Passing vars in a link ?

[Pjotr Wedersteers]

Hello again,

I have now several consecutive forms in my site which nicely pass variables
in POST, so they won't show up in the header.
Now I have a page people reach after submitting all kinds of information,
from where I offer a link users can click on.
Let's say I have collected several strings and I have put these in an array
and serialized that.

$var[0]='John Doe';
$var[1]='2345 Livnigston Ave';
$var[2]='Boston';
$var[3]='Plumber';
$data = serialize ($var);

When the user clicks the (only) link on this page, all this serialized data
needs to be passed along to the new page.
I did this:

(...)
// $data contains the serialized array
echo "<a href='action.ph p?data=$data'>g o here</a>";

First question: using this method the $data is passed via GET. I would
prefer to keep using POST, and not have ugly tell-tale headers. Is that
possible using PHP? How? [I'd rather not use sessions here which would avoid
the entire datapassing issue.]

Second question: when I echo back $data in the action.php script, it seems a
chunk of the string is missing. Is that due to a limit in length ? How long
a string can be passed as a single var ? Different for GET vs POST ? Like it
is unserialize returns FALSE, which makes sense, as the data is incomplete.

Help appreciated. If you need more specifics, I'm happy to elaborate.
Pjotr

[steve]

Re: Passing vars in a link ?

"Pjotr Wedersteers" wrote:[color=blue]
> Hello again,
>
> I have now several consecutive forms in my site which nicely pass
> variables
> in POST, so they won’t show up in the header.
> Now I have a page people reach after submitting all kinds of
> information,
> from where I offer a link users can click on.
> Let’s say I have collected several strings and I have put these
> in an array
> and serialized that.
>
> $var[0]=’John Doe’;
> $var[1]=’2345 Livnigston Ave’;
> $var[2]=’Boston’;
> $var[3]=’Plumber’;
> $data = serialize ($var);
>
> When the user clicks the (only) link on this page, all this[/color]
serialized[color=blue]
> data
> needs to be passed along to the new page.
> I did this:
>
> (...)
> // $data contains the serialized array
> echo "<a href=’action.ph p?data=$data’>g o
> here</a>";
>
> First question: using this method the $data is passed via GET. I[/color]
would[color=blue]
> prefer to keep using POST, and not have ugly tell-tale headers. Is
> that
> possible using PHP? How? [I’d rather not use sessions here which
> would avoid
> the entire datapassing issue.]
>
> Second question: when I echo back $data in the action.php script,[/color]
it[color=blue]
> seems a
> chunk of the string is missing. Is that due to a limit in length ?[/color]
How[color=blue]
> long
> a string can be passed as a single var ? Different for GET vs POST[/color]
?[color=blue]
> Like it
> is unserialize returns FALSE, which makes sense, as the data is
> incomplete.
>
> Help appreciated. If you need more specifics, I’m happy to
> elaborate.
> Pjotr[/color]

Question 1: Instead of using a link, you have the option of using a
button (if that is ok) and put that in a form and use post.

Question 2: I am not sure, but make sure to urlencode your serialized
string when attaching it to url.

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[Nikolai Chuvakhin]

Re: Passing vars in a link ?

"Pjotr Wedersteers" <x33159@westert erp.com> wrote in message
news:<4134a5e0$ 0$78753$e4fe514 c@news.xs4all.n l>...[color=blue]
>
> I have now several consecutive forms in my site which nicely pass variables
> in POST, so they won't show up in the header.
> Now I have a page people reach after submitting all kinds of information,
> from where I offer a link users can click on.
> Let's say I have collected several strings and I have put these in an array
> and serialized that.
>
> $var[0]='John Doe';
> $var[1]='2345 Livnigston Ave';
> $var[2]='Boston';
> $var[3]='Plumber';
> $data = serialize ($var);
>
> When the user clicks the (only) link on this page, all this serialized data
> needs to be passed along to the new page.
> I did this:
>
> (...)
> // $data contains the serialized array
> echo "<a href='action.ph p?data=$data'>g o here</a>";
>
> First question: using this method the $data is passed via GET. I would
> prefer to keep using POST, and not have ugly tell-tale headers. Is that
> possible using PHP?[/color]

