Values incoming from/with an anchor href (basics)

[martin]

A page has links that want to invoke the same php file,
but pass in different values for a given variable.

<a href=process.php?flag=1> Do One </a>
<a href=process.php?flag=2> Do Two </a>
<a href=process.php?flag=3> Do Three </a>

But, we don't want variables in the URL, right?
So, is it possible to not have them there and
still have multiple links load the same php file,
but with different results?

-Martin

[Andy Hassall]

On 10 Jan 2004 13:33:45 -0800, mc*******@earthlink.net (martin) wrote:

A page has links that want to invoke the same php file,
but pass in different values for a given variable.

<a href=process.php?flag=1> Do One </a>
<a href=process.php?flag=2> Do Two </a>
<a href=process.php?flag=3> Do Three </a>

But, we don't want variables in the URL, right?
Why not?
So, is it possible to not have them there and
still have multiple links load the same php file,
but with different results?

Depends what you're objecting to.

You can make them look nicer with Apache's mod_rewrite, e.g. transparently
turn /process/1 into process.php?flag=?. But from the looks of the filename,
and the 'Do' part of the link text, it looks like this page will have a
side-effect. In which case, you should be using POST and not GET.

--
Andy Hassall <an**@andyh.co.uk> / Space: disk usage analysis tool
<http://www.andyh.co.uk> / <http://www.andyhsoftware.co.uk/space>

[Chung Leong]

> But, we don't want variables in the URL, right?

An idea propagated by people who don't know security but think they do.
There have been a number of publicized cases where sloppily coded websites
exposed sensitive user information because they failed to validate GET
variables (usually a user id). Placing variables in the URL by itself
doesn't introduce any vulnerability, however.

So, is it possible to not have them there and
still have multiple links load the same php file,
but with different results?

Yes. You can use the path as the identifier.

<a href=process.php/flag1> Do One </a>
<a href=process.php/flag2> Do Two </a>
<a href=process.php/flag3> Do Three </a>

$PATH_INFO would yield "/flag1", "/flag2", or "/flag3".

It's rather pointless though.

[CountScubula]

"martin" <mc*******@earthlink.net> wrote in message
news:a7*************************@posting.google.co m...

A page has links that want to invoke the same php file,
but pass in different values for a given variable.

<a href=process.php?flag=1> Do One </a>
<a href=process.php?flag=2> Do Two </a>
<a href=process.php?flag=3> Do Three </a>

But, we don't want variables in the URL, right?
So, is it possible to not have them there and
still have multiple links load the same php file,
but with different results?

-Martin

As was posted, I would agree about it being pointless, now thats said, here
is one stupid aproach. Aha, now you guys cant call it stupid, I already did
;)
Wrap you links with other pages
<a href=wa.php> Do One </a>
<a href=wb.php> Do Two </a>
file wa.php
<?php
$flag = "1";
include("process.php");
?>

file wb.php
<?php
$flag = "2";
include("process.php");
?>

--
Mike Bradley
http://www.gzentools.com -- free online php tools