Complete Newbie

Waylander · December 16, 2021, 1:07pm

Hi All

I have been saddled with a project, the PHP scripts were written by one of our dev guys back in 2000, he of course has long gone, he also did a bunch of custom stuff in python 2.7 as well,

I am an oldie and never touched this sort of stuff before,

my issue is before i can move forward with anything i need to work out what this guy has done, and of course all the work he has done is using completely out of date software, today

my first issue is with a script that connects to 3 different databases on one server, this part works ok,

its the next bit that keeps writing errors in the logs, its this part that i could do with some help

Its PHP 5.3 on windows 2012, some one else moved this all from server 2003 years ago, and they have moved on too…

$sql = “select email from admin_emails”;
$res = mssql_something_is_wrong($sql, $oConn);

while ($row = mssql_fetch_array($res)) {
$adminemails[] = $row[‘email’];

its line 2 that causes the error
Fatal error: Call to undefined function mssql_something_is_wrong() in updatemailsender.php on line 25, the same function call is used again 15 lines further down the script

now please be gentle as I’m a complete novice at this stuff.

Regards

skawid · December 16, 2021, 1:17pm

mssql_something_is_wrong isn’t a standard function; I’m guessing it’s defined somewhere in your codebase and not included. Search your codebase for that name and make sure the file is included in the script you’re trying to run. PHP manual for include.

That might not be enough though; it looks like your code uses an old PHP mssql extension which has - as far as I can make out - vanished. You’ll need to update it to use a new driver; this one looks like it might do the job, but I don’t play around with MS stuff much. Alternatively you could convert the whole thing to use PDO.

Add all that together and you might want to think about hiring some help if this is time critical.

Waylander · December 16, 2021, 1:33pm

Hi

this is not time critical, no one has looked at it for over 10 years, but we have just moved to amazon workmail, and this is for a inhouse ticket system

they have decided to bring it upto date, could have started a bit sooner I think, 10 years in IT is a long time,

I had real issues finding anything on mssql, the current version seems to be SQLSVR

so by codebase you suggest all the php files and the directory the scripts are in, happy hunting, I bet the old 2003 server had something custom and it got left behind back in 2017 when this lot was moved to AWS EC2

Thank you so much for the fast update to my plea for help, and no they wont employ anyone else, the last 2 years have been hard on us

Regards

phdr · December 16, 2021, 2:26pm

A programming editor, such as notepad++, will let you search in all the files in the current folder and any sub-folders that make up a project.

What is your overall goal? To get the application to just work or to update it to current software versions? BTW - there are migration appendixes in the php.net documentation that list the major backward incompatible changes and remove features that you would need to account for in any code version updating.

In the case of any obsolete database dependent code, you might as well just learn the PDO extension, using prepared queries when supplying external, unknown, dynamic values when the the query is executed, and using exceptions for error handling (which is probably what the mssql_something_is_wrong() custom user written function is doing using conditional logic.)

The current offending code, using the PDO extension would look like -

$sql = “select email from admin_emails”; // you should probably have an ORDER BY ... term on this query to get the email addresses in a definitive order
$stmt = $pdo->query($sql);
$adminemails = $stmt->fetchAll();

Waylander · December 16, 2021, 2:38pm

Well I have searched this current machine, nothing with that name

the 2003 server went in a skip back in 2017,

so I don’t hold out any hope of finding the file, and did i mention I’m a complete novice, learning this at over 60 is no fun, the brain is not quite so agile,

I can post the whole file with the user names and password missing,

there are only 4 php files in the whole project, and 5 Python files and a couple of ini files, should not really be too difficult he says, I should learn to keep quiet sometimes

I would not even know what extension the function file would need .php?, or where to put it
the system is spread over 3 disks

skawid · December 16, 2021, 2:54pm

The function would still be in a .php file; you could use whatever extension you like but that’s the standard with the exception of some html templating stuff. These files could technically live anywhere but usually live near the script that’s using them.

phdr · December 16, 2021, 4:06pm

Based on the name of the function and how the returned value is being used, it is likely using mssql_query() internally, with some error handling. If all you want to do at this point in time is see if any query will work, you could write a function by that name, that accepts the $sql and $conn inputs, calls mssql_query, and returns the resultant value to the calling code.

