I have used a "borrowed" simple PHP script to create a nice Contact Me page on my website at www.ve3oat.ca. Each time a visitor sends me a message, I get two errors in my error-log :

 

PHP Notice: Use of undefined constant INPUT - assumed 'INPUT' in /home/veoatca/public_html/acknowledge.php on line 11

 

and

PHP Notice: Use of undefined constant POST - assumed 'POST' in /home/veoatca/public_html/acknowledge.php on line 11

 

My line 11 contains :

$email = filter_input(INPUT-POST, 'email', FILTER_VALIDATE_EMAIL);

 

I am not a PHP programmer and wonder if anyone recognizes these errors and can point me to a solution. I assume I need to declare INPUT and POST somehow, but don't know how to do that.

 

I do receive all the messages from visitors all right but the errors bug me and I want to fix them. Thanks for any help.

 

... Martin

 

 

 

The first parameter of input_filter is the type parameter and can be:

 

type

One of INPUT_GET, INPUT_POST, INPUT_COOKIE, INPUT_SERVER, or INPUT_ENV.

 

http://php.net/manual/en/function.filter-input.php

I'm guessing you want INPUT_POST (with an underscore) not INPUT-POST

 

EDIT: Also You should not "declare INPUT and POST" the method will filter a post variable that should be send to the PHP page with your form (your form must have a method attribute with the value "post")

<form method="post" action="yourphpscript.php">
  <label for="email">Enter your e-mail</label>
  <input type="text" name="email">
 <input type="submit" value="Submit">
</form>

This form will pass a post type variable named email along with a request for "yourscript.php". The variable will be accessible in your PHP script like so

$_POST['email']

In the filter_input method you supply the type and the variable name individually.

filter_input([Type], [Variable name], [Filter] );

So if you want to validate the email send with the form above you would use

filter_input(INPUT_POST, 'email', FILTER_VALIDATE_EMAIL);

Edited February 19, 201610 yr by Nillervision

Thanks very much, Nillervision. I think I see now what I must do. Thanks for your help. This PHP stuff is certainly different from the assembler code I used to write for a DEC PDP-8/L, so many years ago! (More than 40, actually.) And I will have to do some more reading here too. :-) Thanks again!

... Martin

Thanks very much, Nillervision. I think I see now what I must do. Thanks for your help. This PHP stuff is certainly different from the assembler code I used to write for a DEC PDP-8/L, so many years ago! (More than 40, actually.) And I will have to do some more reading here too. :-) Thanks again!

... Martin

You're welcome. I think if you give it a try you will find PHP great to work with.

Here is a few things that is good to keep in mind

• First of all PHP is very much "high level" meaning that the code is very easy to read and understand for humans.

• PHP does not get compiled to low level byte code. It will be interpreted at runtime.

• Compared to JAVA and C#, PHP is relatively "loosely typed" meaning that often you dont have to specify or convert data types. For example: You can print out an int as a string or concatinate it with an existing string without having to manually convert it. Also when you create a variable you don't need type declarations if the value is in quotes it simply is a string, if the value is FALSE it simply is a boolean etc.

• The language is object oriented, which means that you can create classes. A class is a blue print function that can be instanciated as one or more objects (variables that contains all the properties and methods defined in the class). An instance of a class in not just a reference to the class but a full, unique "function" with it's own scope. The cool thing about OOP is that you will have all your variables encapsulated and you can specify at what level each property/method can be accessed.

• PHP is designed to drive web applications (as I know, the only real use for it). That means that the language has a lot of build in functions for web. The filter_input() that you asked about is just one of many web related functions. You also have functions for formatting urls, parsing XML/json, sending mail, processing images and many other functions designed for web development.

• On a PHP installation the default settings are stored in a php.ini file. Many settings can be overridden from your code.

 

You're welcome. I think if you give it a try you will find PHP great to work with.

Here is a few things that is good to keep in mind

• First of all PHP is very much "high level" meaning that the code is very easy to read and understand for humans.

• PHP does not get compiled to low level byte code. It will be interpreted at runtime.

• Compared to JAVA and C#, PHP is relatively "loosely typed" meaning that often you dont have to specify or convert data types. For example: You can print out an int as a string or concatinate it with an existing string without having to manually convert it. Also when you create a variable you don't need type declarations if the value is in quotes it simply is a string, if the value is FALSE it simply is a boolean etc.

• The language is object oriented, which means that you can create classes. A class is a blue print function that can be instanciated as one or more objects (variables that contains all the properties and methods defined in the class). An instance of a class in not just a reference to the class but a full, unique "function" with it's own scope. The cool thing about OOP is that you will have all your variables encapsulated and you can specify at what level each property/method can be accessed.

• PHP is designed to drive web applications (as I know, the only real use for it). That means that the language has a lot of build in functions for web. The filter_input() that you asked about is just one of many web related functions. You also have functions for formatting urls, parsing XML/json, sending mail, processing images and many other functions designed for web development.

• On a PHP installation the default settings are stored in a php.ini file. Many settings can be overridden from your code.

 

 

I should also mention regarding the above regarding point number 2 is that sometimes u will need a string to be an int in which you can do it like this

<?php
$a = (int) "5";//Cast string to integer
?>

Thanks for all the advice and insight. And of course I should have spotted the type myself, weeks ago!! Now I can concentrate on making things nice for the visitors. And make time to read the tutorials here. What a treasure this forum is! Thanks again.

... Martin