*the question has been answered but is replaced with a problem*
the problem is this:
I'm sending some info to flash.php with this code

<form id="form1" action="flash.php" method="get">
<input type="hidden" name="value1" id="value1" value="SOMEVALUE">
<a href="flash.php" onclick="document.getElementById('form1').submit(); return false;">Flash</a>
</form>

and im trying get that info out on the page with this:

PHP Code:

$val = $_GET['value1'];
echo $val; 


I don't get any value from:" echo $val; but the info shows up in the url(since its a get form)

.../flash.php?value1=SOMEVALUE

If anyone could think of any reason why echoing the variable doesent work then please post it

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helpers that made me get this far: nayes84 , lynxus
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original post
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hey everyone. I have a question about forms.

ive seen examples in diffrent tutorials about forms that send user input to other pages.

<form action="welcome.php" method="post">
Name: <input type="text" name="fname" />
</form

in my code i'm trying to use this method on a link so i can get diffrent values

i thought i neaded to add a value to the post(since none gets inputed)

<form action="flash.php" method="post" value="flash">
 <a href="flash.php" >Flash</a>
</form>

and then i would simply get the value using $_POST

unfortunately for me it doesn't work

would really appreciate if someone could tell me what im doing wrong or if you just cant do it in the way i tried

thanks a bunch for looking
would save me a lot of work if i can get this working so please help me out

You can't send post request using anchors (link)
You can use image instead

<input type="image" ... />

Or you can use javascript

<form id="form1" action="flash.php" method="post">
<a href="#" onclick="document.getElementById('form1').submit();return false;">Flash</a>
</form>

to bad but thanks for pointing it out nayes. guess il have to go the hard way.

i think you just might have pointed out what i needed though with that second code line. il try it in a while (busy) even though i have no idea how it works.

Even though the code is named "javascript" i dont have to do anything in flash right?

sorry if you have to scale it down to the very basics but i have never heard of this before so i got no idea what its all about

thanks again for replying!

"Even though the code is named "javascript" i dont have to do anything in flash right?"


Javascript has nothing to do with flash.

All his example here does is:
<form id="form1" action="flash.php" method="post">
<a href="#" onclick="document.getElementById('form1').submit();ret urn false;">Flash</a>
</form>

Creates a form ( so you can use the post method rather than putting vars in the url, ie: google.com?myid=Mooo )

Then, He has a Javascript event handler that runs when the user CLICKS the text..

document.GetElementByID is a function that locates the form based on its ID ( ie: form1 )

.submit means the javascript will SUBMIT the form as if a user was clicking submit.

aha!
thanks a lot lynxus and nayes!
just got back so il try it out right now but judging from lynxus explanation it should be just what i nead.

(sorry for the stupid question there but ive done a bit of coding in actionscript so i got a bit confused. just wanted to make sure)

One thing i do find odd, is your not actually posting any information..
Your simply just sending the user to flash.php

"One thing i do find odd, is your not actually posting any information..
Your simply just sending the user to flash.php"

im not? well thats what i want to do. i tried adding a value inside the submit() box but i guess i cant do that because it didnt go well.

<form id="kflash" action="flash.php" method="post">
                            <li><a href="flash.php" onclick="document.getElementById('kflash').submit(flash);return false;">Flash</a>

basically i want to send a value together with my link

the reason is that i will have many links to the same document but the document will use the information that comes together with the link to search for data inside my database and generate it.

so if you clicked the flash link you would only get posts that were related to flash inside the database

To put a value in ..

Do:

<form id="form1" action="flash.php" method="post">
<a href="#" onclick="document.getElementById('form1').submit();ret urn false;">Flash</a>
<input type="hidden" name="value1" id="value1" value="SOMEVALUE">
</form>


In your PHP ( if you use php )

you would have
$val = $_POST['value1'];

echo $val;

Would print:
SOMEVALUE

Originally Posted by lynxus

"Even though the code is named "javascript" i dont have to do anything in flash right?"


Javascript has nothing to do with flash.

All his example here does is:
<form id="form1" action="flash.php" method="post">
<a href="#" onclick="document.getElementById('form1').submit();ret urn false;">Flash</a>
</form>

Creates a form ( so you can use the post method rather than putting vars in the url, ie: google.com?myid=Mooo )

Then, He has a Javascript event handler that runs when the user CLICKS the text..

document.GetElementByID is a function that locates the form based on its ID ( ie: form1 )

.submit means the javascript will SUBMIT the form as if a user was clicking submit.