Here’s the mssql_query documention (had to download the php5 version of the documentation) -

mssql_query

(PHP 4, PHP 5, PECL odbtp >= 1.1.1)

mssql_query — Send MS SQL query

Warning
This function was REMOVED in PHP 7.0.0.

Alternatives to this function include:
•PDO::query()
•sqlsrv_query()
•odbc_exec()

Description

mssql_query( string $query[, resource $link_identifier[, int $batch_size = 0]] ) : mixed

mssql_query() sends a query to the currently activedatabase on the server that’s associated with the specified linkidentifier.

Parameters

query
An SQL query.
link_identifier
A MS SQL link identifier, returned by mssql_connect() or mssql_pconnect().

If the link identifier isn’t specified, the last opened link isassumed. If no link is open, the function tries to establish a linkas if mssql_connect() was called, and use it.
batch_size
The number of records to batch in the buffer.

Return Values

Returns a MS SQL result resource on success, TRUE if no rows werereturned, or FALSE on error.

Examples

Example #1 mssql_query() example
<?php // Connect to MSSQL $link = mssql_connect('KALLESPC\SQLEXPRESS', 'sa', 'phpfi'); if (!$link || !mssql_select_db('php', $link)) { die('Unable to connect or select database!'); } // Do a simple query, select the version of // MSSQL and print it. $version = mssql_query('SELECT @@VERSION'); $row = mssql_fetch_array($version); echo $row[0]; // Clean up mssql_free_result($version); ?>
Notes

Note:

If the query returns multiple results then it is necessary to fetch allresults by mssql_next_result() or free the results by mssql_free_result() before executing next query.

See Also

•mssql_select_db() - Select MS SQL database
•mssql_connect() - Open MS SQL server connection

Waylander · December 16, 2021, 4:28pm

Hi

Thanks for the answer that seems like a plan, all i have to do now is figure out how to write a function,

going to be a long night, and i need to do it myself or i wont know how or why it works
need something to do over the holidays, with nothing on TV

I found a backup from 2007 no file on there either, the script runs just fills the logs with errors

phdr · December 16, 2021, 4:35pm

The name of the function looks like the result of a search/replace, perhaps something temporary. Are there any instances of mssql_query in the code or all they all mssql_something_is_wrong?

Waylander · December 16, 2021, 4:53pm

the whole thing is 120 lines,
lots of mssql_fetch, and mssql_fetch_array
used quite a few times.

for($retry=0; $retry < 5; $retry++) {
if($mail->Send()) {
$mail->SmtpClose();
mssql_Something_is_wrong(“update jobs set lastalert=getdate() where id=$jobref”, $oConn);
break;
} else {
# Don’t do anything if it can’t send the mail - it’ll try again in five minutes or so anyway.
echo “Mail for job $jobref failed\n”;
another code snippet, I remember the developer he was quite an eccentric fella, this was all started in possible 2000/2001
yes I have worked here that long

phdr · December 16, 2021, 5:21pm

I looked at the now deleted code. If that’s a primary file, that gets requested by the browser, there’s no include/require statement in it.

The only other way that a function definition could be defined is if it was in a file that gets automatically prepended or appended.

Add a phpinfo(); statement near the top of this file and browse to the url of the file. Search for the auto_append_file and auto_prepend_file lines in the output from the phpinfo statement and see if either has any values. If so, this is where the function definition is/was. Perhaps the backup you found has the file with the definition in it.

I see by comments in the code that this function was logging information. It was either logging the sql query statements and/or query errors and could be recreated with that functionality.

Waylander · December 16, 2021, 5:23pm

Hi
none of this is web based, its run by a batch file command line php.exe “file Name” >> log.file

I can post the whole code tomorrow, i have to go to an appoimtment, and its 6PM here

phdr · December 16, 2021, 5:55pm

That explains the need for a mssq query logging function.

You can produce the output from a phpinfo statement by opening a windows command line (run cmd.) If php has been added to the windows path, you can just type php -i If not, first change the directory to the one where php is installed (should be related to where these batch files are at or are looking for php.) The auto_… settings will be near the top of the output.

