Can you pass an array URL variable

Question

Hi,
Doing a form which I want to validate, then re-display with
error messages and the keyed data still in place should there be
errors, or go onto a second form if all ok.
I have tried to use <form
action="<?=$_SERVER['PHP_SELF']?>" but as the various
outcomes result in different screens I can't see how to do it
without having reams of duplicate code - I couldn't make it work
satisfactorily anyway.
So I decided to do it in two stages - form (user screen) + a
separate validation routine which passes validation results back if
there are errors by calling the first screen but with URL variables
to trigger process variations or go onto screen 2 if all ok.
But I'm struggling with this .. two questions:
i) Ideally I would like to use a session variable to pass
actual error messages back to screen one in the event of errors but
if I undertand things correctly (which is by no means certain)
$S_Session is already an associatve array so it wouldn't be so easy
to just add a variable number of messages to it and then know what
you are unpacking elsewhere ... do you know what I mean?
Perhaps if I give you my second question it may help
illustrate what I'm going on about in part 1
ii) The way I have tried to do it is to set it up as an array
($ERRORS) in the validation module and then added a text string
each time I hit a specific error. The hope was that I could then
send this back via the URL for further process but I'm getting
syntax problem so maybe this is not possible .... a brief example
Input Form php:
$ERRORS = array();
$ERRORS = $_GET['errors']
if (sizeof($ERRORS) > 0) {
echo "<p class=\"val_err_hdr\"> *** Validation
error(s) - please correct the entries and try again ***
</p>";
blah blah
Validation php:
$ERRORS=array();
if(!$loginFoundUser) {
$ERRORS[] = "This e-mail address entered has already been
registered on our database - if you have already registered you
can"; }
header("Location: input.form.php?errors=$ERRORS");
When I run this I get a syntax error 'unexpected T_IF' on the
'sizeof'' function condition.
Any help much appreciated.

Answer 1

.oO(patricktr)
> Doing a form which I want to validate, then re-display
with error messages and
>the keyed data still in place should there be errors, or
go onto a second form
>if all ok.
OK, quite common.
> I have tried to use <form
action="<?=$_SERVER['PHP_SELF']?>"
Avoid short open tags, they are unreliable. Use "<?php
print " instead
of just "<?=" to be safe and independent from the server
configuration.
>but as the
>various outcomes result in different screens I can't see
how to do it without
>having reams of duplicate code - I couldn't make it work
satisfactorily anyway.
What's a "screen" in this case? Just another part of the form
or a
completely different page?
> So I decided to do it in two stages - form (user screen)
+ a separate
>validation routine which passes validation results back
if there are errors by
>calling the first screen but with URL variables to
trigger process variations
>or go onto screen 2 if all ok.
Don't use URL parameters in such a form processing scenario.
Use a
session instead, that's what they are for. The length of URLs
is limited
and there are things you simply don't want to pass between
pages, but
keep on the server instead.
> But I'm struggling with this .. two questions:
>
> i) Ideally I would like to use a session variable to
pass actual error
>messages back to screen one in the event of errors but if
I undertand things
>correctly (which is by no means certain) $S_Session is
already an associatve
>array so it wouldn't be so easy to just add a variable
number of messages to it
>and then know what you are unpacking elsewhere ... do you
know what I mean?
The $_SESSION array itself is strictly associative, the used
indexes
must be strings or the serialization of the session data will
fail.
But if course you can always do things like this:
$_SESSION['errors'] = array();
$_SESSION['errors'][] = 'something went wrong';
> Perhaps if I give you my second question it may help
illustrate what I'm going
>on about in part 1
> ii) The way I have tried to do it is to set it up as an
array ($ERRORS) in the
>validation module and then added a text string each time
I hit a specific
>error. The hope was that I could then send this back via
the URL for further
>process but I'm getting syntax problem so maybe this is
not possible .... a
>brief example ...
As said above - use the session instead.
> Input Form php:
> $ERRORS = array();
> $ERRORS = $_GET['errors']
There's a ';' missing at the EOL (this causes the error you
mentioned
below).
Just a naming hint: Variables should not be named all
uppercase (except
for the predefined superglobal arrays). Such names should be
reserved
for constants. The most common style looks like this:
myNiceFunction()
$myNiceVariable
MY_NICE_CONSTANT
> if (sizeof($ERRORS) > 0) {
if (!empty($_SESSION['errors'])) {
> header("Location: input.form.php?errors=$ERRORS");
The Location URI must be absolute including scheme and
hostname. This is
required by the HTTP spec:
header("Location:
http://$_SERVER[HTTP_HOST
But I'm still not sure why you would need this redirect. The
entire
handling of a form (validation, processing) can be done on a
single
page. Only if the processing succeeds, you might want to
redirect to
some result page.
Micha