Help with an Undefined Index notice on line 158,159 and 160

[co.ador]

Notice: Undefined index: vote in C:\wamp\www\shoe\stores\rating.php on line 158

Notice: Undefined index: article_id in C:\wamp\www\shoe\stores\rating.php on line 159

Notice: Undefined variable: article_id in C:\wamp\www\shoe\stores\rating.php on line 160

The file below is divided in three part a Ajax, style sheet and php script. This is another rating system but there are a couple of variable undefined. The lines are signed below in comments.

<script>
    var http_request = false;
    function makePOSTRequest(url, parameters) { http_request = false;
    if (window.XMLHttpRequest) {http_request = new XMLHttpRequest();
    if (http_request.overrideMimeType) { http_request.overrideMimeType('text/xml'); }
    } else if (window.ActiveXObject) {
    try { http_request = new ActiveXObject("Msxml2.XMLHTTP"); } catch (e) {
    try { http_request = new ActiveXObject("Microsoft.XMLHTTP"); } catch (e) {}
    }
    }
    if (!http_request) { alert('Cannot create XMLHTTP instance'); return false; }
    document.getElementById('myspan').innerHTML = "Loading...";
    http_request.onreadystatechange = alertContents;
    http_request.open('POST', url, true);
    http_request.setRequestHeader("Content-type", "application/x-www-form-urlencoded");
    http_request.setRequestHeader("Charset", "windows-1251");
    http_request.setRequestHeader("Content-length", parameters.length);
    http_request.setRequestHeader("Connection", "close");
    http_request.send(parameters);
    }

    function alertContents() {
    if (http_request.readyState == 4) {
    if (http_request.status == 200) {
    result = http_request.responseText;
    document.getElementById('myspan').innerHTML = result;
    } else { alert('Please try again later.'); }
    }
    }

    function rate(article_id, vote){ makePOSTRequest('star_rating.php', 'article_id=' +article_id+'&vote='+vote); }

    if (document.getElementById) { window.onload = myUnobtrusiveBehavior; }

    function myUnobtrusiveBehavior() {
    var percentstyle="width:<?echo @number_format($current_rating/$count,2)*20 ?> px;";
    var content ="<div class=\"rating\" id=\"rating\"> <ul class=\"star-rating\"> <li class=\"current-rating\" style=\""+percentstyle+"\" >Current rating</li> <li><a id=\"rate1\" class=\"one-star\">1</a></li> <li><a id=\"rate2\" class=\"two-stars\">2</a></li> <li><a id=\"rate3\" class=\"three-stars\">3</a></li> <li><a id=\"rate4\" class=\"four-stars\">4</a></li> <li><a id=\"rate5\" class=\"five-stars\">5</a></li></ul>";

    /*
    var myspan = document.createElement("div");
    myspan.setAttribute("id", "myspan");
    myspan.innerHTML = content;
    document.body.appendChild(myspan);
    */

    document.getElementById("myspan").innerHTML=content;

    if (document.getElementById("rating")) {
    var article_id=document.getElementById("item").value;
    document.getElementById("rate1").onclick = function () {rate(article_id,'1'); return false;}
    document.getElementById("rate2").onclick = function () {rate(article_id,'2'); return false;}
    document.getElementById("rate3").onclick = function () {rate(article_id,'3'); return false;}
    document.getElementById("rate4").onclick = function () {rate(article_id,'4'); return false;}
    document.getElementById("rate5").onclick = function () {rate(article_id,'5'); return false;}
    }

    }

    </script>

    <style>
    .star-rating,
    .star-rating a:hover,
    .star-rating a:active,
    .star-rating a:focus,
    .star-rating .current-rating{
    background: url(star_rating.gif) left -1000px repeat-x;
    }
    .star-rating{
    position:relative;
    width:125px;
    height:25px;
    overflow:hidden;
    list-style:none;
    margin:0;
    padding:0;
    background-position: left top;
    }
    .star-rating li{
    display: inline;
    }
    .star-rating a,
    .star-rating .current-rating{
    position:absolute;
    top:0;
    left:0;
    text-indent:-1000em;
    height:25px;
    line-height:25px;
    outline:none;
    overflow:hidden;
    border: none;
    }
    .star-rating a:hover,
    .star-rating a:active,
    .star-rating a:focus{
    background-position: left bottom;
    }
    .star-rating a.one-star{
    width:20%;
    z-index:6;
    }
    .star-rating a.two-stars{
    width:40%;
    z-index:5;
    }
    .star-rating a.three-stars{
    width:60%;
    z-index:4;
    }
    .star-rating a.four-stars{
    width:80%;
    z-index:3;
    }
    .star-rating a.five-stars{
    width:100%;
    z-index:2;
    }
    .star-rating .current-rating{
    z-index:1;
    background-position: left center;
    }

    /* for an inline rater */
    .inline-rating{
    display:-moz-inline-block;
    display:-moz-inline-box;
    display:inline-block;
    vertical-align: middle;
    }