Sure. Just replace the link with a form, and don't forget to
urlencode() the serialized array:

$var[0]='John Doe';
$var[1]='2345 Livnigston Ave';
$var[2]='Boston';
$var[3]='Plumber';
$data = urlencode(seria lize($var));
echo <<<ENDOFFORM
<form method="post" action="action. php">
<input type="hidden" name="data" value="$data">
<input type="submit" value="Go!">
</form>
ENDOFFORM;

And in action.php, you can do:

$var = unserialize(url decode($_POST['data']));
[color=blue]
> when I echo back $data in the action.php script, it seems a
> chunk of the string is missing. Is that due to a limit in length ?[/color]

Most likely, it is due to the fact that you didn't urlencode() the
serialized array, so spaces, double quotes, colons, and semicolons
conspired to mess up your variable.
[color=blue]
> How long a string can be passed as a single var ?[/color]

I don't think this is a right question to ask. If I remember correctly,
there is a limit to the number of characters in a GET request.
[color=blue]
> Different for GET vs POST ?[/color]

Definitely. POST requests can be much longer than GET requests.

Cheers,
NC

[Pjotr Wedersteers]

Re: Passing vars in a link ?

Nikolai Chuvakhin wrote:[color=blue]
> "Pjotr Wedersteers" <x33159@westert erp.com> wrote in message
> news:<4134a5e0$ 0$78753$e4fe514 c@news.xs4all.n l>...[color=green]
>>
>> I have now several consecutive forms in my site which nicely pass
>> variables in POST, so they won't show up in the header.
>> Now I have a page people reach after submitting all kinds of
>> information, from where I offer a link users can click on.
>> Let's say I have collected several strings and I have put these in
>> an array and serialized that.
>>
>> $var[0]='John Doe';
>> $var[1]='2345 Livnigston Ave';
>> $var[2]='Boston';
>> $var[3]='Plumber';
>> $data = serialize ($var);
>>
>> When the user clicks the (only) link on this page, all this
>> serialized data needs to be passed along to the new page.
>> I did this:
>>
>> (...)
>> // $data contains the serialized array
>> echo "<a href='action.ph p?data=$data'>g o here</a>";
>>
>> First question: using this method the $data is passed via GET. I
>> would prefer to keep using POST, and not have ugly tell-tale
>> headers. Is that possible using PHP?[/color]
>
> Sure. Just replace the link with a form, and don't forget to
> urlencode() the serialized array:
>
> $var[0]='John Doe';
> $var[1]='2345 Livnigston Ave';
> $var[2]='Boston';
> $var[3]='Plumber';
> $data = urlencode(seria lize($var));
> echo <<<ENDOFFORM
> <form method="post" action="action. php">
> <input type="hidden" name="data" value="$data">
> <input type="submit" value="Go!">
> </form>
> ENDOFFORM;
>
> And in action.php, you can do:
>
> $var = unserialize(url decode($_POST['data']));
>[color=green]
>> when I echo back $data in the action.php script, it seems a
>> chunk of the string is missing. Is that due to a limit in length ?[/color]
>
> Most likely, it is due to the fact that you didn't urlencode() the
> serialized array, so spaces, double quotes, colons, and semicolons
> conspired to mess up your variable.
>[color=green]
>> How long a string can be passed as a single var ?[/color]
>
> I don't think this is a right question to ask. If I remember
> correctly, there is a limit to the number of characters in a GET
> request.
>[color=green]
>> Different for GET vs POST ?[/color]
>
> Definitely. POST requests can be much longer than GET requests.
>
> Cheers,
> NC[/color]

Amazing how one often misses the easiest of things. Never thought of a form
with just a hidden field.
Cleared it all up for me, thanks a bunch really, Nikolai! You rock.
regards
Pjotr