Website upgrading from 5.3 to 5.5, code no longer working

General PHP Help
#1

I have had a php astronomy database online since 2001 which is used by amateur

astronomers to build observing lists before they go out stargazing. I know only very basic

php programming and put this together by finding sample code and editing it to get it

working. It uses a flat table that is queried by the users who choose various parameters

such as galaxy, brightness, etc on an html page and then results are printed on a php

page. Often when a major php upgrade occurs, the code breaks and, so far, I have been

able to fix it, but I am now at an impass.

I’m using php 5.3 but the system will eventually be upgraded to php 5.5 and my code does

not work under 5.5.

The message from my support said the following:

"Please note that the script relies on the “register_globals” feature. This feature is

completely removed in PHP 5.5."

I have spent several hours reading php documentation and various forum posts and I can’t

figure out what part of the code uses the register_globals feature.

The starting html page is at http://virtualcolony.com/sac/galaxies.html

On my HTML form page, this is the code I use to gather the variables.

[code]

<img

src=“images/spacer1x1.gif” width=“1” height=“1” border=“0” alt="">
Enter

your search criteria below. The default magnitude of 99.9 will show all objects (unknown

magnitude and surface brightness values are shown as 99.9 in this database). Sort order is

by ra (right ascension), mag (magnitude), subr (surface brightness), urano (Uranometria

2000 chart number) or object (object catalog name).

<img

src=“images/spacer1x1.gif” width=“1” height=“1” border=“0” alt="">
AND ANT APS AQL AQR ARA ARI AUR BOO CAE CAM CAP CAR CAS CEN CEP CET CHA CIR CMA CMI CNC COL COM CRA CRB CRT CRU CRV CVN CYG DEL DOR DRA EQU ERI FOR GEM GRU HER HOR HYA HYI IND LAC LEO LEP LIB LMI LUP LYN LYR MEN MIC MON MUS NOR OCT OPH ORI PAV PEG PER PHE PIC PSA PSC PUP PYX RET SCL SCO SCT SER SEX SGE SGR TAU TEL TRA TRI TUC UMA UMI VEL VIR VOL VUL
GALXY GALCL
Sort

by: 

 ra_hr mag subr urano object [/code]

On my php page, this is the code I use to query the database and print out the result (the

page has a .php3 extension - I don’t know if that should be changed or makes any

difference)


<?php 

mysql_connect ('localhost:/tmp/mysql5.sock', 'my_user_name', 'my_password') or
    die("Could not connect: " . mysql_error());

mysql_select_db (virtualc_sac);


$result = mysql_query ("select * from saguaro
                         where con = '$con' and type = '$type' and mag > '$mag1' and subr < 

'$mag2' order by $order");
							   
print ("<tr><td colspan='13' align='center'><font face='arial, helvetica' size='2'><b>Search 

Results for Galaxies<br> Constellation=$con, Type=$type, Magnitude > $mag1 and 

Surface Brightness < $mag2 and Sorted by $order</b><br><br></td></tr>");

if ($row = mysql_fetch_array($result)) {



{print "<tr>
<td width='70' align='left' valign='bottom'><font face='arial, helvetica' size='1'>Object</td>
<td width='60' align='left' valign='bottom'><font face='arial, helvetica' 

size='1'>Other<br>Name</td>
<td width='30' align='left' valign='bottom'><font face='arial, helvetica' size='1'>Mag</td>
<td width='30' align='left' valign='bottom'><font face='arial, helvetica' size='1'>Subr</td>
<td width='35' align='left' valign='bottom'><font face='arial, helvetica' 

size='1'>Major<br>Axis</td>
<td width='30' align='left' valign='bottom'><font face='arial, helvetica' 

size='1'>Minor<br>Axis</td>
<td width='20' align='left' valign='bottom'><font face='arial, helvetica' size='1'>PA</td>
<td width='30' align='left' valign='bottom'><font face='arial, helvetica' size='1'>Urano</td>
<td width='25' align='left' valign='bottom'><font face='arial, helvetica' size='1'>RA hour</td>
<td width='25' align='left' valign='bottom'><font face='arial, helvetica' size='1'>RA min</td>
<td width='25' align='left' valign='bottom'><font face='arial, helvetica' size='1'>Dec deg</td>
<td width='25' align='left' valign='bottom'><font face='arial, helvetica' size='1'>Dec min</td>

<td width='240' align='left' valign='bottom'><font face='arial, helvetica' 

size='1'>Notes</td></tr>";}
  print ("<br> ");

do {
  print "<tr><td width='70' align='left' valign='top'><font face='arial, helvetica' size='1'>";
  print $row["object"];
  print "</td>";
    print "<td width='60' align='left' valign='top'><font face='arial, helvetica' size='1'>";
  print $row["other"];
  print "</td>";
  print "<td width='30' align='left' valign='top'><font face='arial, helvetica' size='1'>";
  print $row["mag"];
  print "</td>";
  print "<td width='30' align='left' valign='top'><font face='arial, helvetica' size='1'>";
  print $row["subr"];
  print "</td>";
 
 print "<td width='35' align='left' valign='top'><font face='arial, helvetica' size='1'>";
  print $row["size_max"];
   print "</td>";
  print "<td width='30' align='left' valign='top'><font face='arial, helvetica' size='1'>";
  print $row["size_min"];
  print "</td>";
 print "<td width='20' align='left' valign='top'><font face='arial, helvetica' size='1'>";
  print $row["pa"];
  print "</td>";
 print "<td width='30' align='left' valign='top'><font face='arial, helvetica' size='1'>";
  print $row["urano"];
  print "</td>";
  print "<td width='25' align='left' valign='top'><font face='arial, helvetica' size='1'>";
  print $row["ra_hr"];
print "<td width='25' align='left' valign='top'><font face='arial, helvetica' size='1'>";
  print $row["ra_min"];
  print "</td>";
  print "<td width='25' align='left' valign='top'><font face='arial, helvetica' size='1'>";
  print $row["dec_deg"];
  print "</td>";
 print "<td width='25' align='left' valign='top'><font face='arial, helvetica' size='1'>";
  print $row["dec_min"];
  print "</td>";
 
   
  print "<td width='240' align='left' valign='top'><font face='arial, helvetica' size='1'>";
  print $row["notes"];
  print "</td></tr>";
   
} while($row = mysql_fetch_array($result));

} else {print "<tr><td width='100'></td>
<td width='470'  colspan='13' align='center'><font face='arial, helvetica' size='2'>Sorry, no 

records were found. Try altering your selection criteria. Hitting the BACK button on your 

browser will show you your previous selection criteria.</td>";}


?>

Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.
#2

You are going to need to start from scratch with PDO. Your code is seriously outdated and uses obsolete functions that have been completely removed from Php.

Start with this tutorial here and download the PDO Bumpstart Database from my signature.

https://phpdelusions.net/pdo

But to answer your question, it is all the “Magic” variables that just appear out of nowhere in your code. Once you do this in PDO you wont ever have any more problems with PHP upgrades.

#3

Thanks, I’ll check out the link you sent.

#4

This all over my head. I’ll just take down the site when it migrates to 5.5.

#5

Sad to see content disappear on the internet :frowning: If you or any other people have found the database valuable then please keep it. You never know when you (or someone else) wants to fire it up again using a new code base.

#6

Thanks for the supportive comments, Jim. There are those who have been using it from the start and it is still used quite a bit. One user in particular is asking me to try to keep it going. I’ve submitted a ticket to my website support to find out what PDO drivers are available and once I know what’s available, I’ll look for some tutorials.

#7

I am available for hire should you decide you just need to get it done. You can PM me.

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