PHP $_GET? At least I think that is the function I need to get working

[DogMan]

Hi. Appologies for being quite daft. I studied about a year of python, some C++ [little] but it was a/ not php and b/ really only command line stuff. A friend asked if I could help with something for a project, it should be easy,but my scripting brain has not been exercised recently and I am struggling.

 

The aim is a signature banner for forums, that has a background image with logo, and overlaid on that, text which tracks X Years, X months, X days since quitting smoking. Similar to this,but with the NNA AU logo. And without so much detail.

 

http://nicoticket.x10.mx/1374944400_12_1000_sepia_U

 

I want it to take an argument from the url, so people can use their own quit date, and use that to generate the text.

 

I borrowed some of this code, with a fixed date

 

 

 

 

I'm probably way off, but googling lead me to believe the $_GET function is what I use to get a url argument? I think my syntax is wrong though

<?PHP
/*

********************************************************************************************
* Heavily edited by DogMan of Vaper Cafe Australia
********************************************************************************************
*/

// EDIT THESE NEXT FEW LINES
// set your timezone or suffer the consequences
date_default_timezone_set('Australia/Melbourne');

// set your quit date
$_GET ['quitdate']; // need url argument of quit date

// number of pixels for the left margin
$left_margin = 5;

// HEY LET'S CALCULATE A BUNCH OF CRAP (in general, leave this alone)
	$now = time(); // this is really NOW, for comparison to your quit date
    	$your_date = strtotime($quitdate);
    	$datediff = $now - $your_date;	// compare your quit date to right now (output in seconds)
	$datetime1 = new DateTime($quitdate);
	$datetime2 = new DateTime();
	$interval = date_diff($datetime1, $datetime2); // just another time comparison
	$howlong = $interval->format('%y years, %m months, %d days');
	$vapedays = floor($datediff/(60*60*24)); // convert time since quitting to days (rounded down to eliminate any remainder)
	
// format numbers: decimal places, decimal separator, thousands separator
		
		$vapedays = number_format($vapedays, 0, '.', ',');


// DON'T EDIT UNLESS YOU KNOW WHAT YOU'RE DOING
$image = './signature_bar.png'; // create a banner image with this name; 468 pixels wide by 60 pixels tall
$im = imagecreatefrompng($image);

// set colors (RGB)
$main_color = imagecolorallocate($im, 51, 102, 153);
$black = imagecolorallocate($im, 0, 0, 0);
$orange = imagecolorallocate($im, 255, 140, 0);
$blue = imagecolorallocate($im, 216, 196, 255);
$red = imagecolorallocate($im, 255, 0, 0);
$green = imagecolorallocate($im, 0, 160, 0);
$white = imagecolorallocate($im, 255, 255, 255);
$grey = imagecolorallocate($im, 216, 216, 216);
$yellow = imagecolorallocate($im, 255, 216, 64);


// THE MAGIC: set font size, font angle, horizontal position, vertical position, color, fontface, text

// Add the text
imagettftext($im, 12, 0, $left_margin, 16, $black, 'Vaping for: '.$howlong);// LEAVE THESE ALONE DAMN YOU
header('Content-Disposition: filename=signature_bar.png');
header('Content-Type: image/png');
imagepng($im);
imagedestroy($im);
?>

Thanks for any help, and again, sorry to barge in and ask for help, and be so daft and out of practice

[ginerjm]

The url that would be used is:

 

domain.com/mypage.php?quitdate=x

 

To receive that value in your script you need:

 

if (isset($_GET['quitdate']))

     $quit_date = $_GET['quitdate'];

else

     (handle a missing argument however you wish)

 

Of course you then need to validate that value to be sure it is something you expect

[DogMan]

The url that would be used is:

 

domain.com/mypage.php?quitdate=x

 

To receive that value in your script you need:

 

if (isset($_GET['quitdate']))

     $quit_date = $_GET['quitdate'];

else

     (handle a missing argument however you wish)

 

Of course you then need to validate that value to be sure it is something you expect

 

thank you, as i said rusty, and not a php trained person

[Barand]

This code is unnecessary as you are using DateTime objects.

$now = time(); // this is really NOW, for comparison to your quit date
$your_date = strtotime($quitdate);
$datediff = $now - $your_date;

You can get the vapedays from the interval object

$vapedays = $interval->format('%a days');