Creating a registration page in PHP - php

Question

Hi guys so im creating this registration page for my website in php..This is the PHP script
# Script 9.5 - register.php #2
// This script performs an INSERT query to add a record to the users table.
$page_title = 'Register';
include ('includes/header.html');
// Check for form submission:
if ($_SERVER['REQUEST_METHOD'] == 'POST') {
$errors = array(); // Initialize an error array.
// Check for a name:
if (empty($_POST['name'])) {
$errors[] = 'You forgot to enter your name.';
} else {
$n = mysqli_real_escape_string($dbh, trim($_POST['name']));
}
// Check for an email:
if (empty($_POST['email'])) {
$errors[] = 'You forgot to enter your email.';
} else {
$e = mysqli_real_escape_string($dbh, trim($_POST['email']));
}
// Check for a password and match against the confirmed password:
if (!empty($_POST['pass1'])) {
if ($_POST['pass1'] != $_POST['pass2']) {
$errors[] = 'Your password did not match the confirmed password.';
} else {
$p = mysqli_real_escape_string($dbh, trim($_POST['pass1']));
}
} else {
$errors[] = 'You forgot to enter your password.';
}
// Check for contact number:
if (empty($_POST['contact_no'])) {
$errors[] = 'You forgot to enter your contact no.';
} else {
$cn = mysqli_real_escape_string($dbh, trim($_POST['contact_no']));
}
if (empty($errors)) { // If everything's OK.
require 'connect_db.php';
$conn= mysqli_connect('*****' , '*****', '*****' , '*****' ,****);
// Make the query:
$q = ("INSERT INTO register_user(name, email, pass, contact_no) VALUES ('$n', '$e','$p','$cn')");
$r = #mysqli_query ($dbh, $q);// Run the query.
if ($r) { // If it ran OK.
// Print a message:
echo '<h1>Thank you!</h1>
<p>You are now registered. </p>
<p>Login </p>';
} else { // If it did not run OK.
// Public message:
echo '<h1>System Error</h1>
<p class="error">You could not be registered due to a system error. We apologize for any inconvenience.</p>';
// Debugging message:
echo '<p>' . mysqli_error($dbh) . '<br/><br/> Query: ' . $q . '</p>';
} // End of if ($r) IF.
mysqli_close($dbh); // Close the database connection.
// Include the footer and quit the script:
include ('includes/footer.html');
exit();
} else { // Report the errors.
echo '<h1>Error!</h1>
<p class="error">The following error(s) occurred:<br>';
foreach ($errors as $msg) { // Print each error.
echo " - $msg<br>";
}
echo 'Please try again.</p>';
} // End of if (empty($errors)) IF.
mysqli_close($dbh); // Close the database connection.
But the thing is once i register this is the output:
System Error
You could not be registered due to a system error. We apologize for any inconvenience.
Query: INSERT INTO register_user(name, email, pass, contact_no) VALUES ('', '','','')
so im kindly would glad for any assistance

Answer 1

You're calling mysqli_real_escape_string() BEFORE you establish your DB connection. This is not permitted. You MUST have a connection before doing the escape operations.
That means every single one of your form fields is going to be a boolean FALSE value, which signifies failure.
Your code should be structured
1. connect to db
2. process form inputs
3. if form inputs ok, insert into db
You've got #1 and #2 reversed.