Hey, I was wondering about forms posting to its own page.
Ill try to explain this the best I can.. and still try and make sense...

You have a form which the user fills out. The submit button posts the information to the same page.

On that page there is some php code which takes that information only when it has been sent and inputs it into the database.

But it only puts the information into the database once the person has pressed submit.

Or, is it best to direct the form submitted information to another page, have that deal with the information, then return the user?

Any information would be helpful
Thanks for reading,
Lothop

As long as you prevent the data collection part running when there is no data, it does not matter in the slightest.

This is normally what I do. A quick shortcut that is sometimes useful (especially if you are running a script that is generating the HTML for you, or using a common include), is the $_SERVER['PHP_SELF'] super-global. This would work like this:

PHP Code:

<form action="<?php echo $_SERVER['PHP_SELF'];?>" method="post">
<!--bunch of stuff-->
</form>

Just a quick-tip.

How can it possible with the forms posting to self, could any body give the brief idea about this.

Thankyou for the replies

As long as you prevent the data collection part running when there is no data, it does not matter in the slightest.

So for example, just run a simple test in the php code to see whether the posted $variable contains any value? If it does, store it, if not, show the page.

And if it does contain information, store the data, and display the page.

Is it possible to store the information and display the information in the same page? As in, display the information from the database, not the forms posted variables?

If that last bit was confusing It stores the info in the database, then pulls ALL of the previous data including the one just added on the page?

So for example, just run a simple test in the php code to see whether the posted $variable contains any value? If it does, store it, if not, show the page.

Yep or check that the submit button has been clicked

PHP Code:

if (!$_POST["submit_button_name"]) {
//    show page;
} else {
   // collect and validate the form data
   // insert stuff to database;
} 


Is it possible to store the information and display the information in the same page? As in, display the information from the database, not the forms posted variables

Yep, just requery the database after the insert/update.

Well,

you should display the user msgs on one page. and there there should also be a form, from where users/visitors submit their comments/msgs.

on the 2nd page you will deal with the submitted data, and after successfuly adding it into DB, users/visitor will be return to the form page/page1.

that is the best choice, I suggest.

Regards,
qammar feroz

Originally Posted by qammar

Well,

you should display the user msgs on one page. and there there should also be a form, from where users/visitors submit their comments/msgs.

on the 2nd page you will deal with the submitted data, and after successfuly adding it into DB, users/visitor will be return to the form page/page1.

that is the best choice, I suggest.

Regards,
qammar feroz

This would be the ideal situation, but if you for example, would like to post stuff in your index page and after submission see the results straight away (IE. Polls) you would need to post the stuff to the index page itself, sometimes.
The alternative of course is to use another page and use a header redirect to the original after validating/inputting the data, this would kill the obvious double-posting issue, but it's not always necessary, and would sometimes require even more code lines to achieve the same result as burying the code in the same page

Here's a sample solution, first codeblock to the very top of the file:

PHP Code:

<?php 
if(isset($_POST['submit'])) {
  foreach($_POST as $key => $value) {
    /* we'll just store the results to a cookie and after it do a header refresh to kill the double-posting issue */
    setcookie($key, $value); 
  }
  header("Location: index.php?showresults");
} 
else if(isset($_GET['showresults'])) {
  if(isset($_COOKIE)) { 
    $toEcho = "<h2> Your results </h2>";
    foreach($_COOKIE as $submission => $value) {
      $toEcho .=  "<h5>".$submission." posted has value ".$value."</h5>";
    }
    $toEcho .= "<p>End of results</p>";
  } else { 
    $toEcho = "<strong>No posted data saved or cookies disabled</strong>";
  }
} 
else {
$toEcho = <<< EOD 
<form name="name" method="post" action="index.php">
...inputfields
<input type="button" id="submit" name="submit">Submit</button>
EOD;
}
?>

and after that your basic html body, to the point where you wish to display the form / result and then just do to display it:

PHP Code:

<?php echo $toEcho; ?>

Hope I didn't go over too far with this post, but it shows how to evade the doubleposting issue as well as keep track of your submitted data in a cookie, where you could access it later...

Hope it helps :>

PS. Oh and I use input type button instead of type submit, to fix a few issues with IE's enter-key submission issue, and firefox's submit type not posting with the form itself ($_POST['submit'] not always seen in the post-data, so you'd never get to the handling of the post)

Thankyou for your input.

I will have a crack at the single page and get back to what results from it so people can search for this and get a result in future.

Thanks