Web Hosting Talk : Web Hosting Main Forums : Programming Discussion : Simple PHP question: echo leaving out <span>

[jetlej]

The following code will output the value of the function but leaves out the span tags completely. I'm going crazy trying to figure out why. Help!

PHP Code:

<?php if(bp_friend_total_requests_count() > 0) echo "<span>".bp_friend_total_requests_count()."</span>" ?>

[petteyg359]

Relying on the parser to add semicolons is BAD.

Why are you calling the function more than once? Store it in a variable, and do conditional and output on the variable.

<?php
$bp_friend_total_requests_count = bp_friend_total_requests_count();
if(is_int($bp_friend_total_requests_count) && $bp_friend_total_requests_count > 0) echo "<span>$bp_friend_total_requests_count</span>";
?>

[jetlej]

I tried that and got the same output. That shouldn't matter anyways even if it is poor sytnax

[jetlej]

The messages version of that works perfectly but the $requests does not output the spans or the parentheses around the variable. I don't get it...

PHP Code:

<li class="topnav">
                                    <a title="Messages" href="<?php echo bp_loggedin_user_domain() ?>messages/" id="admin-messages">Messages <?php $messages = messages_get_unread_count(); if($messages > 0) echo "<span>".$messages."</span>"; ?></a>
                                    <ul>
                                        <li class="alt">
                                            <a href="<?php echo bp_loggedin_user_domain() ?>messages/inbox/" id="bp-admin-inbox">Inbox <?php if($messages > 0) echo "(".$messages.")"; ?></a>
                                        </li>
                                        <li>
                                            <a href="<?php echo bp_loggedin_user_domain() ?>messages/sentbox/" id="bp-admin-sentbox">Sent Messages</a>
                                        </li>
                                        <li class="alt">
                                            <a href="<?php echo bp_loggedin_user_domain() ?>messages/compose/" id="bp-admin-compose">Compose</a>
                                        </li>
                                        <li class="last">
                                            <a href="<?php echo bp_loggedin_user_domain() ?>messages/notices/" id="bp-admin-notices">Notices</a>
                                        </li>
                                    </ul>
                                </li>
                                <li class="topnav">
                                    <a title="Friends" href="<?php echo bp_loggedin_user_domain() ?>friends/" id="admin-friends">Friends <?php $requests = bp_friend_total_requests_count(); if($requests > 0) echo "<span>".$requests."</span>"; ?></a>
                                    <ul>
                                        <li class="alt">
                                            <a href="<?php echo bp_loggedin_user_domain() ?>friends/my-friends/" id="bp-admin-friends-my-friends">My Friends</a>
                                        </li>
                                        <li class="last">
                                            <a href="<?php echo bp_loggedin_user_domain() ?>friends/requests/" id="bp-admin-requests">Requests <?php if($requests > 0) echo "(".$requests.")"; ?></a>
                                        </li>
                                    </ul>
                                </li>

[Hostify Networks]

Originally Posted by jetlej

The messages version of that works perfectly but the $requests does not output the spans or the parentheses around the variable. I don't get it...

I'm going to guess that $requests isn't greater than zero.

[petteyg359]

var_dump($requests);

What is the actual value?

[jetlej]

$requests outputs NULL, but echo bp_friend_total_requests_count() outputs 2

[petteyg359]

Is your function doing output instead of returning a value?

[jetlej]

Not sure, it's a core function in Buddypress, a community forum software. How can I check and if so is there a way around it?

Thanks again guys

[Backupteddy]

Have you tried replacing the " with '

This is PHP. ANYTHING goes!

[Christian Little]

Originally Posted by jetlej

$requests outputs NULL, but echo bp_friend_total_requests_count() outputs 2

Take out the if statement and just put this:

PHP Code:

<?php echo "<span>" . bp_friend_total_requests_count() . "</span>"; ?>

What do you get?

What I'm suspecting is that the bp_friend_total_requests_count() function has an echo statement in it rather than a return value. If so, the null value you are getting would invalidate your if statement, but would still echo the integer since the function call does it.

Can you post the actual function code?

[jetlej]

Yes that was it! The function just echo-ed another function so I replaced the function and everything works.

Thanks so much Christian, and everyone else. Have an awesome night guys

[Christian Little]

np Glad it worked

[abhinavs]

Agree with Christian Little, there couldn't be any better way to solve you problem.

[synrg]

Originally Posted by Backupteddy

Have you tried replacing the " with '

This is PHP. ANYTHING goes!

I know this is slightly off topic but something I just found out recently with a CLI script i was working on, we had to use " in order to get the \n to display correctly.

Pretty odd and still havent figured that one out...