Just want to make a small addition
The part

return false;

Its function is to disable the default behavior of anchor link which is to open the url specified between href="" because we added javascript functionality instead

well thanks again for the replies but its not working

i kinda raw copied your code to see if it would work (except that i changed the anchor link so i would go to the page to see the change)

<form id="form1" action="flash.php" method="post">
<a href="flash.php" onclick="document.getElementById('form1').submit(); return false;">Flash</a>
<input type="hidden" name="value1" id="value1" value="SOMEVALUE">
</form>

i also used your receiver php code

PHP Code:

$val = $_POST['value1'];


echo $val; 


I don't get any value from:" echo $val; "so i must be doing something wrong.
I'm viewing the page on localhost btw (shouldn't make a difference right?)

*update*
Well as I said before I don't get any value from echo but the value shows up in the url when I tried using GET.
this is how the last part of the url looks like

.../flash.php?value1=SOMEVALUE

The value is there it just doesn't print...
If anyone could think of any reason why echoing the variable doesent work then please post it - the problem is practically solved now.

Well I copied also the two files as they are and putted them on my server and they are working
http://www.ephotobay.com/test1.html

must be something wrong with settings or whatever. do you have php installed correctly on your localhost?

or could be due to caching or some thing. try to echo more data to make browser flush them.

You seem you gave me bad talkupation. lol

hmm that's probably it. i got some other php issues involving connection to databases. so it kinda makes sense (it never worked in the first place)

il google for php download but if you could give me a link that to would be great.

"You seem you gave me bad talkupation. lol"

oh snap!? I did? I meant to give you the good one(just klicked that"ad to my talkupation" button bellow your avatar) just tell me where the good button is and I'l fix it right away

the things I do. lol sorry about that

wait isn't XAMPP supposed to have php in it? well il try to just reinstall it i guess

Man... I just reinstalled XAMPP and nothing changed. there is a php directory in its file map and everything looks okay. i tried moving the files into the htdocs map (I remember from somewhere that you had to do that when you wanted to do something) guess il try an install something else and see if that works better

started up apache and mysql in the control pannel to i did yes...

OK, you shouldnt be getting:
flash.php?value1=SOMEVALUE

as the form method is POST so you need $_POST[' in your php script.

Another thing.

You changed the href: to flash.php.
Leave it as #

Your not using the Href anymore, as javascript is doing the work now.


<form id="form1" action="flash.php" method="post">
<a href="#" onclick="document.getElementById('form1').submit(); return false;">Flash</a>
<input type="hidden" name="value1" id="value1" value="SOMEVALUE">
</form>

well me being angry wont solve anything.

there is something odd about my file when i run it.

this is a part of the php code i use there now(the variables are correct)

PHP Code:

<?php
$val = $_GET['value1'];
echo $val; 

//Ansluter till databasen
mysql_connect ($dbhost, $dbuser, $dbpass)or die("Kunde inte ansluta till databasen.<br>Felmeddelande: ".mysql_error());
mysql_select_db($dbname) or die(mysql_error());<br>

//Kör sökningen utefter vad som skickades i formuläret. <br>
...

when i run this in firefox i get this.

Felmeddelande: ".mysql_error()); mysql_select_db($dbname) or die(mysql_error());
  //Kör sökningen utefter vad som skickades i formuläret.

I noticed that the code starts to print after the first <br> tag but doesn't actually run. (does html commands without echo in php end the php line just like a ?> would do?)

Originally Posted by lynxus

OK, you shouldnt be getting:
flash.php?value1=SOMEVALUE

as the form method is POST so you need $_POST[' in your php script.

Another thing.

You changed the href: to flash.php.
Leave it as #

Your not using the Href anymore, as javascript is doing the work now.


<form id="form1" action="flash.php" method="post">
<a href="#" onclick="document.getElementById('form1').submit(); return false;">Flash</a>
<input type="hidden" name="value1" id="value1" value="SOMEVALUE">
</form>

I changed the method to GET just so I could see if the document actually received the value. It works just the same as POST except that the value shows in the url (il edit it later but its usefull for now)

about the href part. Before i tried using "#" but i ended up on the same page(thats what it does normally). i had to link to the document to go there

you shouldn't put <br> in php code

PHP Code:

mysql_select_db($dbname) or die(mysql_error());<br> 


because it is not php keyword so it'll cause parse error
if you want to display <br> just add it as string

PHP Code:

mysql_select_db($dbname) or die(mysql_error() . '<br>'); 


yea you're right about that nayes. noticed after i got back and running. I have another computer that now has php and it works fine. no idea why it didnt work on the other one but i can finally work again and its so much easier when i can actually see when im doing something wrong =)
thanks for all the help you guys, quite the long post from something so trival.