Hi everyone,

Seems I've had a couple purplexing problems the past couple days. The latest one is on a form that posts information to the database. When run, the script does not present any errors; however, the result does not show up when I browse the table in PHP MyAdmin. Any ideas? The code is below:

PHP Code:

//  Check for form submission

if (isset($_POST['submit'])) {
    
    // form was submitted, check required fields
    if ($_POST['tbEmail'] == '' or $_POST['Need_Help_With'] == '' or isValidEmail($_POST['tbEmail']) == false) {
        // Show error to user
        $errtxt = "Please make sure you have entered information in the required fields and that your email is valid.";
    }
    
    // if no error, post submission to db
    if ($errtxt == '') {
        // include db connection
        require_once 'resources/includes/dbconn.php';

        // Build the query vars
        $Email = mysql_real_escape_string($_POST['tbEmail']);
        $FirstName = mysql_real_escape_string($_POST['tbFirstName']);
        $LastName = mysql_real_escape_string($_POST['tbLastName']);
        $Address = mysql_real_escape_string($_POST['tbAddress']);
        $City = mysql_real_escape_string($_POST['tbCity']);
        $State = mysql_real_escape_string($_POST['tbState']);
        $Zip = mysql_real_escape_string($_POST['tbZip']);
        $Phone = mysql_real_escape_string($_POST['tbPhone']);
        $Seeking = mysql_real_escape_string($_POST['rbSeekingFor']);
        $OtherCity = mysql_real_escape_string($_POST['Someone_Else_City']);
        $WhatHelpWith = mysql_real_escape_string($_POST['Need_Help_With']);
        $ContactType = mysql_real_escape_string($_POST['Contact_By']);
        $howheard = mysql_real_escape_string($_POST['Referral_From']);
        $TheDate = date("F j Y g:i a");  
        $Updates = mysql_real_escape_string($_POST['Electronic_Updates']);
        $ip=$_SERVER['REMOTE_ADDR'];
        
        // Change "on" to "yes" for the checkbox value
        if ($Updates == 'on') { $Updates = 'yes'; } else {$Updates = 'no '; };
        
        // Buidl the insert query string
        $query = "INSERT INTO info_requests (email, firstname, lastname, address, city, state, zip, phone, infofor, othercity, whathelpwith, contacttype, howheard, thedate, updates) VALUES ('$Email', '$FirstName', '$LastName', '$Address', '$City', '$State', '$Zip', '$Phone', '$Seeking', '$OtherCity', '$WhatHelpWith', '$ContactType', '$howheard', NOW(), '$Updates')";
        
        // Insert the query into the db
        
        $result = mysql_query($query) or die('failed because '.mysql_error());
        if (!$result) {
            $errtxt = "Could not successfully run query ($query) from DB: " . mysql_error();
            exit;
        } else {
            $errtxt = "Thank you, your submission has been sent.";
        } 


No error isn't always the same as it's working, obviously
Are you sure the query is run at all? If you print the $errtxt message at the end, does it hold the "Thank you, your ..." message?

I'm asking because it doesn't seem your $errtxt variable is iniciated. So the variable doesn't exists when you check if it's set to '' (empty string). Right now I can't remeber how php reacts on this situation but you could try changing it.

Another idea, are you using transactions?

Well what I forgot to mention is that when I run a select query in the same script and print out the rows returned, the written data shows up. But, in PHP MyAdmin, no dice. It doesn't even increment the row count. This is so weird.

Originally Posted by lizciz

Are you sure the query is run at all? If you print the $errtxt message at the end, does it hold the "Thank you, your ..." message?

Yes, I check for text inside the $errtxt variable and display it to the user. It serves two purposes: 1) To alert the user of submission errors and 2) Alert the user of a successful submission.

What if you manually make the changes in phpMyAdmin?
And again, are you using transactions? If you are you must commit any changes before they are made permanent, otherwise all changes will be "rewinded" when the script terminates.

I can manually add a new row in PHP MyAdmin. And I am not implicitly using transactions. Now, i'm not that familiar with transactions. How could I tell if they are enabled? Maybe the client I'm working for has it enabled?

Well im not that familiar with transactions myself. I've only used them once for quite some time. Although you have to run a command (some php function) to start the transaction yourself.

You can also check what storage engine your MySQL uses. The standard one is MyISAM I believe and with it you can't use transactions. So if that's the case then you don't need to worry about transactions.

Unfortunately though, I'm running short of ideas to your problem.

This may be a stupid question, but since you can select the inserted data in your script, are you sure you're looking at the correct database and table in phpMyAdmin?

Well I have ruled out transactions because the data table is of type MYISAM. Also, yes I am looking at the correct table in MyAdmin. However, I did find out that if I drop the table, the script still works. So I wonder why the error handling is not working?

I must ask you to please take another look at your database connection file that you include, and carefully check that you are connecting to and choosing the right database, the same one that you are viewing in phpMyAdmin. Because the only thing I can think of is that it's not the same table.

If you drop the table and still try to make an insertion MySQL must give you an error, there is no other option. Or perhaps you have accidentally made two identical tables with only slighly different names?