passing variables from PHP/html to windows form in vb 2008

You need to use WebClient to make HTTP request and handle the response by your application:
http://www.dotnetperls.com/webclient-vbnet

That looks interesting, but doesn't actually answer my question. Can you give an example of how this would be impelmented in a windows form?

Imports System.Net

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Dim client As New WebClient
Dim value As String = client.DownloadString("http://www.example.com")
MsgBox(value)

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This gets the source code. The question I'm asking is how do I get the value of a variable. For example, I have a php variable called $country. How do i find the name of the country that variable contains?

Simply, you need to create a PHP script that use echo() to output the value.

Example:
script.php

<?php
$country = "EG";
echo $country;
?>

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Now you can request the contents by using WebClient in your application:

Dim client As New WebClient
Dim value As String = client.DownloadString("http://www.yourwebsite.com/script.php")
MsgBox(value)

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The above code should output EG.

Are the variables SHOWN on the page? Or they are just in the code behind?

Meddo337
The simple script that you created does work.
 It seems that because I have a mixture of html and php none of the php is shown only the html

codecruiser

Do you mean are the php variables echo'd to the screen? some are and some aren't. I need to retrieve some of both

Thanks code cruiser. I'm going to look at these various options over the weekendans see which might work best. The problem I have is that the hosting company I use won't allow remote access to Mysql, so any calls on the server have to be from their site.
They also only support php not .net.
Maybe it's time to change host.

Did you tried the way I posted above?

That should work with you perfectly.

Medo3337
Yes, I did and replied. Croll up to see my reply

When you use echo() to output any value it output only the data you want (no HTML), for example:

<?php
echo "Hello World!";
?>

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This should only output "Hello World!"

If you want to output the variable, use:

echo $variableName

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and If you want to output more than one variable, you can use delimiter to split the data, and then you can convert your data to array when you get it in your .NET application:

<?php
$var1 = "Value1";
$var2 = "Value2"
$var3 = "Value3"
echo $var1 . "|" . $var2 . "|" . $var3;
?>

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In the above code, I'm using the char | to split the data, this should output "Value1|Value2|Value2", when you get that data in VB.NET using WebClient, you can split it as the following:

Dim client As New WebClient
Dim value As String = client.DownloadString("http://www.yourwebsite.com/script.php")
Dim dataSplit() As String = Split(value, "|")
MsgBox(dataSplit(0)) ' Output Value1
MsgBox(dataSplit(1)) ' Output Value2
MsgBox(dataSplit(2)) ' Output Value3

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Medo3337
This would probably work but the issue I have is that when I download the string none of the echo'd data is in it.

Below is a sample of my source code:
This produces two dropdown lists and some input boxes which the user completes.
I then retrieve some of the information in variables in order to do some calculations.

At the bottom of my code sample you will see
<?php
if(isset($_POST['submit']))
{
$country=$_POST['country_name'];
echo $country;
//$Fixed=$_POST['FixPri'];
$weight=$_POST['weight'];    
$length = $_POST['length'] ;
$width = $_POST['width'] ;
$depth = $_POST['depth'] ;
$a= '('.$length.'*'.$width.'*'.$depth.')/5000';
$c = ($length * $width * $depth)/5000;
$lastname=$_POST['Last_Name'];
$b = $c;
If ($weight>$c){
      $b=$weight;
}
?>
when the page is run the value of the variable $country is echo'd to the screen, but in the download string in VB 2008 none of the php code is shown

Here is the full code sample
<FORM method="post" action="<?php echo $_SERVER['PHP_SELF']; ?>">
<?php            

echo "<select name='country_name'>\n";
while ($data = mysql_fetch_array($res, MYSQL_ASSOC))
{
   $data_array[] = array($data['country_name'],$data['Pforce_zone'],$data['RMIE1'],$data['Fixpri'],$data['GlobPriority'],$data['RMDSItem'],$data['RMDSKilo'],$data['MHIDSItem5u'],$data['MHIDSKilo5u'],$data['MHIDSItem5o'],$data['MHIDSKilo5o'],$data['MHIItem2u'],$data['MHIKilo2u']);

      if ($_POST['country_name'] == $data['country_name'])
    {
        echo " <option value='{$data['country_name']}' selected>{$data['country_name']}</option>\n";        
    }
    else
    {
        echo " <option value='{$data['country_name']}'>{$data['country_name']}</option>\n";
    }
}
echo "</select>\n";
echo "<select name='Last_Name'>\n";
while ($Custdata = mysql_fetch_array($Custres, MYSQL_ASSOC))
{
   $Custdata_array[] = array($Custdata['First_Name'],$Custdata['Last_Name'],$Custdata['eMailPaypal'],$Custdata['Discount']);

      if ($_POST['Last_Name'] == $Custdata['Last_Name'])
    {
        echo " <option value='{$Custdata['Last_Name']}' selected>{$Custdata['Last_Name']}</option>\n";        
    }
    else
    {
        echo " <option value='{$Custdata['Last_Name']}'>{$Custdata['Last_Name']}</option>\n";
    }
}
echo "</select>\n";
?>
            Weight(kgs):<input id="weightid" name="weight" type="text" Size="8" value="" >
              Length(cms):<input id="lengthid" name="length" type="text" Size="6" value="">
               Width(cms):<input id="widthid" name="width" type="text" Size=6 value="">
             Depth;(cms)<input id="depthid" name="depth" type="text" Size=6 Value="">
<input type="submit" id="submitid" name="submit" value="Calculate">            
</form>

<?php
if(isset($_POST['submit']))
{
$country=$_POST['country_name'];
echo $country;
//$Fixed=$_POST['FixPri'];
$weight=$_POST['weight'];    
$length = $_POST['length'] ;
$width = $_POST['width'] ;
$depth = $_POST['depth'] ;
$a= '('.$length.'*'.$width.'*'.$depth.')/5000';
$c = ($length * $width * $depth)/5000;
$lastname=$_POST['Last_Name'];
$b = $c;
If ($weight>$c){
      $b=$weight;
}
?>
<h3> <?php echo "Actual Weight is $weight kgs    Volumetric weight is $b kgs ".'<br/>';
echo 'Destination: '.$country. '; Weight: '.$weight.'kgs'.'<br/>';  
echo 'Dimensions:  '. $length. ' x '.$width. ' x '. $depth.'(cms)';?></h3>
<?php

Is that the PHP output that you want to get in your application?

<?php echo "Actual Weight is $weight kgs    Volumetric weight is $b kgs ".'<br/>';
echo 'Destination: '.$country. '; Weight: '.$weight.'kgs'.'<br/>';   
echo 'Dimensions:  '. $length. ' x '.$width. ' x '. $depth.'(cms)';?>

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If your PHP script echo HTML, you will have to parse the HTML in your .NET application:
http://www.codeproject.com/KB/vb/Parsing_HTML.aspx

I think I have at least part solved my problem.
The difficulty was that whichever solution I tried would not reveal the php variables because they didn't appear in the source code when downloaded using webclient.
However, they do appear via 'view source in IE.
Therfore using a webbrowser in VB 2008,
Dim value As String = WebBrowser1.DocumentText
Reveals all the source code including the value of the variables.
Therefore all I now need to do is parse this string to extract the information I need.
I think the reason that webclient doesn't reveal the information is because I have a mixture of php and html and it just ignores any php.

Yes PHP is rendered by Browser and downloadstring does not render it.

You can use the HTML Agility Pack to parse the values

http://htmlagilitypack.codeplex.com/

As neither expert fully solved my problem, but the advice they both gave helped me to solve it myself, I think it is fair to split the points