[mfp] Inputting forms to output in PHP

[DavH27]

Now these should be pretty simple, right? Grr then why isn't it working for me!!??

I have even copy/paste the example exactly from WebMonkey.com :

index.php

<form action="test.php" method=post> 

 My name is:
 <br> <input type="text" name="YourName"> 

 <p> My favorite dirty word is: 
 <br> <input type="text" name="FavoriteWord"> 
 <p>

 <input type="submit" name="submit" value="Enter My Data!">
 </form>

test.php

<p>
Hi <?php print $YourName; ?>

<p>
You like the word <b> <?php print $FavoriteWord; ?> !?! </b>

<p>You oughta be ashamed of yourself!

Look good yeah? Well it does to me anyway...but then I fill the form in. Click submit then I get hit with this:

Hi
Notice: Undefined variable: YourName in C:\My Documents\phpTest\test.php on line 9


You like the word
Notice: Undefined variable: FavoriteWord in C:\My Documents\phpTest\test.php on line 12
!?!

You oughta be ashamed of yourself!

But I had defined the variables in the previous form, surely?

[DavH27]

Ahh fixed it!

It seemed that the method that WebMonkey was teaching em was out of date or something...

I used a tutorial from uk.php.net

PHP Code:

<?php print $_POST['YourName']; ?>  //Used this instead of ...
<?php print "$YourName"; ?>   // <-- this

[sde]

by default, php reports notices. it is good practice to define your variables, although pretty damn annoying for someone learning php because most php tutorials don't define variables. you will definately want to turn notice reporting off.

for example, even if you do this:

PHP Code:

<?
$i = 0;
?>

you will probably get a notice error because you didn't declare $i as a var. i know it probably doesn't seem like a big deal declaring every variable since you are coming from a vb background, but i'm sure 90% of the tutorials out there don't do it. there is really no need to do it with php.

register globals is another setting that is usually turned off. now this may be confusing, but it also relates to what you are talking about here. let's say you have notices turned off now. you will NOT get that error if you tried to print $YourName. but another thing you would notice is that NOTHING at all would print.

most web servers that you pay to host on has register globals turned on. this would allow you to get away with NOT using the $_POST or $_GET before any variable names you try to use that have been either submitted from a form or in the url. it is very good practice to use $_POST and $_GET for everything as i have learned in my experience so i always use them now.

so here is my recomendation. go to your php.ini file ( c:\windows\php.ini ) i think that's where it's at .. and change the error reporting line to the following:

error_reporting  =  E_ALL & ~E_NOTICE

i don't recommend it, but if you did want to turn register_global s on, do this

register_globals On

this may make following other tutorials easier for you for now.

once you make the changes, restart your web server.

[DavH27]

But surely when testing the php scripts that I write, I want to see what is not working as it should, the line number and other details in the error notice?

This makes debugging a walk in the park.

So why you telling me to turn it off?

[Belisarius]

Too much information can be a bad thing.

[sde]

php will report the following errors: warning, parse, notice, error

i'm telling you to only turn notice reporting off. if you make a parse error, or some other error that you will need to debug, it will still show you what line the error is on .. it just won't report notices.

i've never worked on a server that has had notice reporting turned on .. and most of the time, the only time php coders declare variables is when they are writting classes. ( object oriented php )

ultimately the choice is yours =) .. i'm just giving you advice to make life easier as you are new to php and will probably be using online tutorials. most tutorials will NOT declare their variables which will cause you to get notice errors.

[DavH27]

Problem is, online tutorials get out of date and that is a bugger for people like me.

Okay I'll turn em off