post - PHP $_GET and $_POST undefined problem

Question

I'm new to PHP so I apologize if this is a simple problem...

I am moving a PHP site from one server to another. The new server is IIS 7.0, PHP 5.2.1, with short open tag turned "On", and I don't know how the original server was set-up (I was just given the code).

The following is the very first section of code on one of the pages:

<?
ob_start();
session_start();

if($_GET['confirm'] == 13 || $_GET['confirm'] == 14 || $_GET['confirm'] == 15 || $_GET['confirm'] == 16) 
{
    include("test/query/test_query.php");
}
?>

When this page executes, the following error is always shown:

PHP Notice: Undefined index: confirm in [file location].php on line 6

Also, users access this page by being redirected from the home page (which is a standard HTML page). The full URL when properly navigated to is the following:

http://www.[site].com/test.php#login

... I understand why the error is thrown. What I don't understand is how this code could ever work as it does on the original server. Could I be missing a configuration setting?

*This same issue happens in dozens of locations all over the site. This is just one specific occurrence of the issue.

Answer 1

The new server has error_reporting set to E_ALL. What you're seeing is a notice, not an error. Try:

error_reporting(E_ALL ^ E_NOTICE)

With error reporting set to E_ALL, accessing a member of an array which is not set generates an error. If you don't wish to lower your error reporting level, before checking $_GET['var'], change your code to:

if(isset($_GET['confirm']) && ($_GET['confirm'] == 13 || $_GET['confirm'] == 14 || $_GET['confirm'] == 15 || $_GET['confirm'] == 16)) {

by adding the call to isset() before you actually access $_GET['confirm'], you will verify that you're not accessing an array member which is not set. ($_GET['confirm'] will only be set if the URL ends in ?confirm=... or ?something...&confirm=...)