    /* smaller star */
    .small-star{
    width:50px;
    height:10px;
    }
    .small-star,
    .small-star a:hover,
    .small-star a:active,
    .small-star a:focus,
    .small-star .current-rating{
    background-image: url(star_small.gif);
    line-height: 10px;
    height: 10px;
    }
    </style>


    <?php
    $dbhost = 'localhost';
    $dbuser = 'root';
    $dbpass = 'poliferico';
    $dbname = 'menu';
    $tableName="ratings";
    $conn = mysql_connect($dbhost, $dbuser, $dbpass) or die ('Error connecting to mysql'); mysql_select_db($dbname);

    $rating_posted=$_POST['vote'];//the actual user vote
    $id=$_POST['article_id'];//passed article_id Line 158
    if (empty($id)) {$id=$article_id;} // line 159

    $query=mysql_query("SELECT total_votes, total_value, used_ips FROM $tableName WHERE id='$id' ")or die(" Error: ".mysql_error());

    $numbers=mysql_fetch_assoc($query);
    $checkIP=unserialize($numbers['used_ips']);
    $count=$numbers['total_votes'];//how many votes total
    $current_rating=$numbers['total_value'];//total number of rating added together and stored
    $sum=$rating_posted+$current_rating;// add together the current vote value and the total vote value
    $tense=($count==1) ? "vote" : "votes";//plural form votes/vote

    $voted=mysql_fetch_assoc(mysql_query("SELECT * FROM $tableName WHERE used_ips LIKE '%".$_SERVER['REMOTE_ADDR']."%' AND id='$id' ")); //This variable searches through the previous ip addresses that have voted and returns true or false

    //when already voted
    if($voted){
    echo "<ul class=\"star-rating\">
    <li class=\"current-rating\" style=\"width:". @number_format($current_rating/$count,2)*20 ."%;\"></li>
    </ul>
    Rating: <strong>".@number_format($current_rating/$count,2)."</strong> ( $count $tense )
    <br /><span style=\"color:red;\">You've already voted.</span><br />";
    }

    else{
    //if not voted do the actual voting
    if(isset($rating_posted)){
    //open initial voting row if necessary
    if (mysql_num_rows($query) == 0) { $sql = "INSERT INTO $tableName (id, total_votes, total_value, used_ips) VALUES ('$id', '0', '0', '')"; $result = mysql_query($sql) or die("err");}
    //increment votes, check ips & add/update vote to table
    if($sum==0){ $added=0;} else{ $added=$count+1;}
    if(is_array($checkIP)){array_push($checkIP,$_SERVER['REMOTE_ADDR']);}else{ $checkIP=array($_SERVER['REMOTE_ADDR']);}
    $insert=serialize($checkIP);
    mysql_query("UPDATE $tableName SET total_votes='$added', total_value='$sum',used_ips='$insert' WHERE id='$id'") or die("Error");
    $response = "<div class=\"rating\">Rate: <strong>".@number_format($sum/$added,2)."</strong> <br /> <span style=\"color:red;\">Thank you for your vote cast!</span></div>";
    echo iconv("windows-1251", "UTF-8", $response);
    exit;
    }

    //if not voting just show the current rating
    else { echo "<div id=\"myspan\"></div>";}


    }//end if

    ?>

[TeNDoLLA]

If these notices appear also in first page load then you can just see if the $_POST variables are set or not and if they are then assign the values.

// ..instead do this
if (isset($_POST['vote']) && !empty($_POST['vote']) && isset($_POST['id']) && !empty($_POST['id']))
{
    $rating_posted = $_POST['vote'];
    $article_id = $_POST['id'];
    // run db query..
}
else
{
    // something else..
} 

[crmalibu]

TeNDoLLA, using both isset and !empty is redundant. both isset and empty suppress php notices. isset checks for type null, while empty checks for a falsey value(which includes type null). Basically, the functionality of empty already encompases everything isset does, and more, making the use of isset redundant.

[TeNDoLLA]

Oh yes... very true. I've used lately isset together with strlen in a project, because i think empty handles '0' and 0 value also as false. So that is why I automatically put both of these together.

[SituationSoap]

TeNDoLLA, using both isset and !empty is redundant. both isset and empty suppress php notices. isset checks for type null, while empty checks for a falsey value(which includes type null). Basically, the functionality of empty already encompases everything isset does, and more, making the use of isset redundant.

Interesting. I had always thought that a variable which was initialized, but had no value would return true for isset(), as well as empty(). I just tested your statement, and it turns out that's not the case, isset() returns false, and empty returns true.

You learn something every day!

[co.ador]

so instead of like this

if (isset($_POST['vote']) && !empty($_POST['vote']) && isset($_POST['id']) && !empty($_POST['id'])) 

it is ok to go ahead and do it like this

if (isset($_POST['vote']) && ($_POST['vote']) && ($_POST['id']) && ($_POST['id'])) 

I have everything in the same page the only value comming from the URL is a variable value contained in $id variale which I have isset on top of the script and I will use it instead of article_id which is the variable that the tutorial use.