Standard use of function in a module

Client Joined: Oct 07, 2003 Posts: 735 Location: Ohio

I am puting together another module I need for a gaming site. I have been looking at the Content and Download modules like Montego suggested to get a feel for how they are constructed.

The main admin/index.php will house all my forms and functions in the same page. The main function is called campaign () and has all my forms in it. Each form has its own op= for example and calls another function.

Code:

."<td align=\"center\">[ <a href=\"".$admin_file.".php?op=editcampaign&amp;cid=$cid\">" . _EDIT . "</a>]</td><tr>";

editcampaign () then will process any inputs from the campaign() function.

If I do any validations, should I do these in campaign () before I call editcampaign(). Should editcampaign only be used for inserting or updating records via a

Code:

$db->sql_query("UPDATE " . $prefix . "_

command?

From what I remember from some college programing classes a function will alway return a vaue. I just need the function to update or insert records.

From my example above how does the function editcampaign () get variables passed to it from campaign().

I will have other functions such as

function addmap($mid, $map_name, $map_image)

I am such a noob with functions.

Site Admin/Owner Joined: Aug 27, 2002 Posts: 17088

Functions only return a value if you tell them to, via the return variableName; or return value; type statement. There are different ways to update variables passed to functions via the variable scope (global or local). Read up on this at http://us2.php.net/manual/en/language.functions.php.

Now to your point of where you do what, I would recommend that you do all validations that are global in scope in campaign and all that are local in the subFunction (editcampaign). In other words if you have 6 functions and they all hava variables passed which are the same, validate the variable before calling the function. In the case(s) where a function is unique in the arguments passed to it, validate those locally in the function.

Having said that, there is certainly nothing wrong with having a function that does ALL validations!

Posted: Tue Feb 28, 2006 3:28 pm

So then this code with validation (if correct Very Happy

):

Code:

/* Add a New Campaign */


    OpenTable();


   echo "<center><font class=\"option\"><b>" . _ADDCAMPAIGN . "</b></font></center><br>"


   ."<hr>"


   ."<table border=\"1\" width=\"100%\" align=\"center\"><tr>"


    ."<form method=\"post\" action=\"".$admin_file.".php\">"   


   ."" . _NAME . ": <input type=\"text\" name=\"title\" size=\"30\" maxlength=\"100\"><br>"      


   ."" . _DESCRIPTION . ":<br><textarea name=\"cdescription\" cols=\"60\" rows=\"10\"></textarea><br>"   


   ."<input type=\"hidden\" name=\"op\" value=\"addcampaign\">"


   ."<input type=\"submit\" value=\"" . _ADD . "\"><br>"


   ."</form>" 


   ."</td></tr></table>";


   if ($op == "addcampaign") {


   $title = $_POST['title'];


   $cdescription = $_POST['cdescription'];


   if (empty($title)){


   echo "You must enter a title for the campaign.";


      }


   if (empty($cdescription)){


   echo "You must enter a description for the campaign.";


      }


   }    CloseTable();

Would pass to the following values to this function.

Code:

function addcampaign($title, $cdescription) {


    global $prefix, $db, $admin_file;


    $db->sql_query("INSERT INTO " . $prefix . "_eto_campaigns VALUES (NULL, '$title', '$cdescription')");


    Header("Location: ".$admin_file.".php?op=campaign");


}

Posted: Tue Feb 28, 2006 5:36 pm

Yes, although you need to properly filter the POST content to avoid XSS vulnerabilities.