Showing php variable from a different page onto an html page

Question

I have a my navbar script on a file called navbar.php. I include this file at the top of all other pages of my website. What I am trying to do now is to customize the navbar with the name of whoever is logged in. Let's say I have a php file named account-process.php with a variable $name = 'Bob'. I'm having trouble making this variable show up in the navbar.

Here's my account-process.php:

<?PHP
//VARS: gets user input from previous sign in page and assigns it to local variables
//$_POST['signin-email'];
//$_POST['signin-pass'];
$signin_email = $_POST['signin-email'];
$signin_pass = $_POST['signin-pass'];

// connects to MySQL database
include("config.inc.php");
$link = mysql_connect($db_host,$db_user,$db_pass);
mysql_select_db($db_name,$link);

// checking for user input in the table
$result = mysql_query("SELECT * FROM table WHERE email = '$signin_email' AND password = '$signin_pass'");   
if (mysql_num_rows($result) > 0) { // if the username and password exist and match in the table
    echo "Account Found";
    $account_arr = mysql_fetch_array($result); // contains all the data from the user's MySQL row
    echo print_r($account_arr);
}
else { // if username and password don't match or they aren't found in the table
    echo "The email or password you entered is incorrect.";
}
?>

I'm trying to access the $account_arr variable in navbar.php so I can display the user's name on the top. I have tried including account-process.php in navbar.php with <?php include('account-process.php') ?> and then accessing the variable in the html of the navbar, but the page simply turns out blank when I attempt this.

navbar.php simply has basic scripting for a fixed navbar with some information. Why does it turn blank when I try to include the php file in it?

Thanks

It turns blank because you haven't instructed Apache to treat `.html` files as PHP. Name it `navbar.php` and it will work. — Funk Forty Niner, Aug 31 '14 at 02:49
Sorry, navbar is actually a php. It should be navbar.php. Let me edit the question. — applemavs, Aug 31 '14 at 02:50
white page of death, error reporting\display are off, turn them on `error_reporting(E_ALL); ini_set('display_errors', 1);` — , Aug 31 '14 at 02:51
Sidenote/Q: Is this a LIVE site or just to learn? If it's LIVE, tell me you are hashing your passwords. — Funk Forty Niner, Aug 31 '14 at 03:14

score 1 · Accepted Answer · answered Aug 31 '14 at 03:01

~~Change the navbar a PHP file~~ and use sessions. -EDIT- Took a long time to post. Keep it as PHP.

account-process.php:

<?php
session_start();
//VARS: gets user input from previous sign in page and assigns it to local variables
//$_POST['signin-email'];
//$_POST['signin-pass'];
$signin_email = $_POST['signin-email'];
$signin_pass = $_POST['signin-pass'];

// connects to MySQL database
include("config.inc.php");
$link = mysql_connect($db_host,$db_user,$db_pass);
mysql_select_db($db_name,$link);

// checking for user input in the table
$result = mysql_query("SELECT * FROM table WHERE email = '$signin_email' AND password = '$signin_pass'");   
if (mysql_num_rows($result) > 0) { // if the username and password exist and match in the table
    echo "Account Found";
    $account_arr = mysql_fetch_array($result); // contains all the data from the user's MySQL row
    echo print_r($account_arr);
    $_SESSION['name']=$account_arr['username'];
}
else { // if username and password don't match or they aren't found in the table
    echo "The email or password you entered is incorrect.";
}

?>

navbar.php:

<?php
session_start();
echo "<div><p>Hello, my name is " . $_SESSION['name'] . ".</p></div>";
?>

The session data is stored in a cookie called PHPSESSID that expires after the browsing session ends.

You start or resume a session using the session_start() function. This must be called before the <!DOCTYPE html> if the page contains non-PHP generated HTML.

The data is stored in a superglobal associative array called $_SESSION. Info can be sent to/from and modified from this variable on any page with session_start called.

If you don't want to use a session you can create your own cookie and use the $_COOKIE superglobal.

Further Info:

http://php.net/manual/en/function.session-start.php

http://www.w3schools.com/php/php_sessions.asp

http://www.w3schools.com/php/php_cookies.asp

*"The session data is stored in a cookie called PHPSESSID that expires after the browsing session ends."* only some what correct, the session id is in the in the cookie (or the url) the session data is on the server — , Aug 31 '14 at 03:05
*"You start or resume a session using the session_start() function. This must be called before the if the page contains non-PHP generated HTML."* again not very accurate, it simply needs to be called before any output — , Aug 31 '14 at 03:06
Thank you for the in-depth response, I'm going to try this out and see how it works. — applemavs, Aug 31 '14 at 03:19
It looks like it worked! Thank you so much. I should probably ask this in a separate question, but just incase there is a quick solution: is there a way to modify the navbar based on if the user is logged in? (make certain elements be replaced by other elements) For example, I want my "Log In" button to be replaced by the user's name. — applemavs, Aug 31 '14 at 04:20
applemavs no problem. @Dragon, thanks for correcting that. ;) — Homberto, Aug 31 '14 at 05:20

Showing php variable from a different page onto an html page

1 Answers1