# Everything works except variables through the browser

**URL:** <https://forum.kirupa.com/t/everything-works-except-variables-through-the-browser/123402>\
**Category:** Uncategorized\
**Created:** [September 23, 2004, 9:00am UTC](https://forum.kirupa.com/t/everything-works-except-variables-through-the-browser/123402 "2004-09-23T09:00:09Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![flashyjoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/9e8a1a/32.png) [@flashyjoe](https://forum.kirupa.com/u/flashyjoe)\
**Post date:** [September 23, 2004, 9:00am UTC](https://forum.kirupa.com/t/everything-works-except-variables-through-the-browser/123402/1 "2004-09-23T09:00:09Z")

</div>

I am running Apache 1.3.2 and PHP 4.3.2 . and MySQL and everything seems to work, I can even connect to the database but when I try to pass a simple variable through the browser a parsing error on line 9 or I get a blank page?  
for example:  
8 \<body\>  
9 \<?php echo\*“Hello, $username”; ?\>  
10 \</body\>

when I type the username on the url, or even through a form nothing comes up.  
[http://localhost/test.php?username=flashy](http://localhost/test.php?username=flashy)

## I get just Hello

this works fine:  
\<body\>  
\<?php phpinfo(); ?\>  
\</body\>

Can’t figure it out…  
Any help would be appreciated!!!