passing array from php to javascript - php

Question

Hello
I'm trying to pass several arrays from php to javascript. For some of them it works, for others not. I get an array of filenames and an array which contains the content of several text files.
<?php
$album="./images/text_".$benutzerLang."_album1/";
$fileArray=lsRandom("./images/album1");
$listTextArray=initTexts($album,$fileArray);
$falseArray=lsRandom("./images/album2");
print $listTextArray[0];
?>
<script language="javascript" type="text/javascript">
var filesArray=new Array(5);
var falseArray=new Array(5);
var textListArray=new Array(5);
<?php
$i=0;
foreach($fileArray as $element){
print 'filesArray['.$i.']="'.$element.'";';
$i++;
}
$i=0;
foreach($falseArray as $element){
print 'falseArray['.$i.']="'.$element.'";';
$i++;
}
$i=0;
foreach($listTextArray as $element){
print 'textListArray['.$i.']="'.$element.'";';
$i++;
}
?>
function createText(){//...
</script>
<?php
function lsRandom($foldername){
$files = array();
$returnFiles=array();
$indexes=array();
$currentPath=getcwd();
chdir($foldername);
// Get the all files and folders in the given directory.
$files = glob("*", GLOB_BRACE + GLOB_MARK);
$indexes=(array_rand($files,5));
shuffle($indexes);
foreach($indexes as $in){
$returnFiles[$in]=$files[$in];
}
chdir($currentPath);
return $returnFiles;
}
function getFileText($fileName,$path){
$filePath=''.$path.''.$fileName.'';
//$file=fopen($filePath,'r');
//$text=fread($file,filesize($filePath));
$text=file_get_contents($filePath,false);
return $text;
}
function initTexts($album, $images){
$textArray1=array();
$i=0;
foreach($images as $im){
$nameArray=explode(".",$im);
$textName=''.$nameArray[0].'.txt';
$textArray1[$i]=getFileText($textName, $album);
$i++;
}
return $textArray1;
}
?>
The problem is the $listTextArray. In the 8th row I can print the whole array $listTextArray which contains the content of some small textfiles and it works. But further down in the 'foreach - loop'. It doesn't work anymore. As soon as I use the variable $listTextArray in the second php block the rest of my php code doesn't get executed anymore. I don't know why it can not access $listTextArray at that part. Because its no problem with the other arrays $fileArray and $falseArray.

Answer 1

Some general advice:
It's difficult to troubleshoot this kind of problem without the error message. If no error is being printed where you can see it, look for files named php.log, error.log, or httpd.log or ask your server admin(s).
Try using print_r() on your arrays to see if there's any difference in how they're structured. For example, just after setting the arrays in PHP:
print_r($fileArray);
print_r($listTextArray);
print_r($falseArray);
Rather than constructing the JS arrays via loops, try using the built-in json_encode() function instead. This both simplifies your PHP code and may cause more useful error messages when there are problems:
var filesArray=<?php json_encode($fileArray) ?>;
var falseArray=<?php json_encode($falseArray) ?>;
var textListArray=<?php json_encode($listTextArray) ?>;

Answer 2

you initiate
var textListArray=new Array(5);
but try to use
listTextArray
Use the same name and everything will be alright

Answer 3

The problem is already solved for you. Use json_encode instead.
print('filesArray = '.json_encode($filesArray));
Note that json_encode demands that your data is utf8 encoded. But you should do that already anyway.