Waylander · December 17, 2021, 11:10am

My goodness me, there is a lot, and did I mention its old, very old like me

phpinfo()
PHP Version => 5.2.3

System => Windows NT WEBHOST 6.2 build 9200
Build Date => May 31 2007 09:36:39
Configure Command => cscript /nologo configure.js “–enable-snapshot-build” “–with-gd=shared”
Server API => Command Line Interface
Virtual Directory Support => enabled
Configuration File (php.ini) Path => C:\Windows
Loaded Configuration File => C:\Program Files (x86)\PHP\v5.3\php.ini
PHP API => 20041225
PHP Extension => 20060613
Zend Extension => 220060519
Debug Build => no
Thread Safety => enabled
Zend Memory Manager => enabled
IPv6 Support => enabled
Registered PHP Streams => php, file, data, http, ftp, compress.zlib
Registered Stream Socket Transports => tcp, udp
Registered Stream Filters => convert.iconv., string.rot13, string.toupper, string.tolower, string.strip_tags, convert., consumed, zlib.*

This program makes use of the Zend Scripting Language Engine:
Zend Engine v2.2.0, Copyright (c) 1998-2007 Zend Technologies

Configuration

PHP Core

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dom

DOM/XML => enabled
DOM/XML API Version => 20031129
libxml Version => 2.6.26
HTML Support => enabled
XPath Support => enabled
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filter

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Directive => Local Value => Master Value
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ftp

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hash

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json

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json version => 1.2.1

libxml

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mssql

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odbc

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pcre

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PDO

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PDO drivers => mssql, odbc

pdo_mssql

PDO Driver for MSSQL DB-lib => enabled
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PDO_ODBC

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Reflection

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Version => $Id: php_reflection.c,v 1.164.2.33.2.39 2007/05/29 08:44:05 helly Exp $

session

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SimpleXML

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SPL

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Interfaces => Countable, OuterIterator, RecursiveIterator, SeekableIterator, SplObserver, SplSubject
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standard

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tokenizer

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wddx

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xml

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Additional Modules

Module Name

Environment

Variable => Value
ALLUSERSPROFILE => C:\ProgramData
APPDATA => C:\Users\Administrator\AppData\Roaming
CLIENTNAME => VISTA
CommonProgramFiles => C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files
CommonProgramFiles(x86) => C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files
CommonProgramW6432 => C:\Program Files\Common Files
COMPUTERNAME => WEBHOST
ComSpec => C:\Windows\system32\cmd.exe
FP_NO_HOST_CHECK => NO
HOMEDRIVE => C:
HOMEPATH => \Users\Administrator
LOCALAPPDATA => C:\Users\Administrator\AppData\Local
LOGONSERVER => \WEBHOST
NUMBER_OF_PROCESSORS => 1
OS => Windows_NT
Path => E:\Python39\Scripts;E:\Python39;C:\Program Files\PHP\v5.3;C:\Windows\system32\inetsrv;C:\Program Files (x86)\PHP\v5.3;C:\Program Files\Internet Explorer;;C:\Windows\system32;C:\Windows;C:\Windows\System32\Wbem;C:\Windows\System32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0;C:\Program Files\Amazon\cfn-bootstrap
PATHEXT => .COM;.EXE;.BAT;.CMD;.VBS;.VBE;.JS;.JSE;.WSF;.WSH;.MSC;.PY;.PYW
PROCESSOR_ARCHITECTURE => x86
PROCESSOR_ARCHITEW6432 => AMD64
PROCESSOR_IDENTIFIER => Intel64 Family 6 Model 63 Stepping 2, GenuineIntel
PROCESSOR_LEVEL => 6
PROCESSOR_REVISION => 3f02
ProgramData => C:\ProgramData
ProgramFiles => C:\Program Files (x86)
ProgramFiles(x86) => C:\Program Files (x86)
ProgramW6432 => C:\Program Files
PROMPT => $P$G
PSModulePath => C:\Windows\system32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\Modules;C:\Program Files (x86)\AWS Tools\PowerShell
PUBLIC => C:\Users\Public
SESSIONNAME => RDP-Tcp#111
SystemDrive => C:
SystemRoot => C:\Windows
TEMP => C:\Users\ADMINI~1\AppData\Local\Temp\4
TMP => C:\Users\ADMINI~1\AppData\Local\Temp\4
USERDOMAIN => WEBHOST
USERDOMAIN_ROAMINGPROFILE => WEBHOST
USERNAME => Administrator
USERPROFILE => C:\Users\Administrator
windir => C:\Windows

PHP Variables

_SERVER[“argc”] => 0

PHP License
This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
it under the terms of the PHP License as published by the PHP Group
and included in the distribution in the file: LICENSE

This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.