I am a newbie at PHP and mysql, and I can't seem to get a PHP form to communicate with my mysql database. I would like to be able to fill out the form and hit the submit button and have the form fields entered into the database. When I hit the submit button, the information seems to just disappear and the page refreshes, but nothing shows up in my database.

Here is the code I am working with:

<form action="insert.php" method="post"> 
	<p>Title:<br /><input type="text" name="Title" /></p> 
	<p>First Name:<br /> <input type="text" name="First_name" /></p> 
	<p>Last Name:<br /> <input type="text" name="Last_name" /></p> 
	<p>Date:<br /> <input type="text" name="Date" /></p> 
	<p>Weekday:<br /> <input type="text" name="Weekday" /></p> 
	<p>Time:<br /> <input type="text" name="Time" /></p> 
	<p>Series:<br /> <input type="text" name="Series" /></p> 
	<p>URL:<br /> <input type="text" name="URL" /></p> 
	<p>Comments:<br /> <input type="text" name="Comments" /></p> 
	<p><input type="Submit" value="Update Database" /></p> 
</form>

PHP Code:

<?php

$Title = $_POST['Title'];
$First_name = $_POST['First_name'];
$Last_name = $_POST['Last_name'];
$Date = $_POST['Date'];
$Weekday = $_POST['Weekday'];
$Time = $_POST['Time'];
$Series = $_POST['Series'];
$URL = $_POST['URL'];
$Comments = $_POST['Comments'];

mysql_connect ("localhost", "christia_web", "fellowship") or die ('Error: ' .mysql_error());
mysql_select_db ("christia_sermons");

$query="INSERT INTO sermons (ID, Title, First_name, Last_name, Date, Weekday, Time, Series, URL, Comments ('NULL', '".$Title"', '".$First_name"', '".$Last_name"', '".$Date"', '".$Weekday"', '".$Time"', '".$Series"', '".$URL"', '".$Comments"')";

mysql_query($query) or die ('Error updating database');

echo "Database Updated With: ".$Title. " ".$First_name. " ".$Last_name. " ".$Date. " ".$Weekday. " ".$Time. " ".$Series. " ".$URL. " ".$Comments.";

?>

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

It looks like you have a syntax error in your sql query:

PHP Code:

$query="INSERT INTO sermons (ID, Title, First_name, Last_name, Date, Weekday, Time, Series, URL, Comments ('NULL', '".$Title"', '".$First_name"', '".$Last_name"', '".$Date"', '".$Weekday"', '".$Time"', '".$Series"', '".$URL"', '".$Comments"')"; 


should be

PHP Code:

$query="INSERT INTO sermons (ID, Title, First_name, Last_name, Date, Weekday, Time, Series, URL, Comments) VALUES ('NULL', '".$Title"', '".$First_name"', '".$Last_name"', '".$Date"', '".$Weekday"', '".$Time"', '".$Series"', '".$URL"', '".$Comments"')"; 


It seems, however, that there must be another issue. This line should be generating an error message:

PHP Code:

mysql_query($query) or die ('Error updating database'); 


I'm not sure what is causing the behavior you describe. Do you have error reporting enabled?

By the way, whenever you post code that involves connecting to a database you may want to remove the database password before posting.

There must be other code that you're not showing us, because from what you describe, the PHP code you showed is never executing.

Even with error reporting turned off, the line:

PHP Code:

or die ('Error updating database') 


Will kill the page with that error if there's a problem with the query, which there is.

I pasted your code into my IDE, which highlighted your syntax mistake. The problem is this line:

PHP Code:

$query="INSERT INTO sermons (ID, Title, First_name, Last_name, Date, Weekday, Time, Series, URL, Comments ('NULL', '".$Title"', '".$First_name"', '".$Last_name"', '".$Date"', '".$Weekday"', '".$Time"', '".$Series"', '".$URL"', '".$Comments"')"; 


You're not concatenating your string correctly. For example, ".$URL" Should be ".$URL." <-- You need the dot (.) on the right side of all the variables to connect them to the next part of the string. Your server has error reporting turned off so is not reporting this. Any PHP after this sort of error will not execute.

Okay, thanks for your replies. I implemented the changes you suggested and I still am not able to do it. I have an html form on my webpage, and here is the code for that:

<form action="insert.php" method="post"> 
<p>Title:<br /><input type="text" name="Title" /></p> 
<p>First Name:<br /> <input type="text" name="First_name" /></p> 
<p>Last Name:<br /> <input type="text" name="Last_name" /></p> 
<p>Date:<br /> <input type="text" name="Date" /></p> 
<p>Weekday:<br /> <input type="text" name="Weekday" /></p> 
<p>Time:<br /> <input type="text" name="Time" /></p> 
<p>Series:<br /> <input type="text" name="Series" /></p> 
<p>URL:<br /> <input type="text" name="URL" /></p> 
<p>Comments:<br /> <input type="text" name="Comments" /></p> 
<p><input type="Submit" value="Update Database" /></p> 
</form>

I have a separate php file called insert.php, and here is everything that is in that file:

PHP Code:

<?php

$Title = $_POST['Title'];
$First_name = $_POST['First_name'];
$Last_name = $_POST['Last_name'];
$Date = $_POST['Date'];
$Weekday = $_POST['Weekday'];
$Time = $_POST['Time'];
$Series = $_POST['Series'];
$URL = $_POST['URL'];
$Comments = $_POST['Comments'];

mysql_connect ("localhost", "christia_form",
"**********") or die('Cannot connect to the database because: ' . mysql_error());
mysql_select_db ("christia_sermons");


