PHP configuration problem - <? instead of <?php

[wasc]

Hi all

I'm trying to move a website someone else has programmed to a new server and the new site is displaying the php code rather than executing it.

Now I looked at the index.php of the site and there are lines of code such as the following;

<? include("connection.php");?>

If I change this to the following, it works fine;

<?php include("connection.php");?>

Therefore the issue seems to be that the programmer used <? instead of <?php

Since there are over 100 webpages, is there an easier way of simply changing all the code. I.e. is there a setting I can change to make php execute <? instead of just <?php

The server is running IIS and has php 5 installed on it.

Any help greatly appreciated.

 

[daz]

I think you'll just need to enable short_open_tag in php.ini.

 

[GravyMonster]

In php.ini change the 'short_open_tag' property to 1.

Bah! Beaten like a ginger stepchild.

 

[FabienO]

<? is depreciated though, so preferably change all the tags to <?php. It may be more effort but probably for the best.

 

[wasc]

Thanks everyone - that sorted it out

@FabienO - understand completely where you're comming from. I've already told them the site needs reprogramming and to obtain quotes but unfortunately that decision isn't mine to make.

 

[UncleRuckus]

If you use the short tags it can also mess with xml too if you are using php to dynamically generate an rss feed for example.

 

[Imy]

Why would it mess up an XML feed if it's not in the output?

 

[Rozzy85]

Use Notepad++ to replace <? with <?php in all the files. It'll do them all in seconds.

 

[gord]

Yeh, just do a find and replace on an entire folder structure.. just don't **** it up..

 

[edwardcasbon1]

If you're moving the website, why not move it to a linux box, rather than IIS running PHP?

 

[UncleRuckus]

Why would it mess up an XML feed if it's not in the output?

It confuses the parser and throws an error if you use short tags.

The <? and <?xml tags conflict.

 

[sparkey196]

You can enable short tags in your .htaccess file


<IfModule mod_php5.c>
php_value short_open_tag 1
</IfModule>

 

[Imy]

It confuses the parser and throws an error if you use short tags.

The <? and <?xml tags conflict.

But if the <? tag is not in the output, why would any parser get confused? The parser would parse the output of the PHP script and not the source code surely?

 

[UncleRuckus]

Consider this..

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<Book>
<bookname><? echo "Gone with the wind"; ?></bookname>
</Book>

Would throw an error.

 

[Imy]

OK I can see the problem happening there but the larger problem in that case would be the fact you're spaghetti coding! I'm hoping it was just an example!

 

[UncleRuckus]

OK I can see the problem happening there but the larger problem in that case would be the fact you're spaghetti coding! I'm hoping it was just an example!

Of course, purely a example

 

[Dj_Jestar]

edit: ignore me, misread.

 

[Imy]

Gah I went through the trouble of testing it too as I was sure it'd produce an error:

http://www.2sexeh.com/random/ocuk_xml_parse_error.php

 

[UncleRuckus]

I like your domain name btw

 

[Rozzy85]

Consider this..

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<Book>
<bookname><? echo "Gone with the wind"; ?></bookname>
</Book>

Would throw an error.

If that's the wrong way to do it would this be the right way to do it?

<?
$bookname = 'Gone with the wind';
echo '<?xml version="1.0"?>
<Book>
<bookname>',$bookname,'</bookname>
</Book>';
?>

I'm only asking as I want to improve my coding practices.