Chris Hewitt <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:Michael,
Warning: undefined constant 'general_user_attrs' used as general_user_attrs in /var/www/html/dialup_admin/htdocs/user_new.php3 line 12
The constant general_user_attrs is a user-defined parameter defined in the .conf file for the application. The .conf file is read in by a php function that stores all parameters in an array called $config. This array is referenced in php files throughout the application tree.
It *appears* that $config is not being passed by php to all the separate files. Do I have to manually configure php to do this? Or is the problem something else altogether? This application (dialup_admin) is not a beta, rather is in general use. I am using Red Hat 7.2, PHP 4.0.6, Apache 1.3.20.
How are you passing $config from file to file? (You do not show us what is in line 12 or the first occurance of $config in the file). It either needs to be in a $_SESSION variable or you application needs register_globals turned on in php.ini.Thanks for your reply. I didn't write dialup_admin and I know little about php, so I am only assuming the app is written correctly.
HTH Chris
Yes, register_globals is turned on in php.ini by default. I don't know how $config is passed from file to file; that is part of my problem. I am assuming it is a global and that php recognizes it as such. The .conf file gives me the option of using sessions; I think I have tried it both ways with no good results.
The file user_new.php3 contains the following lines:
require('../conf/config.php3'); #This is the file that reads admin.conf and puts its parameters into the $config array require('../lib/defaults.php3'); #This file references $config
The file ../lib/defaults.php3 looks like this:
<?php $ARR=file("$config[general_default_file]"); . . . if (is_file("../lib/$config[general_lib_type]/defaults.php3")) include("../lib/$config[general_lib_type]defaults.php3"));
Php doesn't like general_lib_type in these lines, referring to it as an undefined constant even though it is set in the .conf file. BTW, this code works if I replace $config[general_lib_type] with the actual subdirectory where defaults.php3 lives. Doing this, however, just causes me to have more warnings further down the application tree.
Any thoughts or ideas would be helpful.
Regards, Michael Flora
"Life is infinitely stranger than anything which the mind of man could invent." -- Sherlock Holmes in "A Case of Identity"
I should have spotted this earlier and now kick myself for not doing so; being busy at the time I was just not looking hard enough. If you use an array that is not within double-quotes then the syntax is correct, that is:
$foo = $config[general_lib_type];
will produce the correct result. If within double-quotes, as you are using it, then you need to put the whole array reference within curly-braces "{}" so that:
echo "The value is {$config[general_lib_type]}";
will again produce the correct result. The alternative is to remove the array from the double-quotes and use a syntax like:
echo "The value is ".$config[general_lib_type];
When outside double-quotes it is easier for the PHP parser to tell what should be done, when within double-quotes then it also has to try to tell whether the characters should be treated as text. Using a syntax involving wrapping an array in delimiters makes the parser's job totally unambiguous.
As I presently see it, I feel this is unnecessary and resuts in "unexpected" behaviour. I don't see the ambiguity. The parser goes along the line and comes to the $ sign. If within double-quotes finding this $ sign is the signal to stop treating characters as literals as there is now a variable to interpret. Continuing along the line, the parser would now be looking for a delimiter to indicate the end of the name of the variable (white space, equals sign etc.) but instead encounters the opening square bracket. This is the end of the variable but indicates it is an array. Looking further along the line it would find the closing square bracket so what is inbetween is the index to the array. If the index begins with a $ sign then the index is another variable so it substitutes the value of this second variable to use as the array index. If the index is in single-quotes then the index is clearly a literal. It is the case where it is neither that the behaviour between the whole array being in double-quotes or not differs.
If the index is not a number then (with the array outside of double-quotes) it checks to see if it is a defined constant (done with the define() function). If not it treats as though it were a single-quoted literal. When the array is within double-quotes the first stage (checking defined constants) is omitted.
Perhaps someone on this list with more knowledge would please let me know why this is omission is needed, I admit I do not see it.
All this does not help your particular problem. Presumably (as your file names end in ".php3") the code you have did operate correctly under a version of PHP3? I wonder which version? In looking at this today, I downloaded and compiled PHP 3.0.18 (the only V3 version on http://www.php.net) and (using the command-line version due to apxs/apxs2 differences with my Apache httpd 2 on my Fedora Core test system) got the same results. I then downloaded and compiled the latest CVS snapshot (from 3.30 this afternoon) and also got the same result. I conclude that this is the intended behaviour but feel it is not the expected behaviour. All I can suggest is that you will need to use one of the two workarounds shown in my first paragraph above.
Regards
Chris
P.S. The "require('config.php3')" in your default.php3 loads the code from config.php3 as though it were part of default.php3 so the register_globals configuration setting is not relevant to your problem.
