PHP: Losing Form Variables

ballooba

booker.php?name=Stephen&address=info@XXXX.ie&number=085*******&Submit=Submit&tuition1=&tuition2=&tuition3=&tuition4=&tuition5=&comp_course1=Course_1_Mon_6.30pm&comp_course2=Course_1_Sat_9.30am&comp_course3=Course_1_Wed_6.30pm&comp_course4=Course_1_Wed_6.30pm&comp_course5=Course_1_Mon_6.30pm&adult_course1=&adult_course2=&adult_course3=&adult_course4=&adult_course5=

Anything wrong with the above?

I am passing empty fields for when people don't book courses. It never caused a problem before but has stopped working in the last week.

Ph3n0m

why bother passing them over then? are you doing this via form or a link?

ballooba

Via Form.

People have an option to book up to fifteen courses. Up to five of each variety.

seamus

What errors/behaviour are you getting?

Ph3n0m

Are you then storing the results in a database? Why do you need to pass over empty variables?

Lemming

What version of PHP are you using? Later versions have global variables set to default 'off' (which is sane) so you may need to use something like the $POST[] or $GET[] system variables to extract information from the url (if I recall my php - not done anything with it in a while in all fairness). Using those variables is good practice anyway.

What I'm thinking is that someone updated the version of php or secured it or something and that's why your variables are going walkabout.

ballooba

It's putting them into a PHP page that emails them to an address and displays a thank you message with the person's name. I think Lemming might be onto something there.

Something like this:

<?php
if(isset($_POST)) {
$to = "you@you.com";
$subject = "Form Tutorial";
$name_field = $_POST;
$email_field = $_POST;
$message = $_POST;

$body = "From: $name_field\n E-Mail: $email_field\n Message:\n $message";

echo "Data has been submitted to $to!";
mail($to, $subject, $body);
} else {
echo "blarg!";
}
?>

seamus

Is the method in your form GET, not POST, hence why the variables appear in the URL?

ballooba

I change it to GET for debugging.

I forgot to change it back for testing the solution though. Was wondering why it wasn't working.

ballooba

Thanks for the help lads.

Lemming hit the nail on the head.

Global variables had been turned off on the server.

The solution was:
$name = $_GET;
$address = $_GET;
$number = $_GET;
etc.

MrScruff

Had this problem too recently and I was tearing my hair out for about 30 minutes, why is PHP so hard to debug??
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