PHP Forum

**madnhain** · 05:45 PM

This is part of a chat client I am working on where the content of an iframe is dependent on a pre-defined variable:

here is the code in it's entirety.

PHP Code:


			
<?php
session_start();
include('../mylibrary/dcon.php');

if (!isset($_REQUEST['user'])){
    echo 'you\'r not logged in!';
    exit;
}else{
    $chatuser = $_REQUEST['user'];
}

//Check DB for validity of user & get first name
$query = "SELECT fname FROM customers WHERE email = '$chatuser'";
$result = mysql_query($query);
$row = mysql_fetch_array($result, MYSQL_ASSOC);

$chatuser = $row[fname];                                                   //define chat user name

$stringData = 'This is test info';                                           //enter test information

$filename = $chatuser ."_". date('D M j').".html";                 //define file name
$chatfile = fopen($filename, 'a+') or die('cant open file');     

fwrite($chatfile, $stringData);                                             //write test info to file

echo    "<iframe src=\'$chatfile\' width=\'50%\' height=\'300\'>";
echo    "<p>Your browser does not support iframes.</p></iframe>";


?>

everything seems to work fine, the file creates, gets some test data entered into it, but does not show up in the iFrame... any thoughts?

**Marik** · 02-18-2011, 07:54 PM

PHP Code:


			
echo    "<iframe src=\'$chatfile\' width=\'50%\' height=\'300\'>";
echo    "<p>Your browser does not support iframes.</p></iframe>";

You don't have to do this since the quotes you are escaping are single quotes that are inside double quotes. If you used double quotes inside double quotes or single inside single then you would need escaping. Use this instead, it should work:

PHP Code:


			
echo    "<iframe src='$chatfile' width='50%' height='300'>";
echo    "<p>Your browser does not support iframes.</p></iframe>";

**PaulW** · 02-20-2011, 10:16 PM

And you should have an fclose before writing the iframe code. You should also be testing for no user found by the db query.

**madnhain** · 02-21-2011, 03:26 AM

Thank you for the suggestions... still no luck. If I put a second iframe in the code, it'll sometimes load the second iframe perfectly fine, but not the first... I've tried putting the iframe outside the php code, tried different browsers with different results. Fire Fox seems to not do too well with iFrames.... This really has me baffled.

**NullPointer** · 02-21-2011, 04:17 AM

I think the problem is here:

PHP Code:


			
echo    "<iframe src=\'$chatfile\' width=\'50%\' height=\'300\'>";

$chatfile is a file handle, not a string. The src attribute should be set to the url of the file.

PHP Code:


			
echo    "<iframe src='http://yoursite.com/$filename' width='50%' height='300'>";

**madnhain** · 02-21-2011, 10:39 AM

Again, thank you all for your input! I believe I've found the problem, however I have no CLUE why this is happening.
here is my code currently (there's a lot of excessive experimental crap in it)

PHP Code:


			
<html>
<body>
<?php
session_start();
include('../mylibrary/dcon.php');

if (!isset($_REQUEST['user'])){
    echo 'you\'r not logged in!';
    exit;
}else{
    $chatuser = $_REQUEST['user'];
}

//Check DB for validity of user & get first name
$query = "SELECT fname FROM customers WHERE email = '$chatuser'";
$result = mysql_query($query);
$row = mysql_fetch_array($result, MYSQL_ASSOC);

$chatuser = $row[fname];
//chmod("index.php", 0600); //give this file permissions
$stringData = 'This is test info\n';

$filename = $chatuser ."_". date('D M j').".html";
$chatfile = fopen($filename, 'a+') or die('cant open file');

fwrite($chatfile, $stringData);

echo $chatuser.'<p>';     //Define first name as chatuser id
echo $chatfile;
fclose($chatfile);

echo "<br><IFRAME SRC=$chatfile WIDTH=450 HEIGHT=100></IFRAME><br>";

echo  "<iframe src='http://testarea.net78.net/chat/$chatfile' width='50%' height='300'></IFRAME><br>";
?>

<IFRAME SRC="<? $chatfile ?>" WIDTH=450 HEIGHT=100>
</IFRAME>

</body>
</html>

the

PHP Code:


			
echo $chatfile;

results in:

Resource id #9

my understanding is that is usually a mysql related error? So it's $chatfile is not producing a file name....

**NullPointer** · 02-21-2011, 11:00 AM

Read the documentation for fopen. It returns a resource not a string. You need to determine the URL of the file and use that for the src attribute.

Also, do not use short tags (<? or <?=). Your script may work on your server but if you were to put it on another server where short tags are disable you would get an error. Even if you don't intend for your script to be portable, using them is a bad habit. Eventually they will be removed from PHP entirely.

**madnhain** · 02-21-2011, 12:52 PM

I agree NullPointer (with the short tags thing) I normally don't use them, but that was a frustrated attempt at making something happen.

Good call on the resource! you were absolutely correct, I solved that issue by"

PHP Code:


			

$literal_file = basename($filename);

fclose($chatfile);

echo $literal_file;

echo "<br><IFRAME SRC='$literal_file' WIDTH='450' HEIGHT='100'></IFRAME><br>";

echo  "<IFRAME SRC='http://testarea.net78.net/chat/Jez_Mon Feb 21.html' width='50%' height='300'></IFRAME><br>";
?>

<IFRAME SRC="http://testarea.net78.net/chat/Jez_Mon Feb 21.html" WIDTH=450 HEIGHT=100>
</IFRAME>

</body>
</html>

good 'ol basename()

Now I'm banging my head on the wall AGAIN because it's STILL not wanting to insert the specified file into the iframe. I can call http://testarea.net78.net/chat/Jez_Mon%20Feb%2021.html directly from the browser, but as soon as I use it as a src in the iframe... nothing. Uhg!

As you can see, I put the literal URL into the iframe (just to see...) and nothing.

There must be something stupidly obvious that I'm overlooking here.

even the iframe outside of the php isn't working...

**NullPointer** · 02-21-2011, 07:50 PM

You need to encode the file name:
http://us2.php.net/manual/en/function.urlencode.php

**madnhain** · 02-21-2011, 08:11 PM

Ok, I went to run some errands, and came back, reloaded the page that's been giving me grief, and suddenly it works.....

Sooo.... what the heck?!