CODEWITHSUNDEEP
php
Brock90
Brock90

Reputation: 814

What is a proper way of displaying error messages to a user in php?

I have a simple login system but instead of echoing out the error messages when they don't type their credentials correctly I want to be able to put the messages in <p></p> or something similar. I tried using an empty array

$data = array();

and then setting a status variable whenever there is an error instead of using echo

$data["status"] = "...."

and on the html part i put in

<?php if ( isset($status) ) : ?>
    <p><?= $status; ?></p>
<?php endif; ?>

But i can't seem to get it work.I also tried:

extract($data)

But again i am clearly doing something wrong.I am not sure if this is the correct way.Would using javascript or jquery be a bettor way to handle this?Anyway here is my code.

$conn = DBconnect($config);
//create and empty array so we can ifor the users.
$data = array();

// if the user has submitted the form
if( $_SERVER["REQUEST_METHOD"] === "POST") {

    //protect the posted value then store them to variables
    $username = protect($_POST["username"]);
    $password = protect($_POST["password"]);

    //Check if the username or password boxes were not filled in
    if ( !$username || !$password ){
        // if not display an error message.
        $data["status"] =  "You need to fill in a username and password!";
    }else{
        //check if the username and password match.
        $stmt = query("SELECT * FROM users WHERE username = :username AND password = :password",
                        array("username" => $username, "password" => $password),
                        $conn);
        $row = $stmt->fetch(PDO::FETCH_ASSOC);
        if(!$row){
            //display an error message
            $data["status"] =  "Username or Password is incorrect.";
        }elseif($row["active"] !=1) {
            $data["status"] =  "You have not activated your account!";
            }else{
                //we log the user in.

That keeps going.And here is the html part

<div class="container">

  <form class="form-signin" action ="" method = "post">
    <h2 class="form-signin-heading">Please Log In</h2>
    <input type="text" class="input-block-level" name = "username" id = "username" placeholder="Username">
    <input type="password" class="input-block-level" name = "password" id = "password" placeholder="Password">
    <label class="checkbox">
      <input type="checkbox" value="remember-me"> Remember me
    </label>
     <input type="submit" class = "btn btn-large btn-primary" name = "submit" value="Log in!" >

    <?php if ( isset($status) ) : ?>
      <p><?= $status; ?></p>
    <?php endif; ?>

  </form>

</div> <!-- /container -->

Upvotes: 0

Views: 147

Answers (1)

christopher
christopher

Reputation: 27356

$data["status"] = "...."
and on the html part i put in

<?php if ( isset($status) ) : ?>
    <p><?= $status; ?></p>
<?php endif; ?>

Well as far as I can see, $status isn't set. $data["status"] is set.

As far as the proper method for passing error messages, as suggested in the comments; because this error is a value that is only really relevant in the current session, it makes sense to pass it in $_SESSION. And because we like to give all values relevant titles, storing it in $_SESSION['error']; is a perfectly legitimate way of passing the error message.

Upvotes: 1

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