$_GET problem

[GiantMatrix]

Hi All,

I am having a problem getting the value of a variable in a query string from my PHP files....based on php rules everything should be working fine, but for unknown reason to me I simply can't get the query string variable value.

So I will appreciate it so much if someone can please help me find out what is exactly wrong

On a minor note, I am using smarty template engine + Apache mod_rewrite.


search_box.tpl
<table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0">
<tr>
<form name="frmsearch" id="frmsearch" method ="get" >
<td>
<input type="text" name="searchterm" value=""/>
</td>
<td>
<input type="submit" value="Search"/>
</td>
</form>
</tr>
</table>


index.php

//I tried once....

if($searchterm)
{ echo $searchterm;
echo 'found it';
}
else
{ echo $_REQUEST['searchterm'];
echo 'Error';
}
exit;

//Then tried ....

if($_GET['searchterm'])
{ echo $searchterm;
echo 'found it';
}
else
{ echo $_REQUEST['searchterm'];
echo 'Error';
}
exit;


//Then tried ....

if($_REQUEST['searchterm'])
{ echo $searchterm;
echo 'found it';
}
else
{ echo 'Error';
}
exit;


And they all gave the same result...show the text Error

On a minor note, I am using Apach mod_rewrite as follows
RewriteRule ^(.*)-LD-([0-9]+)-P([0-9]+)\.html$ index.php?id=$2&cat=$1&page=$3 [L]

And search_box.tpl appear in a URL
http://....../Category-12-LD-5.html

TO

http://....../Category-12-LD-5.html?searcterm=hello world


That is all the info I have...

Thanks in advance for your help and cooperation

[clamcrusher]

i ran into that problem as well.
if you change it to

RewriteRule ^(.*)-LD-([0-9]+)-P([0-9]+)\.html$ index.php

then the normal query string will be available to php. seems that when you force your own query string in the rewrite rule, it overwrites the query string the browser sent.
personally, thats what i did, and then i just get what i want and parse it out using php, using $_SERVER['REQUEST_URI']




you might be able to get fancy and add the normal query string back in like this though

RewriteRule ^(.*)-LD-([0-9]+)-P([0-9]+)\.html$ index.php?%{QUERY_STRING}&id=$2&cat=$1&page=$3 [L]

the reason i put %{QUERY_STRING} in before the other variables, and not at the end, is so if the user passes ?id=foo, your id wont get overwritten.

so now you need to remember you cant use id, cat, or page as variables anymore. if thats a problem, do what i did and just parse the REQUEST_URI using php instead of setting variables in the rewrite rule.


another option, is to pass those variables to php as enviornment variables, so they wont collide with your normal _GET variables, which you can do with htaccess. i forget the syntax though. then they will be available in the php $_ENV array

[GiantMatrix]

clamcrusher,

Thanks a lot for your help and support...the problem is totally solved

I've used this solution, and it solved the problem instantly

RewriteRule ^(.*)-LD-([0-9]+)-P([0-9]+)\.html$ index.php?%{QUERY_STRING}&id=$2&cat=$1&page=$3 [L]

Just one last question, can you please elaborate more what did you mean by "the reason i put %{QUERY_STRING} in before the other variables, and not at the end, is so if the user passes ?id=foo, your id wont get overwritten."

Once again thanks a lot for your help and support

[clamcrusher]

if i did it this way

RewriteRule ^(.*)-LD-([0-9]+)-P([0-9]+)\.html$ index.php?id=$2&cat=$1&page=$3%{QUERY_STRING} [L]

then if you went to
http://....../Category-12-LD-5.html?id=foo&cat=foo&page=foo

guess what echo $_GET['id'] is gonna output?
foo