Unexpected characters on output

learning_php2010 · July 3, 2010

Hi Everyone,

I am very new to PHP and trying to teach myself some of the basics. I have an XHTML page that takes some simple input and calls my php script once the submit button is clicked. I am getting some results, but there appears to be some parsing issues with the last portion of the text. Here is my very simple PHP script:

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd">
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en" lang="en">
<head>
    <meta http-equiv="Content-Type"
          content="text/html";
          charset=utf-8"/>
    <title>Registration</title>
</head>
<body>
    <h2>Registration Results</h2>
    
    <?php
    
    $okay = TRUE;
    
    if ($okay)
    {
        print'<p>You have been successfully registered (but not really).</p>';
    }
    
    ?>
    
</body>
</html>

Here is my output:

Registration Results
You have been successfully registered (but not really).'; } ?>

I cannot seem to figure out why I am seeing the additional characters after the period

' ; } ?>

Any suggestions?

I have PHP version 5.3 installed and I am running this on Apache 2.2.11

Thanks for reading this.

PFMaBiSmAd · July 3, 2010

What file extension are you using on that page?

All you are seeing is the raw un-parsed php code being output on your page (do a 'view source' in your browser.)

learning_php2010 · July 3, 2010

The page is called handle_reg2.php

Here is the full page:

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd">
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en" lang="en">
<head>
    <meta http-equiv="Content-Type"
          content="text/html";
          charset=utf-8"/>
    <title>Registration</title>

    <!-- Define a CSS class -->
    <style type="text/css" media="screen">
    .error {color:red;}
    </style>
    
</head>
<body>

    <h2>Registration Results</h2>
    
    <?php
    
    $okay = TRUE;
    
    //validate the email address
    if (empty($_post['email']))
    {
        print '<p class="error">Please enter your email address.</p>';
        $okay = FALSE;
    }
    
    if ($okay)
    {
        echo'You have been successfully registered (but not really).'; //need to change back to print('<p>You have been successfully registered (but not really).</p>';
    }
    
    ?>
    
</body>
</html>

I must be missing something really simple...

PFMaBiSmAd · July 3, 2010

And is this page being requested using a URL, like http://localhost/handle_reg2.php

learning_php2010 · July 3, 2010

Yes, that is how the page is being accessed. Also, i have another XHTML page that sends data to this script via

 <form action="handle_reg2.php" method="post">

. When I access the logic by either means I receive the same result. The extra characters at the end of the string.

learning_php2010 · July 3, 2010

I'll go ahead and add both pages so it will make this less confusing.

Main page:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd">
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en" lang="en">
<head>
    <title>Registration Form</title>
</head>
<body>
    <!-- Script 6.1 - register.html -->
    
    <div><p>Please complete this form to register:</p>
        
    <!-- Initial tag form -->
    <form action="handle_reg2.php"
            method="post">
        
        <!-- Inputs for email address and password -->
        <p>Email Address: <input type="text"
            name="email" size="30" /></p>
        <p>Password: <input type="password"
            name="password" size="20" /></p>
        <p>Confirm Password: <input type="password"
            name="confirm" size="20" /></p>
        
        <!-- Inputs for the month of birth -->
        <p>Date Of Birth:
        <select name="month">
            <option value="">Month</option>
            <option value="1">January<option>
            <option value="2">February<option>
            <option value="3">March<option>
            <option value="4">April<option>
            <option value="5">May<option>
            <option value="6">June<option>
            <option value="7">July<option>
            <option value="8">August<option>
            <option value="9">September<option>
            <option value="10">October<option>
            <option value="11">November<option>
            <option value="12">December<option>
        </select>
        
