PHP string cookie define - php

I have a string defined like:
DEFINE('IMAGES_DIR',"/portal/images/");
After I place it inside of a cookie its content becomes
%2Fportal%2Fimages%2F
I need the string to return like:
/portal/images/

I'm kinda combining two answers mentioned here.
1st
what you described is the default behaviour, PHP will automatically decode it to its original value, you don't need to do urldecode($_COOKIE['name']);
2nd
You can prevent automatic url encoding by using setrawcookie()
Docs
Note that the value portion of the cookie will automatically be urlencoded when you send the cookie, and when it is received, it is automatically decoded and assigned to a variable by the same name as the cookie name. If you don't want this, you can use setrawcookie() instead if you are using PHP 5.

Use urldecode when getting cookie value:
echo urldecode('%2Fportal%2Fimages%2F');
or
//for cookie
echo urldecode($_COOKIE['IMAGES_DIR']);
//for your example above with the contant
echo urldecode(IMAGES_DIR);

Related

Can setrawcookie() method accept URL as a value?

Can I pass URL as string to setrawcookie() in PHP ?
For example:
setrawcookie('Cookie', 'Owner=me&Website=http://my.website.com')
I am asking, because for some reason my cookie in the browser looks like:
Owner=Me&Website=
I assume the issue is tied with the character set.
Encode the cookie value, and decode when retrieving it back.
http://php.net/manual/en/function.htmlentities.php
Change:
setrawcookie('Cookie', 'Owner=me&Website=http://my.website.com')
To:
setrawcookie('Cookie', "Owner=me&Website=http://my.website.com")

PHP session variable not persisting while others are

Using Kohana 3 in a windows environment. I am able to get some session variables to pass through to other pages however one variable in particular does not get persisted.
setting
Session::instance()->set('user_id', $this->_post['username']);
Session::instance()->set('user_pwd', $this->_post['password']);
Session::instance()->set('session_state', $tmp);
Getting
$this->_uid= Session::instance()->get('user_id');
$this->_pwd= Session::instance()->get('user_pwd');
$this->_session_state= Session::instance()->get('session_state');
For some reason Session::instance()->get('session_state') contains nothing. Whenever I print out the array for sessoin:instance. Is there something with the characters I am passing through?
example of this session variable.
$tmp = 2.000000015f92d17e669733b522ba1afdee23205b44a6f19731dbb759a09d5a81bf18338cdb789b4b317dfe38a5fddaa81cb4c153dbbfc672b5fa5b8f8d1071e340134d46bc46fff3965db1d62b64be5195d8b603f350eb28a9cba087efc1dfbb99f8aad5bcd5dd75b21807b52c9c95ce3840fdf7263ff08c643a0c56477503f751ceb2cd1b88401f.1033.0.1.America/New*_York.wps*_1*_prun*_1.00000001618cb83feb74e6dd9d51a073f6841f859b9b04a5d30c4acd8672594d87b2d30e956cc482e999d1e6c2858f36564bbc4184718dd7bf663cf21299e9565caf.00000001c39a4f9dcf4dfaa07a2cbfa2e76f82e0c911585a51ebb8d4ff783513ebdec801e539ef70.0.1.1.MicroStrategy Tutorial.B19DEDCC11D4E0EFC000EB9495D0F44F.0-1033.0.1_-1033.0.1_-1033.1.1_1.1.0.*0.Not+specified.6.e
There are some special characters preventing this, after I use htmlspecialchars() the value is passed successfully through.

Safely pass variables from one php file to another php file in the URL

This might be a basic question and I've been searching for a safe and clean way to do this. Im passing a normal string which CAN include special characters (like $ ^ % etc). How can I do this in the url? For example I have a variable called $text which In addto.php from $_GET. How do I then transfer this to more.php?
'more.php?varname='.urlencode($_GET['text']);
urlencode sounds like what you want.
(from the docs)
This function is convenient when encoding a string to be used in a query part of a URL, as a convenient way to pass variables to the next page.
You can pass data through an URL, it should be in the form of key/value pairs, but you shouldn't use it to pass too much data because an URL has a limit. You also should not pass sensitive information.
A key/value pair is something like this:
key=value
If you have more then one pair, you need to separate them using the & char. Here is an example:
myScript.php?color1=blue&color2=red
The string after ? is called the Query String. With PHP you can easily access those key/value pairs using the super-global $_GET. So, in myScript.php you do:
$a = $_GET['color1'];
$b = $_GET['color2'];
Now, if you are going to create a dynamic query string, you should use urlencode() at least, so any special characters will be translated to maintain a proper URL format.
Please read the following:
http://php.net/urlencode
http://php.net/manual/en/function.http-build-query.php

