PHP 3 to PHP 5 Upgrade... Variables in 3 didn't have $ in front... is there a setting for back compat?

Question

OK, this is an odd request, and it might not even be fully true... but I'm upgrading someone's system ... and they are using OSCommerce (from a long time ago).

It appears their variables are referrenced without a dollar sign in front of them (which is new to me). I haven't done PHP in about 7 years, and I've always used dollar signs.

Is there a setting that I can throw in PHP 5 that says to assume these are variables?

Example:

mysql_connect(DB_SERVER, DB_UserName, DB_Password);

in my day, that would be:

mysql_connect($DB_Server, etc, etc);

Their site has THOUSANDS of files... no I don't want to go put dollar signs in front of everything.

HELP!

Thanks,

Answer 1

You can use constants.

Answer 2

I believe OSCommerce actually DEFINES these values, so the usage is correct (without the $).

Look for

define("DB_SERVER", "localhost");

or something similar.

In other words, do not go through and update these with a $ before if they're actually defined constants.

Answer 3

If i remember correctly a big difference is the lack of 'register_globals' being default to 'ON'. You might need to change a lot of instances here $var should be $_REQUEST['var'] or the appropriate $_GET/$_POST super globals.

And as far as constants are concerned you should access them as such:

constant('MY_CONSTANT')

This avoids PHP assuming that MY_CONSTANT is a string if the constant is not defined.