler via a JavaScript AJAX implementation; but if you call it via a normal <form> action attribute, then it will open a new page, displaying whatever output is received from the URL used as the "action", displaying nothing if nothing is output by that URL.