Empty fields after POST with HTML / PHP?

Question

For learning purposes I'm trying to insert data from HTML form to a MySQL database, this is the code I've got for the form:

<form action="newmovie.php" method="post">

            <p>Titulo:  <input type="text" name="movieTitle"> </p>
            <p>Año:  <input type="text" name="movieYear"> </p>
            <p>Director:  <input type="text" name="movieDirector"> </p>
            <p>Protagonista:  <input type="text" name =movieProtagonist> </p>
            <input type="submit"  class="button" value="Agregar">

</form>

So, in same webpage I check if a POST is being performed:

<?php
    if ($_SERVER['REQUEST_METHOD'] === 'POST') {
        include("connectDB.php");
        $mySQL=new MySQL();

        $movieTitle=$_GET['movieTitle']; 
        $movieDirector=$_GET['movieDirector'];    
        $movieYear=$_GET['movieYear'];    
        $movieProtagonist=$_GET['movieProtagonist'];
        echo "INSERT INTO peliculas (titulo,director,year, protagonista) VALUES ('$movieTitle','$movieDirector','$movieYear', '$movieProtagonist')";
        $queryResult=$mySQL->query("INSERT INTO peliculas (titulo,director,year, protagonista) VALUES ('$movieTitle','$movieDirector','$movieYear', '$movieProtagonist')");
        echo "$queryResult";    
    }
?>

So, inserting is done BUT the fields are empty, this is what the echo prints:

INSERT INTO peliculas (titulo,director,year, protagonista) VALUES ('','','', '')

What's that I'm doing wrong with my code?

in php file use $_POST instead of $_GET, and check $_POST['submit'] == 'Agregar' in if condition. and do a mysql_real_escape_string for better coding. — Priya, Oct 22 '13 at 11:06

score 2 · Answer 1 · answered Oct 22 '13 at 11:10

Fix the typo here

<p>Protagonista:  <input type="text" name =movieProtagonist> </p>

by changing it to

<p>Protagonista:  <input type="text" name="movieProtagonist"> </p>

Change the PHP to:

<?php
    if ($_SERVER['REQUEST_METHOD'] === 'POST') {
        include("connectDB.php");
        $mySQL=new MySQL();

        $movieTitle=$_POST['movieTitle']; 
        $movieDirector=$_POST['movieDirector'];    
        $movieYear=$_POST['movieYear'];    
        $movieProtagonist=$_POST['movieProtagonist'];
        echo "INSERT INTO peliculas (titulo,director,year, protagonista) VALUES ('$movieTitle','$movieDirector','$movieYear', '$movieProtagonist')";
        $queryResult=$mySQL->query("INSERT INTO peliculas (titulo,director,year, protagonista) VALUES ('$movieTitle','$movieDirector','$movieYear', '$movieProtagonist')");
        echo "$queryResult";    
    }
?>

Explanation:

You can submit a form to a PHP script by using HTTP GET or HTTP POST. You define this in the form. In your form, you set it to send it via POST but were trying to retrieve it in php using $_GET.

Get is good for if you need to send URLS and should only be used for retrieving data from the database. Get variables are passed like this

http://yourserver.com/yourscript.php?variable1=something&variable2=somethingElse

And post is hidden in the HTTP request (you don't see it in the URL). It's better to use 'post' for any request that is making changes to the DB.

You can read more about the differences here: http://blog.teamtreehouse.com/the-definitive-guide-to-get-vs-post

One more question, I know it's kinda off scope of the question, though: If I get any string with accents or such characters like ñ, How can I catch them properly to be stored in database. — diegoaguilar, Oct 22 '13 at 11:15
Good question, not a simple of single answer unfortunately. You need to make sure any script you use to access/change the database is secure and prevents things like "Injection" attacks. There are lots of other posts that cover this on SO, such as: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/15741557/php-mysql-security-approach-while-inserting-into-mysql-fetching-from-mysql-to. Hope this helps. — LondonAppDev, Oct 22 '13 at 11:19

score 1 · Answer 2 · answered Oct 22 '13 at 11:08

1

In PHP file instead of the

$_GET

use the

$_REQUEST

And your problem will solve as you are using the method='post' in the form tag. And you are getting the data by $_GET which is used to get the data of method get.

Always use the $_REQUEST to get the data from form as it is common to get the both data from get and post.

answered Oct 22 '13 at 11:08

Code Lღver

15,573
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Yeah! I got it right. Seems such an stupid question now. When would I use _GET, _PUT or _DELETE? – diegoaguilar Oct 22 '13 at 11:09
@Diego there is only `$_GET` , `$_POST`, `$_REQUEST` to get the data. so such _PUT, and _DELETE global variable. – Code Lღver Oct 22 '13 at 11:15

score 1 · Answer 3 · answered Oct 22 '13 at 11:09

1

Use $_POST to read form data: example: $movieTitle=$_POST['movieTitle'];

answered Oct 22 '13 at 11:09

M Reza Saberi

7,134
9
47
76

score 1 · Answer 4 · answered Oct 22 '13 at 11:12

try the code below, it will fix your issue.

<?php
if ($_SERVER['REQUEST_METHOD'] === 'POST') {

    $movieTitle=$_POST['movieTitle']; 
    $movieDirector=$_POST['movieDirector'];    
    $movieYear=$_POST['movieYear'];    
    $movieProtagonist=$_POST['movieProtagonist'];
    echo "INSERT INTO peliculas (titulo,director,year, protagonista) VALUES ('".$movieTitle."','".$movieDirector."','".$movieYear."', '".$movieProtagonist."')";
    $queryResult=$mySQL->query("INSERT INTO peliculas (titulo,director,year, protagonista) VALUES ('".$movieTitle."','".$movieDirector."','".$movieYear."', '".$movieProtagonist."')");
    echo "$queryResult";    
}

?>

score 1 · Accepted Answer · answered Oct 22 '13 at 11:13

1

<form action="newmovie.php" method="post">

Since your form method is post, you need to use

$movieTitle=$_POST['movieTitle'];

You could alternatively use

$movieTitle=$_REQUEST['movieTitle'];

for both post and get but this would cause unneccessary overhead

answered Oct 22 '13 at 11:13

Yanki Twizzy

7,771
8
41
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How do you mean about the overhead? – diegoaguilar Oct 22 '13 at 11:15

score 1 · Answer 6 · edited Oct 22 '13 at 12:27

1

Since method='post'

Instead of $_GET['']

use either

$_POST['']

or

$_REQUEST['']

edited Oct 22 '13 at 12:27

Code Lღver

15,573
16
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answered Oct 22 '13 at 11:59

ashutosh madheshiya

11
2

Empty fields after POST with HTML / PHP?

6 Answers6