Question

I am calling a PHP script whenever a webpage loads. However, there is a parameter that the PHP script needs to run (which I normally pass through the command line when I am testing the script).

How can I pass this argument every time the script is run when the page loads?

Answer 1

Presumably you’re passing the arguments in on the command line as follows:

php /path/to/wwwpublic/path/to/script.php arg1 arg2

… and then accessing them in the script thusly:

<?php
// $argv[0] is '/path/to/wwwpublic/path/to/script.php'
$argument1 = $argv[1];
$argument2 = $argv[2];
?>

What you need to be doing when passing arguments through HTTP (accessing the script over the web) is using the query string and access them through the $_GET superglobal:

Go to http://yourdomain.example/path/to/script.php?argument1=arg1&argument2=arg2

… and access:

<?php
$argument1 = $_GET['argument1'];
$argument2 = $_GET['argument2'];
?>

If you want the script to run regardless of where you call it from (command line or from the browser) you’ll want something like the following:

as pointed out by Cthulhu in the comments, the most direct way to test which environment you’re executing in is to use the PHP_SAPI constant. I’ve updated the code accordingly:

<?php
if (PHP_SAPI === 'cli') {
    $argument1 = $argv[1];
    $argument2 = $argv[2];
}
else {
    $argument1 = $_GET['argument1'];
    $argument2 = $_GET['argument2'];
}
?>