Multiple Variables into 1 in a URL

I am looking to have a list of arguments passed across in an a URL.
$url['key1']=1;
$url['key2']=2;
$url['key3']=3;
$url['key4']=4;
$url['key5']=5;
$url['key6']=6;
$url['key7']=7;
Please Note I am trying to pass this in the URL in 1 GET variable. I know this would be better done by ?key1=1&key2=2&key3=3...etc but for reasons that are too complicated to try and explain they can't be in this format.
Any suggestions how I can convert this array into something that can be passed as 1 get var in a URL string?
Thanks in advance.
You can use json_encode() or serialize()
$myUrl = 'http://www.example.com/?myKey=' . urlencode(json_encode($url));
or
$myUrl = 'http://www.example.com/?myKey=' . urlencode(serialize($url));
Using json_encode will usually give you a shorter string, but very old PHP version might not have the json_decode function available to decode it again.
The final way would be to create your own custom encoding... it could be as simple a pipe-separated values: key1|1|key2|2|key3|3
This would give you the best option for a short URL, but is the most work.
Try http_build_query:
$url['key1']=1;
$url['key2']=2;
$url['key3']=3;
$url['key4']=4;
$url['key5']=5;
$url['key6']=6;
$url['key7']=7;
echo http_build_query($url);
//echos key1=1&key2=2&key3=3&key...
What it does is converting an array into a query string using the keys and automatically takes care of url-encoding.
EDIT:
Just read your additional requirement that it should be just one variable. So nevermind this answer.
If your problem was the proper encoding though you might want to give this another try.
Hope that helps.
The recommendation to use serialize() is fine. If space is an issue, then use a combination of bzcompress() and serialize().
However, there's a security considering that hasn't been brought up, and that's that the end user (who can see and edit this url) could manipulate the data within it. You may think it's difficult, but most of the PHP-attacking worms in the wild do this to some degree or another.
If letting the user directly manipulate any of the keys or values (or replacing it with an integer, or an object, or anything else), then you should protect your script (and your users) from this attack.
A simple solution is to simply use a shared secret. It can be anything; just so long as it's unique and truly secret (perhaps you should randomly generate it at install-time). Let's say you have in your config file something like this:
define('SECRET', 'unoqetbioqtnioqrntbioqt');
Then, you can digitally sign the serialized data created with: $s=serialize($m) using $k=sha1($s.SECRET) and make the url value $k.$s
Then, before you unserialize() do this:
$v=substr($input,0,40);
$s=substr($input,40);
if ($v != sha1($s.SECRET)) { die("invalid input"); }
$m=unserialize($s);
This way, you know that $m is the same as the original value that you serialized.
If you like, you can use the following drop-in replacements:
define('SECRET','buh9tnb1094tib014'); // make sure you pick something else
function secureserialize($o) {
$s=serialize($o);
return sha1($s.SECRET).$s;
}
function secureunserialize($i) {
$v=substr($i,0,40);$s=substr($i,40);
if ($v!=sha1($s.SECRET)){die("invalid input");}
return unserialize($s);
}
You could serialize them as key-value pairs when constructing the URL, putting the resultant serialized value in a single $_GET variable (e.g. data=sfsdfasdf98sdfasdf), then unserialize the $_GET["data"] variable. You'll need to use urlencode to make sure the resultant serialized values are URL-safe. Make sure you watch out for maximum URL lengths - 2083 characters in IE.
However, unless you really can't use key-value pairs in URLs (per your question), key1=foo&key2=bar... is definitely the way to go.
If you don't mind dropping the key names, you can use
http://example.com?url[]=1&url[]=2&url[]=3
EDIT Keeping the key names:
http://example.com?values[]=1&values[]=2&values[]=3&keys[]=1&keys[]=2&keys[]=3
Then in your PHP script:
$url = array_combine($_GET['keys'], $_GET['values']);
Could you solve your problem by saving the data as a HTML cookie? That way you don't have to modify the URL at all.
If you know the values in advance, you can set them from the server side when you send the user the page with your target link on it.
If you won't know the values until the user fills out a form it can still be done using JavascriptL When the user clicks the form submit you can set multiple cookies by making multiple javascript calls like:
document.cookie = 'key1=test; expires=Mon, 7 Sept 2009 23:47:11 UTC; path=/'
The security model might give you some trouble if you are trying to pass this data from one domain to another though.

