Php Version Difference?

[jandrews3]

The following code works on a site I have with PHP version 4.3.9:

          $query = "SELECT id, lname, fname, mail1, mail2, city, state, country, email, telr, pdthru, active FROM ithf_members WHERE active > '1' AND ".$srch." LIKE '$this%' ORDER BY '$org'";

 

BUT when I move it to a new site using PHP 5.2.5 the same code generates the error:

Could not perform query: You have an error in your SQL syntax; check the manual that corresponds to your MySQL server version for the right syntax to use near 'LIKE '%' ORDER BY 'lname'' at line 1

 

 

I'm moving to a new VPS account from a shared account. The new account has a much newer version of PHP. I guess I might end up having to debug have of my code from the last couple of years. Is this particular problem a result of difference in PHP versions? THANKS!

 

 

[.josh]

looks like your $this variable is empty.

[PFMaBiSmAd]

This is not a php version problem. The variable $this is empty in your query, probably because your code relies on register_globals to "magically" populate program variables from post/get data. Your code is also not validating the inputs to your code or your validation logic would have output a message something like "You did not fill in a value to search for!"

 

Post your code showing how the variable $this is being set in your code.

[jandrews3]

Looks like you're right. I just checked the phpinfo.php of both sites. The one I've been using has the register_globals turned ON, but the new one does not. THANKS! I looked up how to turn it on and it worked! ¡Muchas gracias!

[.josh]

...well you don't really want to have them turned on.  There's a reason why it's turned off by default now.  And by php6 register globals won't even be supported.  For a reason.  They are evil.  Every time someone uses register globals, a server somewhere crashes and a little piece of the internet dies.

[jandrews3]

Umm .... oops! Uh oh! That's all I've ever used for variable passing. I'll look into the alternatives.

 

[jandrews3]

I thought if I turned off the register_globals and used

 

$this=$_POST['this'];

 

that it would solve the problem of $this being empty. A quick look on my part led me to believe that this was how you capture variables passed from a form using POST, but I'm getting the following error:

 

Fatal error: Cannot re-assign $this in /home/ositoweb/public_html/ithf_test/members/member_dsearch.php on line 10

 

The page code is:

<?
$this=$_POST['this'];
?>
<table width="800" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" style="font-family: helvetica; font-weight: bold;">
<tr>
	<td align="center" width="800" bgcolor="222255"><font color="white">Search Engine</font></td>
</tr>
</table>
<br>
<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="800" style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: 10pt;">
<tr>
	<td><b>Search results for posted query.</b></td>
</tr>
<tr>
	<td height="5"></td>
</tr>
</table>
<br>
<table width="800" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" style="font-size: 10pt;">
<tr>
	<td colspan="4"><b> Select to see full profile</b><br><br></td>
	<td colspan="3" align="right"><a href="directory2.php?this=<?print $this?>&srch=<?print $srch?>" target="_blank"><b><u>Build Directory</u></b></a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
	<td><a href="member_dsearch.php?org=lname&srch=<?print $srch?>&this=<?print $this?>" target="_self"> Name</a></td>
	<td><a href="member_dsearch.php?org=email&srch=<?print $srch?>&this=<?print $this?>" target="_self"> Email</a></td>
	<td><a href="member_dsearch.php?org=restel&srch=<?print $srch?>&this=<?print $this?>" target="_self">Phone</a></td>
	<td><a href="member_dsearch.php?org=city&srch=<?print $srch?>&this=<?print $this?>" target="_self">City</a>, <a href="member_dsearch.php?org=state&srch=<?print $srch?>&this=<?print $this?>" target="_self">State</a></td>
	<td><a href="member_dsearch.php?org=country&srch=<?print $srch?>&this=<?print $this?>" target="_self">Country</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
	<td colspan="8"><hr></td>
</tr>
<tr>
			<?php

				if ($org == ''){$org = "lname";}

				$link = mysql_connect("ositowebsolutions.com","••••••••","••••••••") or die("Could not connect: ".mysql_error());
                  mysql_select_db("my_database") or die("Could not select database: ".mysql_error());

          $query = "SELECT id, lname, fname, mail1, mail2, city, state, country, email, telr, pdthru, active FROM ithf_members WHERE active > '1' AND ".$srch." LIKE '$this%' ORDER BY '$org'";
          if ($srch == "lang" or $srch == "telr" or $srch == "rinterests" or $srch == "ointerests" or $srch == "ainterests" or $srch == "local" or $srch == "email" or $srch == "keyp"){$query = "SELECT id, lname, fname, mail1, mail2, city, state, country, email, telr, pdthru, active FROM ithf_members WHERE active > '1' AND ".$srch." LIKE '%$this%' ORDER BY '$org'";}
          $result = mysql_query($query) or die("Could not perform query: ".mysql_error());
          $total = mysql_num_rows($result);

				$counter = 0;

				while ($row = mysql_fetch_array($result)) {
					if ($row['active'] == "0"){$changeit = "active"; $act="No";}
					if ($row['active'] == "2"){$changeit = "inactive"; $act="Yes";}
					if ($row['active'] == "1"){$changeit = "active"; $act="Pending";}
					if ($row['active'] == "3"){$changeit = "inactive"; $act="Yes";}

					if ($row['pdthru'] == ''){$row['pdthru'] = "P";}
				include 'valgen_v.php';
				print "<td nowrap><a href=\"profile.php?validate=".$validate."\" target=\"_blank\"> ".$row['lname'].", ".$row['fname']."   </a></td><td nowrap><a href=\"mailto:".$row['email']."\">".$row['email']."</a></td><td nowrap>".$row['telr']."   </td><td nowrap>".$row['city'].",  ".$row['state']."   </td><td nowrap>".$row['country']."   </td></tr><tr>";

          $counter++;
				}






			?>
</tr>
</table>
<br><?print "Matching entries: ".$counter;?>
		<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="800" style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: helvetica;">
			<tr>
				<td <?if ($counter < 10){print "height=\"350\"";} else {print "height=\"30\"";}?>></td>
			</tr>
			<tr>
				<td height="30" align="center" valign="middle"><a href="http://www.ositowebsolutions.com" target="_blank"><img src="graphics/poweredby1.jpg" border="0"></a></td>
			</tr>
		</table>

 

[wildteen88]

The variable $this is a reserved in PHP5, you cannot redeclare it. You'll have to name your variable to something else.

[PFMaBiSmAd]

Sorry to pick/rant, but register_globals were turned off by default in php4.2 in April 2002. That was a full six years ago. No new code, new tutorials, new books, new servers, or new hosting accounts should have used register_globals after that point in time. In 2008, there should be no one using the php programming language that is still relying on register_globals. Six years in computer/programming time is like decades for any other product. Every script that existed in 2002 (except for perhaps Oscommerce) has undergone at least one revision/update between then and now and should have had any dependencies on register_globals removed.

 

As Crayon Violent mentioned, register_globals have been completely eliminated in php6, so any existing code that still relies on register_globals to "magically" populate program variables (and magically change session variables) from external post/get/cookie data needs to be fixed or it will stop working under php6.