$query="INSERT INTO sermons (ID, Title, First_name, Last_name, Date, Weekday, Time, Series, URL, Comments) VALUES ('NULL.', '".$Title."', '".$First_name."', '".$Last_name."', '".$Date."', '".$Weekday."', '".$Time."', '".$Series."', '".$URL."', '".$Comments."')";   

mysql_query($query) or die ('Error updating database');

echo "Database Updated With: ".$Title. " ".$First_name. " ".$Last_name. " ".$Date. " ".$Weekday. " ".$Time. " ".$Series. " ".$URL. " ".$Comments.";

?>

Again, I appreciate any assistance.

Check your last line... You're trying to connect $Comments to an open string (which never closes).

Turning on display_errors will make fixing these types of syntax errors much easier.

Okay, I removed the "." after ".$Comments."

Still no go.

How can I turn on display_errors?

You need to remove the final " as well:

PHP Code:

echo "Database Updated With: ".$Title. " ".$First_name. " ".$Last_name. " ".$Date. " ".$Weekday. " ".$Time. " ".$Series. " ".$URL. " ".$Comments; 


Originally Posted by Adsummy

How can I turn on display_errors?

Find the display_errors directive in your php.ini and set it to 1.

Originally Posted by Adsummy

How can I turn on display_errors?

PHP Code:

<?php
ini_set('display_errors', 1);
?>

is one way

Using ini_set to enable display errors at runtime won't work if there are fatal errors (such as syntax errors) in the script.

Originally Posted by NullPointer

Using ini_set to enable display errors at runtime won't work if there are fatal errors (such as syntax errors) in the script.

That actually depends on the hierarchy of files and how they are loaded. If you have one initializing file (with ini_set('display_errors', 1)) that then loads some function which in turn includes a page which it turns out has a fatal error on it, setting display_errors with ini_set is just fine. This is how I've organized my framework so that it will control error reporting in any situation, no matter what the php.ini is in whatever server it is dropped into.

I've just done some testing on a page where I intentionally created a fatal error. Although the documentation states explicitly that ini_set() cannot be used to control error reporting if there is a fatal error, my testing just told me there are actually some exceptions to this. The server I was using had errors set to on by default, and I was turning it off.

The error I created was a require_once('somefilethatdoesnotexits.asdf'); That's a fatal error because it's require_once. ini_set('display_errors', 0) suppressed it. So it's not a perfect rule. Parse errors are not affected by ini_set, but some fatal errors actually are, despite what the documentation says. I also found a simple warning that was not affected by the rule, so it's not only fatal errors that are affected here.

Another way to set error reporting is with .htaccess: http://perishablepress.com/press/200...-via-htaccess/ This might be useful for anyone with a host that does not allow you access to php.ini. Most hosts let you edit this, but not all.

I've tested this with an error handler and it appears that it is possible to catch the error generated by require_once. What's interesting is that the error level is 2, which is a warning. The documentation for require says that it issues a E_COMPILE_ERROR (64). If for some reason it is issuing both, I'm only able to catch the warning.

In any case I suspect Allen will have to either use the htaccess method or edit his php.ini since his problem seems to be syntax related.

Okay, I started from scratch with the php file where the form results are sent to. I tried to follow W3Schools examples, but I still can't make it work. Any ideas why this wouldn't work?

PHP Code:

<?php

$dbh=mysql_connect ("localhost", "christia_form",
"********") or die('Cannot connect to the database because: ' . mysql_error());

mysql_select_db ("christia_sermons");

$sql="INSERT INTO sermons (ID, Title, Firstname, Lastname, Date, Weekday, Time, Series, URL, Comments)
VALUES
('NULL','$_POST[Title]','$_POST[Firstname]','$_POST[Lastname]','$POST[Date]','$POST[Weekday]','$POST[Time]','$POST[Series]','$POST[URL]','$POST[Comments]')";

if (!mysql_query($sql,$dbh))
  {
  die('Error: ' . mysql_error());
  }
echo "1 record added";

mysql_close($dbh)
?>

You make several references to $POST instead of $_POST, but that shouldn't prevent the script from executing (though it wouldn't work correctly). Have you enabled error reporting? Debugging would be a lot easier with error messages.

Also, this may not be relevant right now, but taking data from $_POST and inserting putting it directly in a query, without any sanitizing or validation opens you up to sql injection.

Okay, I fixed the references from "$POST" to $_POST. And I'll enable display_error as soon as I get a chance. It might be a little while but I'll post whatever I find. Thanks for the tips.

Okay, I've been working on different options for getting my php form to insert data into mysql, and I got it to work by inserting the php script directly into the form action. In other words, it does not work if I reference the php externally as in <form action="insert.php" method="get">, but it does work if I insert the php code(the contents of insert.php) where "insert.php" is. It seems like what is happening, is that it never accesses the insert.php file. I am unable to determine why it behaves like this. Please help.

Save yourself some trouble, php will properly parse vars inside double quotes without concatenation.

"Whatever my literal is $myvar and some more stuff!"

I recommend using $_REQUEST

Also, rather than using IE, Try using FireFox with FireBug for debugging, bet your wondering how I knew? reference "IE get post"