help im a noob

CaN Opener · 10-09-2003, 10:51 PM

i picked up a book on php and this what it told me to do

this code is from test.html

Code:

<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/loose.dtd">
<html>
<head>
<title>Untitled Document</title>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1">
</head>

<body>
<form action="handleform.php" method="post">
first name 
  <input type=text name="firstname" size=20><br>

last name <input type=text name="lastname" size=40> <br>
e-mail adress <input type=text name="email" size =60> <br>
comments <textarea name="comments" rows=5 cols=40></textarea><br>
<input type=submit name="submit" value="submit!"></form>

</body>
</html>

this code is from handleform.php

Code:

<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/loose.dtd">
<html>
<head>
<title>Untitled Document</title>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1">
</head>

<body>
<?php
print "your first name is $firstname .<br>\n";
print "your last name is $lastname .<br>\n";
print "your email name is $email .<br>\n";
print "this is what u had to say: <br>\n $comments <br>\n";
?>
</body>
</html>

when i run the code i get these error messages

Quote:

Notice: Undefined variable: firstname in C:\Documents and Settings\can opener\Desktop\cantheham\handleform.php on line 10
your first name is .

Notice: Undefined variable: lastname in C:\Documents and Settings\can opener\Desktop\cantheham\handleform.php on line 11
your last name is .

Notice: Undefined variable: email in C:\Documents and Settings\can opener\Desktop\cantheham\handleform.php on line 12
your email name is .

Notice: Undefined variable: comments in C:\Documents and Settings\can opener\Desktop\cantheham\handleform.php on line 13
this is what u had to say:

ok i have several questions.
First my book says that in PHP u dont need to decalar vars like you do in "c" its says that its declared as soon as it is used so how can it be undeclared?

Second why would my book say to use print instead of echo as ive seen everywhere else any advantages to either one or disavantages?

Third why would the error messages show the local directory if this script is run on a server? shouldnt it show teh vir dir path?

fourth why dosent my code work any thoughts?

thank you for your time

can

sde · 10-09-2003, 11:05 PM

you are having a common problem regarding php error reporting.

there are 3 types of reporting: notices, warnings, and errors

the default php install reports notices, however it didn't used to which is why these instructions are probably left out of a lot of books.

warning and errors are things you do want reported .. however notices are not needed.

you can go to your php.ini file and find the line that says: error_reporting. make it look like this:

Code:

error_reporting  = E_ALL & ~(E_NOTICE | E_USER_NOTICE) ; display all errors and warnings

remember to restart your web server after you make the changes.

that should take care of those notices.

let us know how it works.

joe_bruin · 10-10-2003, 01:40 AM

your code looks fine. the problem is with your php configuration.

first, print and echo do exactly the same thing. use whichever one you like. 'print' is there for compatibility with perl, i believe.

you can do what sde said regarding the notices. however, that will not fix your main problem (that is, the variables are not defined). what's most likely going on is that your php configuration is set not to register variables submitted through forms as global variables by default. this page (http://www.php.net/register_globals) will explain the situation. and like sde said, this is a recent change and probably not in your php book.

if you don't want to change your server configuration, try using the _POST array instead. example:

PHP Code:

  print "your first name is ".$_POST["firstname"]." .<br>\n";

sde · 10-10-2003, 09:07 AM

just make the changes in your php.ini file. especially if you are n00b to php. it will make life much easier for you as you explore that book.

otherwise most of the examples in your book will not work.

php.ini

Code:

error_reporting  = E_ALL & ~(E_NOTICE | E_USER_NOTICE)
register_globals on

CaN Opener · 10-10-2003, 04:15 PM

:rock: koo ty i edited the php.ini and it works great now.