Chapter 2 - Handling An Html Form

Stereot · August 16, 2011

Hi everyone!

I just started going through Mr. Ullman's book and really like it so far, but here's an issue that I'm going through right now...

I'm getting numerous errors after trying to run handle_form.php script from Chapter 2:

Notice: Undefined index: name in C:\xampp\htdocs\handle_form.php on line 27

Notice: Undefined index: email in C:\xampp\htdocs\handle_form.php on line 29

Notice: Undefined index: comments in C:\xampp\htdocs\handle_form.php on line 31

I went through Google Search and found out that I can suppress warnings by adding error_reporting(E_ALL ^ E_NOTICE); on top script.

That, however, doesn't solve an issue - it just masks the problem.

Any help would be appreciated!

Jonathon · August 16, 2011

What code are you running

Stereot · August 16, 2011

What code are you running

Lets see...

form.html

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD

XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN""

http://www.w3.org/TR/XHTML1/DTD/

xhtml1-transitional.dtd">

<html xmlns="http://wwww.w3.org/1999/

xhtml" xml"lang="en" lang="en">

<head>

<meta http-equiv="content-type"

content="text/html; charset=

iso-8859-1" />

<title>Simple HTML Form</title>

</head>

<body>

<form action="handle_form.php" method="post">

<fieldset><legend>Enter your information in the form below:</legend>

<p><b>Name:</b> <input type="text" name="name" size="20" maxlength="40"/></p>

<p><b>Email Address:</b> <input type="text" name="email" size="40" maxlength="60" /></p>

<p><b>Gender:</b> <input type="radio" name="gender" value="M" /> Male <input type="radio"

name="gendder" value="F" />Female</p>

<p><b>Age:</b>

<select name="age">

<option value="0-29">Under 30</option>

<option value="30-60">Between 30 and 60</option>

<option value="60+">Over 60</option>

</select></p>

<p><b>Comments:</b><textarea name="comments" rows="3" cols="40"></textarea></p>

</fieldset>

<div align="center"><input type="submit" name="submit" value="Submit My Information" /></div>

</form>

</body>

</html>

handle_form.php

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD

XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN""

http://www.w3.org/TR/XHTML1/DTD/

xhtml1-transitional.dtd">

<html xmlns="http://wwww.w3.org/1999/

xhtml" xml"lang="en" lang="en">

<head>

<meta http-equiv="content-type"

content="text/html; charset=

iso-8859-1" />

<title>Simple HTML Form</title>

</head>

<body>

<?php # Script 2.2 - handle_form.php

// Create a shorthand for the form data:

$name = $_REQUEST['name'];

$email = $_REQUEST['email'];

$comments = $_REQUEST['comments'];

/* Not used:

$_REQUEST['age']

$_REQUEST['gender']

$_REQUEST['submit']

*/

// Print the submitted information:

echo "<p>Thank you, <b>$name></b>, for the

following comments:<br />

<tt>$comments</tt></p>

<p>We will reply to you at <i>$email</i>.</p>\n";

?>

</body>

</html>

Stereot · August 16, 2011

Also tried to test code from zip file that's on DMCinsights, but it doesn't work right either.

Jonathon · August 16, 2011

Are you actually submitting the HTML form to the the handle_form.php or just running handle_form.php straight away?

Stereot · August 16, 2011

Are you actually submitting the HTML form to the the handle_form.php or just running handle_form.php straight away?

Tried it both ways - its the same problem.

I don't see actual values showing up - I'm getting only variables themselves.

Paul Swanson · August 16, 2011

What version of PHP are you using? If it is less than 4.1 you can't use $_REQUEST as it was added in that version. This is why Larry insists people furnish the versions they are using when asking for help. It's vital information.

Even if your version is 4.1 or later, try changing all instances of $_REQUEST to $_POST. Does it work then?

Stereot · August 16, 2011

What version of PHP are you using? If it is less than 4.1 you can't use $_REQUEST as it was added in that version. This is why Larry insists people furnish the versions they are using when asking for help. It's vital information.

Even if your version is 4.1 or later, try changing all instances of $_REQUEST to $_POST. Does it work then?

I'm using version 5.3.5 and, unfortunately, changing it to $_POST didn't fix anything.

Thank you for advice, though! :-)

Paul Swanson · August 16, 2011

Interesting. Your code works for me (there are a few minor issues, which I'll let you try to figure out when you have it working).

Let's see what you are getting, if anything, from $_REQUEST. In the handle_form.php file, add this just before your comment about creating shorthand:

echo "<pre>\n";
print_r ($_REQUEST);  // prints the content of $_REQUEST array
print_r ($_POST);  // prints the content of $_POST array
echo "</pre>\n";

That should tell us what is held in those arrays, and maybe we can figure out why they aren't being read by the handle_form.php script.

