I am writing a simple web page to demonstrate how to use forms in PHP. The page works fine when run on the university's web server; but, when I try to run it locally through IntelliJ 16, $_POST is always empty (but php://input does contain the correct post string). The other aspects of the demo work fine.
I've read many other posts about $_POST being empty; and, from what I can tell, those situations solutions don't apply here.
I'm assuming that there is a configuration problem with my local copy of php; but, I don't know what could be mis-configured that would cause $_GET to work, but not $_POST.
This is the relevant html form:
<fieldset>
<legend>POST form</legend>
<form action="formDemo.php" method="post">
"text" type input named <code>theFirstPost</code>
<input type="text" name="theFirstPost" value="Value for first POST input"/><br/>
<input type="submit" name="postSubmit2" value="Submit Button 2"/>
</form>
</fieldset>
The complete (working) example is here: http://www.cis.gvsu.edu/~kurmasz/StackExchange/formDemo.php
- Adding
<?php error_reporting(E_ALL); ?>produces no errors or warnings. - $_SERVER["HTTP_CONTENT_TYPE"] = "application/x-www-form-urlencoded"
What should I check next?
Complete PHP source:
<!-- This file demonstrates
(1) How to set up a simple HTML form
(2) How to use PHP to access the data
-->
<?php error_reporting(E_ALL); ?>
<html>
<head>
<title>Form Demo</title>
<style type="text/css">
#get, #post {
vertical-align: top;
}
</style>
</head>
<body>
<h1>Form Demo</h1>
<h2>Questions:</h2>
<ul>
<li>Can you get data in both <code>$_GET</code> and <code>$_POST</code> at the same time? If so, how. If not, why
not?
</li>
<li>What happens if you leave a text box empty?</li>
<li>Can you "unselect" all the radio buttons? If so, how. If not, why not?</li>
<li>Can you select "Fred" and "Barney" at the same time? Can you select "Barney" and "Trumpet" at the same time?
What's the difference?
</li>
<li>What happens if you unselect all the check boxes?</li>
<li>How does PHP treat checkboxes differently when doing a POST than when doing a GET?</li>
<li>How can you tell which submit button was pushed?</li>
</ul>
<table>
<tr>
<td id="get">
<fieldset>
<legend>GET form</legend>
<form action="formDemo.php" method="get">
"text" type input named <code>theTopOne</code>
<input type="text" name="theTopOne" value="Value for Top input"/><br/>
"text" type input named <code>theSecondOne</code>
<input type="text" name="theSecondOne" value="Value for Input #2"/><br/>
Radio buttons named "flintstones":
Fred <input type="radio" name="flintstones" value="iChooseFred" checked="checked"/>
Barney <input type="radio" name="flintstones" value="iChooseBarney">
Wilma <input type="radio" name="flintstones" value="iChooseWilma"></br>
Radio buttons named "instruments":
Saxophone <input type="radio" name="instrument" value="sax"/>
Trumpet <input type="radio" name="instrument" value="tpt">
Piano <input type="radio" name="instrument" value="piano" checked="checked"></br>
Checkboxes named "courses":
451 <input type="checkbox" name="course451" value="451"/>
452 <input type="checkbox" name="course452" value="452"/>
457 <input type="checkbox" name="course457" value="457"/><br/>
<input type="submit" name="getSubmit1" value="Submit Button 1"/>
<input type="submit" name="getSubmit2" value="Submit Button 2"/>
</form>
</fieldset>
<table>
<tr>
<th colspan=2>Contents of <code>$_GET</code></th>
</tr>
<tr>
<th>Key</th>
<th>Value</th>
</tr>
<?php
foreach ($_GET as $key => $value) {
echo "<tr><td>$key</td><td>$value</td></tr>\n";
}
?>
</table>
</td>
<td id="post">
<fieldset>
<legend>POST form</legend>
<form action="formDemo.php" method="post">
"text" type input named <code>theFirstPost</code>
<input type="text" name="theFirstPost" value="Value for first POST input"/><br/>
"text" type input named <code>theSecondPost</code>
<input type="text" name="theSecondPost" value="Value for Post #2"/><br/>
Radio buttons named "interest":
Cool <input type="radio" name="interest" value="itsCool" checked="checked"/>
OK <input type="radio" name="interest" value="itsOK">
Boring <input type="radio" name="interest" value="itsBoring"></br>
Radio buttons named "bestState":
Georgia <input type="radio" name="bestState" value="GA"/>
Michigan <input type="radio" name="bestState" value="MI">
California <input type="radio" name="bestState" value="CA" checked="checked"></br>
Checkboxes named "IScourses":
260 <input type="checkbox" name="IScourses[]" value="cis260" checked="checked"/>
333 <input type="checkbox" name="IScourses[]" value="cis333"/>
463 <input type="checkbox" name="IScourses[]" value="cis463"/><br/>
<input type="submit" name="postSubmit1" value="Submit Button 1"/>
<input type="submit" name="postSubmit2" value="Submit Button 2"/>
</form>
</fieldset>
<table>
<tr>
<th colspan=2>Contents of <code>$_POST</code></th>
</tr>
<tr>
<th>Key</th>
<th>Value</th>
</tr>
<?php
foreach ($_POST as $key => $value) {
$printMe = $value;
if (is_array($value)) {
$printMe = "[" . implode($value, ", ") . "]";
}
echo "<tr><td>$key</td><td>$printMe</td></tr>\n";
}
?>
</table>
</td>
</table>
<?php
$fp = fopen("php://input", 'r+');
echo stream_get_contents($fp);
?>
<hr>
<?php var_dump($_SERVER); ?>
</body>
</html>
