Работа с формами
Одно из главнейших достоинств PHP — то, как он работает с формами HTML. Здесь основным является то, что каждый элемент формы автоматически становится доступным вашим программам на PHP. Для подробной информации об использовании форм в PHP читайте раздел Переменные из внешних источников. Вот пример формы HTML:
Пример #1 Простейшая форма HTML
В этой форме нет ничего особенного. Это обычная форма HTML без каких-либо специальных тегов. Когда пользователь заполнит форму и нажмет кнопку отправки, будет вызвана страница action.php . В этом файле может быть что-то вроде:
Пример #2 Выводим данные формы
Пример вывода данной программы:
Здравствуйте, Сергей. Вам 30 лет.
Если не принимать во внимание куски кода с htmlspecialchars() и (int), принцип работы данного кода должен быть прост и понятен. htmlspecialchars() обеспечивает правильную кодировку «особых» HTML-символов так, чтобы вредоносный HTML или Javascript не был вставлен на вашу страницу. Поле age, о котором нам известно, что оно должно быть число, мы можем просто преобразовать в integer , что автоматически избавит нас от нежелательных символов. PHP также может сделать это автоматически с помощью расширения filter. Переменные $_POST[‘name’] и $_POST[‘age’] автоматически установлены для вас средствами PHP. Ранее мы использовали суперглобальную переменную $_SERVER , здесь же мы точно так же используем суперглобальную переменную $_POST , которая содержит все POST-данные. Заметим, что метод отправки (method) нашей формы — POST. Если бы мы использовали метод GET, то информация нашей формы была бы в суперглобальной переменной $_GET . Кроме этого, можно использовать переменную $_REQUEST , если источник данных не имеет значения. Эта переменная содержит смесь данных GET, POST, COOKIE и FILE.
В PHP можно также работать и с XForms, хотя вы найдете работу с обычными HTML-формами довольно комфортной уже через некоторое время. Несмотря на то, что работа с XForms не для новичков, они могут показаться вам интересными. В разделе возможностей PHP у нас также есть короткое введение в обработку данных из XForms.
PHP Form Handling
The PHP superglobals $_GET and $_POST are used to collect form-data.
PHP — A Simple HTML Form
The example below displays a simple HTML form with two input fields and a submit button:
Example
When the user fills out the form above and clicks the submit button, the form data is sent for processing to a PHP file named «welcome.php». The form data is sent with the HTTP POST method.
To display the submitted data you could simply echo all the variables. The «welcome.php» looks like this:
The output could be something like this:
The same result could also be achieved using the HTTP GET method:
Example
and «welcome_get.php» looks like this:
The code above is quite simple. However, the most important thing is missing. You need to validate form data to protect your script from malicious code.
Think SECURITY when processing PHP forms!
This page does not contain any form validation, it just shows how you can send and retrieve form data.
However, the next pages will show how to process PHP forms with security in mind! Proper validation of form data is important to protect your form from hackers and spammers!
GET vs. POST
Both GET and POST create an array (e.g. array( key1 => value1, key2 => value2, key3 => value3, . )). This array holds key/value pairs, where keys are the names of the form controls and values are the input data from the user.
Both GET and POST are treated as $_GET and $_POST. These are superglobals, which means that they are always accessible, regardless of scope — and you can access them from any function, class or file without having to do anything special.
$_GET is an array of variables passed to the current script via the URL parameters.
$_POST is an array of variables passed to the current script via the HTTP POST method.
When to use GET?
Information sent from a form with the GET method is visible to everyone (all variable names and values are displayed in the URL). GET also has limits on the amount of information to send. The limitation is about 2000 characters. However, because the variables are displayed in the URL, it is possible to bookmark the page. This can be useful in some cases.
GET may be used for sending non-sensitive data.
Note: GET should NEVER be used for sending passwords or other sensitive information!
When to use POST?
Information sent from a form with the POST method is invisible to others (all names/values are embedded within the body of the HTTP request) and has no limits on the amount of information to send.
Moreover POST supports advanced functionality such as support for multi-part binary input while uploading files to server.
However, because the variables are not displayed in the URL, it is not possible to bookmark the page.
Developers prefer POST for sending form data.
Next, lets see how we can process PHP forms the secure way!
Dealing with Forms
One of the most powerful features of PHP is the way it handles HTML forms. The basic concept that is important to understand is that any form element will automatically be available to your PHP scripts. Please read the manual section on Variables from external sources for more information and examples on using forms with PHP. Here is an example HTML form:
Example #1 A simple HTML form
There is nothing special about this form. It is a straight HTML form with no special tags of any kind. When the user fills in this form and hits the submit button, the action.php page is called. In this file you would write something like this:
Example #2 Printing data from our form
A sample output of this script may be:
Hi Joe. You are 22 years old.
Apart from the htmlspecialchars() and (int) parts, it should be obvious what this does. htmlspecialchars() makes sure any characters that are special in html are properly encoded so people can’t inject HTML tags or Javascript into your page. For the age field, since we know it is a number, we can just convert it to an int which will automatically get rid of any stray characters. You can also have PHP do this for you automatically by using the filter extension. The $_POST[‘name’] and $_POST[‘age’] variables are automatically set for you by PHP. Earlier we used the $_SERVER superglobal; above we just introduced the $_POST superglobal which contains all POST data. Notice how the method of our form is POST. If we used the method GET then our form information would live in the $_GET superglobal instead. You may also use the $_REQUEST superglobal, if you do not care about the source of your request data. It contains the merged information of GET, POST and COOKIE data.
You can also deal with XForms input in PHP, although you will find yourself comfortable with the well supported HTML forms for quite some time. While working with XForms is not for beginners, you might be interested in them. We also have a short introduction to handling data received from XForms in our features section.
User Contributed Notes 3 notes
According to the HTTP specification, you should use the POST method when you’re using the form to change the state of something on the server end. For example, if a page has a form to allow users to add their own comments, like this page here, the form should use POST. If you click «Reload» or «Refresh» on a page that you reached through a POST, it’s almost always an error — you shouldn’t be posting the same comment twice — which is why these pages aren’t bookmarked or cached.
You should use the GET method when your form is, well, getting something off the server and not actually changing anything. For example, the form for a search engine should use GET, since searching a Web site should not be changing anything that the client might care about, and bookmarking or caching the results of a search-engine query is just as useful as bookmarking or caching a static HTML page.
Also, don’t ever use GET method in a form that capture passwords and other things that are meant to be hidden.