        <!-- Inputs for the day of birth -->
        <select name="day">
            <option value="">Day</option>
            <option value="1">1</option>
            <option value="2">2</option>
            <option value="3">3</option>
            <option value="4">4</option>
            <option value="5">5</option>
            <option value="6">6</option>
            <option value="7">7</option>
            <option value="8">8</option>
            <option value="9">9</option>
            <option value="10">10</option>
            <option value="11">11</option>
            <option value="12">12</option>
            <option value="13">13</option>
            <option value="14">14</option>
            <option value="15">15</option>
            <option value="16">16</option>
            <option value="17">17</option>
            <option value="18">18</option>
            <option value="19">19</option>
            <option value="20">20</option>
            <option value="21">21</option>
            <option value="22">22</option>
            <option value="23">23</option>
            <option value="24">24</option>
            <option value="25">25</option>
            <option value="26">26</option>
            <option value="27">27</option>
            <option value="28">28</option>
            <option value="29">29</option>
            <option value="30">30</option>
            <option value="31">31</option>
        </select>
        
        <!-- Input for birth year -->
        <input type="text" name="year"
               value="YYYY" size="4" />
        </p>
        
        <!-- Drop down menu for user's favorite color -->
        <p>Favorite Color:
        <select name="color">
            <option value="">Pick One</option>
            <option value="red">Red</option>
            <option value="yellow">Yellow</option>
            <option value="green">Green</option>
            <option value="blue">Blue</option>
        </select>
        </p>
        
        <!-- Submit button -->
        <input type="submit"
               name="submit"
               value="Register" />
    </form>
    
    </div>
    
</body>
</html>

PHP script page [handle_reg2.php]:

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd">
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en" lang="en">
<head>
    <title>Registration</title>
</head>
<body>
    <h2>Registration Results</h2>>
    
    <? php
    
        //Script 6.2 - handle_reg.php
       
       //enable error checking
       ini_set ('display_errors', 1);
       error_reporting(E_ALL | E_STRICT);
       
       //create variable flag
       $okay = TRUE;
       
       //print a message if everything is okay
       if ($okay)
       {
        print '<p>You have been successfully registered (but not really).</p>';
       }
    ?>

</body>
</html>

ChemicalBliss · July 3, 2010

As PFMaBiSmAd Said:

All you are seeing is the raw un-parsed php code being output on your page (do a 'view source' in your browser.)

Looks like your server doesn't have php installed. Run this to find out:

test.php

<?php
$test = true;
if($test != true){ echo('>PHP Not Installed<'); }
?>

Basically if PHP isnt being parsed (not installed/not recognized extension/Opening Tag) then HTML will see everything on either side of "php not installed" as an unknown tag, and hide it from view.

To do a "View Source":

Go to the page in your browser

-> Click View (at the top)

-> Click "View Source" or "Page Source"

Copy the contents and paste in a code tag.

-cb-

learning_php2010 · July 3, 2010

Here are the results from the view source (sorry, forgot to put this up here earlier)

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN"
    "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">
    <html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1000/xhtml" xml:lang="en" lang="en">

<head>
    <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html"; charset=utf-8"/>
    
    <title>Registration</title>
    
</head>
<body>
    <h2>Registration Results</h2>
    
    <? php
    
        //Script 6.2 - handle_reg.php
       
       //enable error checking
       ini_set ('display_errors', 1);
       error_reporting(E_ALL | E_STRICT);
       
       //create variable flag
       $okay = TRUE;
       
       //print a message if everything is okay
       if ($okay)
       {
        echo '<p>You have been successfully registered (but not really).</p>';
       }
    ?>

</body>
</html>

ChemicalBliss the server has PHP installed. I ran

phpinfo()

without issue and was directed to the appropriate page.

_SERVER["SERVER_SOFTWARE"]	Apache/2.2.11 (Win32) PHP/5.3.0

I hope this helps.

ChemicalBliss · July 3, 2010

lol, you got a Space in your Opening Tag:

<? php

should be:

<?php

-cb-

learning_php2010 · July 3, 2010

:-[

Thanks cb, I will now go and pull my head out of my....

PFMaBiSmAd · July 3, 2010

It wasn't until reply #5 in this thread that you posted actual code that exhibited the symptom you were claiming.

What a waste of time. :psychic:

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