register global

[nawad24]

we just found out that our web hosts turned off the register globals on their servers and that is the reason our site has stopped functioning.  they said we need to also turn it off on our end.  i have no idea how to do this (we are a non profit and don't have someone on site to do this.)  can anyone provide a quick tutorial or point me in the right direction?  thanks!

 

[BlueSkyIS]

do they mean turn it off or stop using code that relies on it being turned on? If your app stopped working because they turned off register globals, it seems apparent that you don't need to turn off anything.

[Jessica]

You need to rewrite the code so it doesn't rely on it. You can't turn it off in your code, it will require a lot of work to rewrite depending on how big the site is.

[nawad24]

we need to turn it off to where it was pointing.

 

thanks!

[Jessica]

That doesn't make any sense. Do you know what register globals means?

[GingerRobot]

I assume by "turn if off your end" they meant that you need to make your code compatible with the settting off. If they are hosting your website and have turned off the setting then there is nothing to "turn off".

 

If you have no real interest in security, and really just want a fix to make the site work, then adding the following bit of code to the top of your scripts should sort it out for you:

 

<?php
extract($_POST);
extract($_GET);
extract($_SERVER);
extract($_SESSION);
extract($_COOKIE);
?>

 

If you'd rather fix the code properly, i suggest you read up a little about the register_globals setting. Here would be a good place to start:

http://uk.php.net/register_globals

 

If you do intend to retrieve the variables from their respective superglobal arrays, e.g.:

 

<?php
$var = $_POST['var'];
?>

 

Then it may be advantageous to add in this piece of code:

error_reporting(E_ALL);

 

To the top of your php files. This will make sure you receive notices for undefined variables - which is what all of the variables that are being used without being retrieved from their respective arrays will be. However, (and hence the underling of the may) it could be that the code was not written particularly well, and you'll run into other notices which may confuse the issue whilst not affecting the running of the script.

 

I hope some of that helps.

[nawad24]

do i create a php.ini file and then add in this code?  thanks - this is all new to me!

[BlueSkyIS]

you will need a PHP developer to go through your code and update places that rely on register globals. There is no magic "add this to a file" or "turn this on or off." This could be considerable work.