Simple database search not working, help please!

[Dyvn]

Here's my search field:

 

<form name="search" method="post" action="<?=$PHP_SELF?>">
<Select NAME="field" id="field">
<Option VALUE="title">Title</option>
<Option VALUE="synopsis">Synopsis</option>
<Option VALUE="author">Author</option>
<Option VALUE="category">Category</option>
</Select>
<input type="text" id="find" name="find" />
<input type="hidden" id="searching" name="searching" value="yes" />
<input type="submit" id="search" name="search" value="Go" />
</form>

 

and here's my PHP/SQL to get the data:

<?

if ($searching =="yes") 
{
if ($find == "")
{
echo "<table width='90%'><tr><td align='left'><font color='white' face='arial' size='5'>No term entered, please try again.</font></td></tr></table>";

exit;
}

// Otherwise we connect to our Database
mysql_connect("edit","edit","edit") or die(mysql_error());
mysql_select_db("edit") or die(mysql_error());

// We preform a bit of filtering
$find = strtoupper($find);
$find = strip_tags($find);
$find = trim ($find);

//Now we search for our search term, in the field the user specified
$data = mysql_query("SELECT * FROM tutsearch WHERE upper($field) LIKE'%$find%'");

echo "<table width='90%'>";
echo "<tr>";
echo "<td width='20%' bgcolor='#111111'>";
echo "<font color='white' face='arial' size='3'><b>Title</b></font>";
echo "</td>";
echo "<td width='55%' bgcolor='#111111'>";
echo "<font color='white' face='arial' size='3'><b>Synopsis</b></font>";
echo "</td>";
echo "<td width='10%' bgcolor='#111111'>";
echo "<font color='white' face='arial' size='3'><b>Category</b></font>";
echo "</td>";
echo "<td width='15%' bgcolor='#111111'>";
echo "<font color='white' face='arial' size='3'><b>Author</b></font>";
echo "</td>";
echo "</tr>";
// Display results
while($result = mysql_fetch_array( $data ))
{
echo "<tr>";
echo "<td width='20%' bgcolor='#111111'>";
echo "<font color='white' face='arial' size='3'>" .$result['Title']. "</font>";
echo "</td>";
echo "<td width='55%' bgcolor='#111111'>";
echo "<font color='white' face='arial' size='3'>" .$result['Synopsis']. "</font>";
echo "</td>";
echo "<td width='10%' bgcolor='#111111'>";
echo "<font color='white' face='arial' size='3'>" .$result['Category']. "</font>";
echo "</td>";
echo "<td width='15%' bgcolor='#111111'>";
echo "<font color='white' face='arial' size='3'>" .$result['Author']. "</font>";
echo "</td>";
echo "</tr>";
}
//This counts the number or results - and if there wasn't any it gives them a little message explaining that
$anymatches=mysql_num_rows($data);
if ($anymatches == 0)
{
echo "<tr>";
echo "<td width='15%' bgcolor='#111111'>";
echo "<font color='white' face='arial' size='3'>No matches were found for your search.</font>";
echo "</td>";
echo "</tr>";
}
echo "</table>";
}
?> 

It I can't find out what's wrong! Please help!

[.josh]

Unless you have register globals set to ON (which you probably don't), posted data is stored in $_POST['varname'] or $_GET['varname'] (depending on your post method), not $varname. 

[Dyvn]

Thanks so much!! You're heroic!

[Maq]

I just glimpsed over your code and saw:

 

</pre>
<form name="search" method="post" action="<?=%24PHP_SELF?>"><

 

which again, is a global variable issue, and needs to be: (and don't use short tags to start PHP "" use "<?php".

 

</pre>
<form name="search" method="post" action="<?php%20echo%20%24_SERVER%5B'PHP_SELF'%5D;%20?>"><

[.josh]

I just glimpsed over your code and saw:

 

<form name="search" method="post" action="<?=$PHP_SELF?>">

 

which again, is a global variable issue, and needs to be: (and don't use short tags to start PHP "<?" use "<?php".

<form name="search" method="post" action="<?php echo $_SERVER['PHP_SELF']; ?>">

 

re: $PHP_SELF

Happy side effect to continued use of $PHP_SELF is that it results in echoing out action='' which under these circumstances, produces the same effect as using $_SERVER['PHP_SELF'].  Now, if he were wanting to reference the current script in another script...that would bea different story.

 

re: using short tags.

 

<?= $variable ?>

 

This is actually shorthand for doing <?php echo $variable; ?>.  It is not the same as doing <? echo $variable; ?> (using short tags).  Although to be fair, <?= .. ?> is a setting in php.ini that can be enabled/disabled, thus putting it in the same boat as short tags, as far as possible server incompatibility.

[Maq]

Thanks for the info CV