PHP having issues while accepting variables from forms

ashesh0326 · 05-05-2007, 09:17 AM

Well, I just had another question.
It seems like I'm having trouble passing variables from forms to my php scripts.
For example, this is an extremely rudimentary script and yet it refuses to work in my case. No matter how many things I try, it's giving me the same, 'form data incomplete message'

First, we have an html form that looks like this:

Quote:

And mypage.php is:

Quote:

<?php
if (isset($submit) && $submit=="yes")
{
echo "Thank you for submitting your form.";
}
else {
?>
<h3>form data incomplete</h3>
<form action=mypage.php method = post>
<input type=text name = email>
<input type=text name=first_name>
<input type=submit name=submit value=yes>
</form>
<?php
}
?>

And it refuses to work. I had the same problem with a more complex form, and I had decided that I'd resolve the issue later.
As it seems now, I don't think I have any idea as to what's wrong with what.

Can anyone please help? Thanks in advance.

This is what I got when I checked apache's error_log:

Quote:

[Sun May 06 19:33:15 2007] [error] [client ::1] PHP Notice: Undefined variable: first_name in /var/www/work/mypage.php on line 3, referer: http://ashesh.homeip.net/work/form.html

I also changed the form method to GET and checked the variable names and everything seems ok. Why is it then that PHP is having issues with recognizing the variables? Help please!

jiml8 · 05-05-2007, 10:34 AM

you are being very inconsistent about quoting your variables in html. Try fixing that.

Also in the code your provide, there is no variable first_name on line 3. Line 3 is { and nothing else. In fact, there is no code anyplace you provided that references first_name, other than to define it for a form.

Hence, your samples are useless to anyone here for debugging.

Also, why do this: if (isset($submit) && $submit=="yes") ?

If $submit == "yes" then clearly isset($submit) will be true. If $submit <> "yes" then the whole thing is false anyway. Just ask if( $submit=="yes").

jaykup · 05-05-2007, 04:50 PM

You are not using the $_POST var. Your mypage.php doesn't know what var to work with.

html:

[HTML]
<html>
<form action=mypage.php method=post>
<input type = "text" name=email>
<input type=text name=first_name>
<input type=submit name=submit value="yes">
</form>
</html>
[/HTML]

is fine, but you should label your input fields

mypage.php:

PHP Code:



<?php
$submit=$_POST['submit'];
if ($submit=="yes")
{
echo "Thank you for submitting your form.";
}
else {
?>
<html>
<form action=mypage.php method=post>
<input type = "text" name=email>
<input type=text name=first_name>
<input type=submit name=submit value="yes">
</form>
</html>
<?php
}
?>

It may be better to just use the php page. Since submit has not been set, it will only display the form. Once it is re-loaded and set, it will only display the "thank you" part.

Something like this all on "mypage.php. Try and see if you like it:

PHP Code:



<?php
// Set the vars from our incoming POST data
$first_name=$_POST['first_name'];
$email=$_POST['email'];
$submit=$_POST['submit'];

// Check if submit has the value "yes"
if ($submit=="yes") {
    echo "Thank you for submitting your form.<br>";
    echo "you have entered a first name of \"$first_name\" and an email of \"$email\"<br>";
} else {
?>

<html>
<form action=mypage.php method=post>
First Name:<input type = "text" name="first_name"><br>
Email:<input type=text name="email"><br>
<input type=submit name=submit value="yes">
</form>
</html>

<?php
}
?>

AdaHacker · 05-05-2007, 07:50 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ashesh0326

Why is it then that PHP is having issues with recognizing the variables? Help please!

You probably have register_globals off. PHP will only create individual variables for each form element if the register_globals setting in turned on in your php.ini file. However, as of PHP 4.2 register_globals was turned off by default because it can pose security problems. As jaykup suggested, you should use $_POST and $_GET instead.

ashesh0326 · 05-07-2007, 07:01 AM

Thank you so much guys. The problem has been solved now. register_globals was indeed off, and switching it on solved the problem once and for all.

Thanks again!