PHP - Data after "?" in URL displays different information

I know the title isn't very clear. I'm new to PHP, so there might be name for this kind of thing, I'll try to explain as best as I can. Sometimes in a URL, when using PHP, there will be a question mark, followed by data. I'm sorry, I know this is very noobish, but I'm not sure what it's called to look for a tutorial or anything. Here is what I mean:
http://www.website.com/error_messages.php?error_id=0
How do you configure it to display different text depending on what the number is (in this example it's a number)
Could somebody please tell me what this is called and how I could do this? I've been working with PHP for a couple days and I'm lost. Thank you so very much for understanding that I am very new at this.
That "data" is the URL querystring, and it encodes the GET variables of that HTTP request.
Here's more info on query strings: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Query_string
In PHP you access these with the $_GET "super-global" variable:
// http://www.website.com/error%5Fmessages.php?error%5Fid=0
// %5F is a urlencoded '_' character, which your webserver will most likely
// decode before it gets to PHP.
// So ?error%5Fid=0 reaches PHP as the 'error_id' GET variable
$error_id = $_GET['error_id'];
echo $error_id; // this will be 0
The querystring can encode multiple GET variables by separating them with the & character. For example:
?error_id=0&error_message=Something%20bad%20happened
error_id => "0"
error_message => "Something bad happened"
In that example you can also see that spaces are encoded as %20.
Here's more info on "percent encoding": http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Percent-encoding
The data after the question mark is called the "query string". It usually contains data in the following format:
param1=value1&param2=value2
Ie, it is a list of key-value pairs, each pair separated with the ampersand character (&). In order to pass special characters in the values, they have to be encoded using URL-encoding format: Using the percent sign (%) followed by two hexadecimal characters representing the character code.
In PHP, parameters passed via the query string are automatically propagated to your script using the super-global variable $_GET:
echo $_GET['param1']; // will produce "value1" for the example above.
The raw, unprocessed query string can be retrieved by the QUERY_STRING server variable:
echo $_SERVER['QUERY_STRING'];
It's called the query string.
In PHP you can access its data via the superglobal $_GET
For example:
http://www.example.com/?hello=world
<?php
// Use htmlspecialchars to prevent cross-site scripting attacks (XSS)
echo htmlspecialchars($_GET['hello']);
?>
If you want to create a query string to append to a URL you can use http_build_query():
$str = http_build_query(array('hello' => 'world'));
As previously described, the data after the ? is the querystring (or GET data), and is accessed using the $_GET variable. The $_GET variable is an array containing the name=value pairs in the querystring.
Here is a breif description of $_GET and an example of it's usage:
http://www.w3schools.com/php/php_get.asp
Data can also be submited to a PHP script as POST data (found in the $_POST variable), which is used for passwords, etc, and is not stored in the URL. The $_REQUEST variable contains both POST and GET data. POST and GET data usually originates from being entered into a web form by a user (but GET data can also come directly from a link to an address, like in your example). More info about using web forms in PHP can be found here:
http://www.w3schools.com/php/php_forms.asp
its called "query string"
and you can retrieve it via $_SERVER["QUERY_STRING"]
or you can loop through $_GET
in this case the error_id, you can check it by something like this
echo $_GET['error_id'];
The term you are looking for is GET. So in php you need to access the GET variables in $_GET['variable_name'], e.g. in the example you gave $_GET['error_id'] will contain the value 0. You can then use this in your logic to echo back different information.
The bit after the question mark is called a Query String. The format is typically, although not necessarily always, key-value pairs, where the pairs are separated by an ampersand (&) and the value is separated from the name by an equals sign (=): ?var1=value1&var2=value2&.... Most web programming environments provide an easy way to access name-value pairs in this format. For example, in PHP, there is a superglobal, which is an associative array of these key-value-pairs. In your example, error_id would be accessible via:
$_GET['error_id']
The reason for the name "GET" is that query string variables are typically associated with a HTTP GET request. POST requests can contain GET variables too, whereas GET requests can't contain POST variables.
As to the rest of your question, you could approach the text issue in a number of ways, the simplest being switching on the error id:
$error_id = isset($_GET['error_id']) ? $_GET['error_id'] : 0;
switch($error_id) {
case 1:
echo "Error 1";
break;
default:
echo "Unknown Error";
break;
}
and more complex ways involve looking up the error message from a file, database or what have you.

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