Errata

I saw the posting that says you can change $_REQUEST['user_id'] to $_COOKIE['user_id']. As an alternative, you can change your php.ini file (typically located at /etc/php5/apache2), altering all references to request_order = "GP" to request_order = "GPC". This will include cookies in $_REQUEST.

I am having the same issue as: Teo Maroulis (Oct 01, 2013). If show_users.pph is not redirected, $_REQUEST['success_message'] will expect a value and will have an index error. And as Teo Maoulis pointed out and from my own findings, isset($_REQUEST['success_message'] has to be checked first before calling page_start($_REQUEST['success_message'];

This problem begins with the example on p. 4, but also occurs with almost every PHP example in the text.

HTML interprets the ampersand as a special character. Therefore, Eclipse (Kepler SR2) throws up the following warning:

---- Eclipse warning message ----
Invalid character used in text string (PHP & MySQL: The Missing Manual).
---- end Eclipse warning message ----

for every instance of the textbook title included in PHP code.

FIX: Change the header to:

<h1>PHP &amp; MySQL: The Missing Manual</h1>

throughout the text and the example code.

On this page of the pdf, the author introduces the string replace function within this code segment.

$facebook_url = str_replace("facebook.org", "facebook.com", trim($_REQUEST['facebook_url]));

$position = strpos($facebook_url, "facebook.com");
if ($position === false)
{
$facebook_url = "http://www.facebook.com" . $facebook_url;

}

The problem here is not the coding, but the end result. The str_replace function kicks in if a user enters facebook.org instead of facebook.com. The error doesn't rear its ugly head until the logic portion of the code.

What ever the user enters gets appended to either the end of current host directory or "http://www.facebook.com." So you may end up with results like:

www.facebook.com/facebook.com/username
or
localhost/phpMySQL/chptr3/facebook.com/username

This is not a serious problem to a seasoned coder, but can be frustrating to a novice. Perhaps this code may help.

$facebook_url = str_replace("facebook.org","facebook.com", trim($_REQUEST['facebook_url']));
$position = (strpos($facebook_url, "www.facebook.com") xor strpos($facebook_url, "facebook.com"));
if ($position)
{
$facebook_url = "http://" . $facebook_url;

}
else
{
$facebook_url = "http://" . $facebook_url;
}

Previously reported errata is NOT on the pdf version but instead within the code supplied as part of the file enclosed in "PHPmm2e_ch03_examples.zip".

Excuse the missinterpretation.

$position is an undefined variable in this script.

While the code produces the desired result, $position should be omitted for clarity.

Printed code:
substr($twitter_handle, $position + 1);

Proposed code:
substr($twitter_handle, 1);

The text 'Now, you could grab $_REQUEST['first_name'], and you?d get back ?Lance.?' seems to suggest that when you want to do a query for first name you only need to change the $_REQUEST['user_id'] into $_REQUEST['first_name']. However a few more changes are necessary to accomplish this:
- all occurrences of 'user_id' should be replace by 'first_name'
- a query for a string (e.g. Lance) requires that this string is enclosed with quotes. To achieve this you need:
$select_query = "SELECT * FROM users WHERE first_name = '" . $first_name ."'";

From John Foster on July 27, 2013:
In the code example, Brett adds the form html to upload a file, but forgets to add the "<br />" at the end of the second new line, which causes the page to display all wonky, making it not look like the example on 211. Minor error.

My Suggestion:
The following line is missing the <br> tag at the end. It is the second line of new code in bold in the <fieldset> section.

<input type="file" name="user_pic" size="30" />

Should Read:
<input type="file" name="user_pic" size="30" /><br>

It is missing in my copy as well. 2nd Ed. Copyright 2013


Note from the Author or Editor:
I'm not seeing this error in my printed copy of the book. However, it is correct that all opening double-quotation marks should be matched up with closing double-quotation marks.

There is an <span> tag that should be not there, has not ending </span> tag
OR
it is misplaced, it should be before the <?php... ?> tags and a </span> tag is missing.

The error can be found here in this code segment:

// Turn $twitter_handle into a URL
$twitter_url = "http://www.twitter.com/" . substr($twitter_handle, $position + 1);


the $position variable that has been defined in all the previous codes seemed to have been deleted in the revision of show_user.php. It should be like this in order for it to work:


// Turn $twitter_handle into a URL
$position = strpos($twitter_handle, "@");
$twitter_url = "http://www.twitter.com/" . substr($twitter_handle, $position + 1);

Using windows 7 with xamp php version 5.4.7
Ch11. Example 06-Integrate Utilities, Views, and Messages
Show_users.php ?script line 34
page_start("Current Users", $delete_user_script,
$_REQUEST['success_message'], $_REQUEST['error_message']);
Browser returns the notices:
Notice: Undefined index: success_message in C:\xampp\htdocs\phpMM2\ch11\06-Integrate Utilities, Views, and Messages\show_users.php on line 34

Notice: Undefined index: error_message in C:\xampp\htdocs\phpMM2\ch11\06-Integrate Utilities, Views, and Messages\show_users.php on line 34

I modified as below:
if (isset($_REQUEST['success_message']) || isset($_REQUEST['error_message'])) {
page_start("Current Users", $delete_user_script,
$_REQUEST['success_message'], $_REQUEST['error_message']);
} else {
page_start("Current Users", $delete_user_script);
}
It works without any notice
*******************************************************************************
Also, I modified the last part of the delete_user.php script example, FROM:
// Delete the user from the database
mysql_query($delete_query);

// Redirect to show_users to re-show users (without this deleted one)
$msg = "The user you specified has been deleted.";
header("Location: show_users.php?success_message={$msg}");
exit();
TO:
$result = mysql_query($delete_query);
if (!$result) {
// Redirect to notify show_users the error
$msg = "The user you specified has not been deleted.";
header("Location: show_users.php?error_message={$msg}");
exit();

} else {
// Redirect to show_users to re-show users (without this deleted one)
$msg = "The user you specified has been deleted.";
header("Location: show_users.php?success_message={$msg}");
exit();
}

Page 427 has a closing </body> tag, but there isn't an opening <body> tag on page 426.

The code works as written, it's mostly a cleanliness issue.

Book code:
<html>
<div id="content">

Proposed change (add <body>) and rework indenting on both pages:
<html>
<body>
<div id="content">