PHP mssql help

[Mohanddo]

Hello i just started learning php yesterday and i wanted to make a simple login system. Im using a mssql database for this and no matter what i do im just not getting any results. Ive enabled mssql extension in php.ini already. Here is the php code:

 

<?php
$username = $_POST['username'];
$password = $_POST['password'];
$server = '127.0.0.1\SQLEXPRESS';
$link = mssql_connect($server, 'username', 'pass');
if(!$link)
{
    die('Error connecting to server');
}
mssql_select_db('ACCOUNT_DBF', $link);
$query = mssql_query("SELECT account, password FROM ACCOUNT WHERE account = '$username' ");
$loginrow = mssql_fetch_assoc($query);

echo $loginrow['account'];


?>

 

After i press the submit button i just get a blank page.

Am i going wrong somewhere? 

 

Thnx for your time.

[waynew]

Do you have errors and notices set to on?

[Mohanddo]

I think so:

error_reporting = E_ALL & ~E_NOTICE & ~E_DEPRECATED

[rajivgonsalves]

Does the page load, or its in loading, I think php is not connecting to mssql server you'll have to check your connection string.

[cags]

The OP is checking $link and if it is FALSE is exiting the script using die, therefore it should be connected fine. I'd guess the Query is either failing or simply not finding a row that matches. Unfortunately, never having worked with mssql I'm not sure how you'd go about debugging it correctly. Checking if $query is equal to FALSE before passing it to mssql_fetch_assoc would be a good start though.

[rajivgonsalves]

actually I took the script and ran it on localhost it kept loading(Blank page) I do not have a ms sql server running but unless it times out I guess it won't show the error

[cags]

Well if I run it I get...

 

Notice: Undefined index: username in C:\xampp\htdocs\sandbox\index.php on line 3

 

Notice: Undefined index: password in C:\xampp\htdocs\sandbox\index.php on line 4

 

Warning: mssql_connect() [function.mssql-connect]: Unable to connect to server: 127.0.0.1\SQLEXPRESS in C:\xampp\htdocs\sandbox\index.php on line 6

Error connecting to server

[rajivgonsalves]

hmm.. still does not load on mine, anyways I guess you'd pretty much hit the hammer on the nail 

[Mohanddo]

Well if I run it I get...

 

Notice: Undefined index: username in C:\xampp\htdocs\sandbox\index.php on line 3

 

Notice: Undefined index: password in C:\xampp\htdocs\sandbox\index.php on line 4

 

Warning: mssql_connect() [function.mssql-connect]: Unable to connect to server: 127.0.0.1\SQLEXPRESS in C:\xampp\htdocs\sandbox\index.php on line 6

Error connecting to server

Well of course you will get this error because there are no POST variables being sent to your page and you do not have a mssql server installed.

 

But thnx to everyone for replies i will try to check the string and also execute it to see results. Is the syntax fine? Im not too good with encapsulting quotes 

[Mohanddo]

Something i want to make sure also:

 

In my query function $query = mssql_query("SELECT account, password FROM ACCOUNT WHERE account = '$username' ");

 

The query by itself has to be SELECT acccount, password FROM ACCOUNT WHERE account="usernamehere"

 

Does my line for this query also include the quotes around usernamehere? This is the only thing i can think of now... i also executed the query inside management studio and it worked fine.

[cags]

Obviously I should get those message since as you say I don't have the $_POST values set nor an mssql installation, I was simply pointing it out since rajivgonsalves said they didn't get an error.

 

Does $query have a value other than FALSE? I don't know about MsSQL specifically but in general SQL strings should be encased in quotes so I imagine the same applies to the MS 'flavour'.

[Mohanddo]

How can i check that it returns false? Like this?

if($query==false)
{
echo "QUERY returned FALSE";
}

 

sorry i am very new to php lol

[cags]

Probably best to use three equal signs rather than two, but it should work either way. Yes, thats the general idea.

[Mohanddo]

I tried both double and triple and still im getting a blank page.

What is the difference between == and === ?

Also i think i noticed that in mysql you dont need to have quotes around VARCHAR datatypes however in mssql it is nessecary.

 

I know im being a little picky on this but does my query definetly have quotes around the string $username? Do the single quotes around $username just represent that $username will be a string or are they actually quotes that the query will have?

[cags]

The double equals checks if something is equal, the triple quote checks if they are exactly equal (including data type). For example 0 is == to FALSE but it is not === to FALSE. In that specific case it probably didn't matter, but it's good to get in the habit of using it when your actually checking for FALSE. Try it out...

 

if(0==FALSE) {
   echo "Match";	
} else { 
   echo "No Match";
}

if(0===FALSE) {
   echo "Match";	
} else { 
   echo "No Match";
}

In MySQL VARCHAR entries in a database should have quotes around them. You can easily debug with MySQL by echo'ing out mysql_error a quick look at PHP.net seems to indicate that mssql_get_last_message is approximately the equivalent. So try echo'ing that out before echo'ing out the $loginrow value. If MsSQL is throwing any errors you'll then know what it is.

[Mohanddo]

Tried that and still getting a blank page