Stereot · August 17, 2011

Interesting. Your code works for me (there are a few minor issues, which I'll let you try to figure out when you have it working).

Let's see what you are getting, if anything, from $_REQUEST. In the handle_form.php file, add this just before your comment about creating shorthand:
echo "<pre>\n";
print_r ($_REQUEST);  // prints the content of $_REQUEST array
print_r ($_POST);  // prints the content of $_POST array
echo "</pre>\n";
That should tell us what is held in those arrays, and maybe we can figure out why they aren't being read by the handle_form.php script.

Now it says this at the top of the form:

Array

(

)

Array

(

)

Larry · August 17, 2011

And just to confirm, you are actually entering values into the form elements before submitting the form, yes?

Stereot · August 17, 2011

And just to confirm, you are actually entering values into the form elements before submitting the form, yes?

Yes sir!

But I still see only variables, not values on the resulting php page.

Larry · August 17, 2011

Hmmm... I see nothing wrong in the code. Could you post the URL that you're using for accessing the form? And also post the URL that results after submitting the form?

Paul Swanson · August 17, 2011

But I still see only variables, not values on the resulting php page.

Something seems wrong with your PHP, you should not be seeing variable names with the code you provided. It doesn't seem to recognize HTTP headers (no $_POST or $_REQUEST variables). Add this to handle_form.php, either above or below where you added the code that prints the contents of $_REQUEST and $_POST:

echo php_sapi_name () . "<br />";

What does that produce?

Lou · August 17, 2011

Code works fine for me, but get rid of the extra ">" when you thank the person by name. I don't get any errors or notices, and my error reporting is at the highest level.

Stereot · August 18, 2011

Code works fine for me, but get rid of the extra ">" when you thank the person by name. I don't get any errors or notices, and my error reporting is at the highest level.

http://ihrtn.com/form.html

It actually works fine when I'm running it via server, but not so much when I do it locally / via hard drive with XAMPP turned on.

Paul Swanson · August 18, 2011

When you run it locally, do you type http://localhost/form.html to open the form? You should be. If you just double-click the file it does not run through the webserver, which is required for PHP to work properly.

megankadriver · September 1, 2013

well, i had exactly the same problem. but my issue was that i was using the same code (form.htm + handle_form.php) in same file and it was a php file. so going through this post, what i did is saved a bew file called form.html (containing the code for form) and another called handle_form.php containing the php code to get info from the form.html, process it and print it. ALL WORKED FINE.

thought i post it here for some novice like me to see :')

HartleySan · September 2, 2013

megankadriver, thanks for sharing what worked for you.

Also, welcome to the forums.

megankadriver · September 2, 2013

pleasure

ssh1375 · September 11, 2015

what is diferrent between these 2 ?

look at curly braces.

<!doctype html>

<html>

<head>

<title>Untitled Document</title>

</head>

<body>

<table>

<tr><td>quantity</td><td><input type="text" name="quantity" /></td></tr>

<tr><td>price</td><td><input type="text" name="price" /></td></tr>

</table>

</fieldset>

</form>

<?php

if(isset($_POST['submitted'])){

if (is_numeric($_POST['quantity']) and is_numeric($_POST['price']) and is_numeric($_POST['tax']))

$total=($_POST['quantity']*$_POST['price']);

$taxrate=( $_POST['tax'] / 100 );

$tax2=($taxrate*$total);

$end=($tax2+$total);echo $end;}

else

echo "!! fill it again";

?>

</body>

</html>

<!doctype html>

<html>

<head>

<title>Untitled Document</title>

</head>

<body>

<table>

<tr><td>quantity</td><td><input type="text" name="quantity" /></td></tr>

<tr><td>price</td><td><input type="text" name="price" /></td></tr>

</table>

</fieldset>

</form>

<?php

if(isset($_POST['submitted']))

if (is_numeric($_POST['quantity']) and is_numeric($_POST['price']) and is_numeric($_POST['tax'])){

$total=($_POST['quantity']*$_POST['price']);

$taxrate=( $_POST['tax'] / 100 );

$tax2=($taxrate*$total);

$end=($tax2+$total);echo $end;}

else

echo "!! fill it again";

?>

</body>

</html>

Larry · September 11, 2015

The second one will give you a syntax error because you're missing the opening curly brace after if(isset($_POST['submitted'])). The first one will give you a syntax error because you're missing the opening curly brace after is_numeric($_POST['tax'])). They are both missing curly braces after the else, which won't cause an error but is very bad style.

Chapter 2 - Handling An Html Form

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