Chapter 7

How to work with

form data

Murach's PHP and MySQL, C7 © 2010, Mike Murach & Associates, Inc. Slide 1
 Objectives
Applied
1. Use text boxes, password boxes, radio buttons, check boxes, drop-
down lists, list boxes, and text areas to get input from the user.
2. Use hidden fields to pass data to the web application when a form
is submitted.
3. Use the htmlspecialchars and nl2br functions to display user
entries the way you want them displayed.
4. Use echo statements to display data in a web page.

Murach's PHP and MySQL, C7 © 2010, Mike Murach & Associates, Inc. Slide 2
 Objectives (continued)
Knowledge
1. Describe the way a PHP application gets data from text boxes,
password boxes, hidden fields, radio buttons, check boxes, drop-
down lists, list boxes, and text areas.
2. Describe the use of the htmlspecialchars and nl2br functions.
3. Describe the use of the echo and print statements.

Murach's PHP and MySQL, C7 © 2010, Mike Murach & Associates, Inc. Slide 3
 Text input: The HTML for three types of fields
<input type="text" name="user_name" value="rharris"/>
<input type="password" name="password"/>
<input type="hidden" name="action" value="login"/>

The text and password fields in the browser

Hidden fields:
• not displayed on the web page
• value attribute must be set
• not secure since the value can be viewed in the html
source code

Murach's PHP and MySQL, C7 © 2010, Mike Murach & Associates, Inc. Slide 4
 The URL when using the GET method
process_data.php?user_name=rharris&password=s3cr3t72&action=login

The PHP for the GET method

<?php
$user_name = $_GET['user_name'];
$password = $_GET['password'];
$action = $_GET['action'];
?>

The URL when using the POST method

process_data.php

The PHP for the POST method

<?php
$user_name = $_POST['user_name'];
$password = $_POST['password'];
$action = $_POST['action'];
?>

Murach's PHP and MySQL, C7 © 2010, Mike Murach & Associates, Inc. Slide 5
 The HTML for three radio buttons in a group
<input type="radio" name="card_type" value="visa"
checked="checked"/> Visa<br />
<input type="radio" name="card_type" value="mastercard"/>
MasterCard<br />
<input type="radio" name="card_type" value="discover"/>
Discover

The radio buttons in the browser

Note:
• the name attribute for each radio button must be the
same
• the value attribute for each radio button must be
different
• the checked attribute sets the default so should only
be used on one of the options
Murach's PHP and MySQL, C7 © 2010, Mike Murach & Associates, Inc. Slide 6
 PHP to access a radio button group
with a default button
<?php
$card_type = $_POST['card_type'];
?>

PHP to access a radio button group that doesn’t

have a default button
<?php
if (isset($_POST['card_type'])) {
$card_type = $_POST['card_type'];
} else {
$card_type = "unknown";
}
?>

Murach's PHP and MySQL, C7 © 2010, Mike Murach & Associates, Inc. Slide 7
 The HTML for three check boxes
<input type="checkbox" name="pep" checked="checked"/>
Pepperoni<br />
<input type="checkbox" name="msh"/> Mushrooms<br />
<input type="checkbox" name="olv"/> Olives

The check boxes in the browser

The PHP to access the check box data

<?php
$pepperoni = isset($_POST['pep']);
$mushrooms = isset($_POST['msh']);
$olives = isset($_POST['olv']);
?>

Murach's PHP and MySQL, C7 © 2010, Mike Murach & Associates, Inc. Slide 8
Using an array of check boxes
• If the items in a checkbox list are related, use an array to simplify the
processing rather than creating separate identifiers for each one.
Three related check boxes in an array
<input type="checkbox" name="top[]" value="pep"/>
Pepperoni<br />
<input type="checkbox" name="top[]" value="msh"/>
Mushrooms<br />
<input type="checkbox" name="top[]" value="olv"/> Olives

The check boxes in the browser

PHP that accesses the array and its values

$toppings = $_POST['top']; // get the toppings array
$top1 = $toppings[0]; // $top1 is pep
$top2 = $toppings[1]; // $top2 is olv
$top3 = $toppings[2]; // $top3 is not set

Murach's PHP and MySQL, C7 © 2010, Mike Murach & Associates, Inc. Slide 9
 PHP that uses a loop to process the array
<?php
if (isset($_POST['top'])) {
$toppings = $_POST['top'];
foreach($toppings as $key => $value) {
echo $key. ' = ' . $value . '<br />';
}
} else {
echo 'No toppings selected.';
}
?>

The message displayed by the browser

Murach's PHP and MySQL, C7 © 2010, Mike Murach & Associates, Inc. Slide 10
 The HTML for a drop-down list
<select name="card_type">
<option value="visa">Visa</option>
<option value="mastercard">MasterCard</option>
<option value="discover">Discover</option>
</select>

The drop-down list in a browser

The PHP to access the drop-down list data

<?php
$card_type = $_POST['card_type'];
?>

Murach's PHP and MySQL, C7 © 2010, Mike Murach & Associates, Inc. Slide 11
 A list box that doesn’t allow multiple options
<select name="card_type" size="3">
<option value="visa">Visa</option>
<option value="mastercard">MasterCard</option>
<option value="discover">Discover</option>
</select>

A list box that doesn’t allow multiple options

Murach's PHP and MySQL, C7 © 2010, Mike Murach & Associates, Inc. Slide 12
A list box that allows multiple options
<select name="top[]" size="3" multiple="multiple">
<option value="pep"
selected="selected">Pepperoni</option>
<option value="msh">Mushrooms</option>
<option value="olv">Olives</option>
</select>

A list box that allows multiple options

PHP for a list box that allows multiple options

<?php
if (isset($_POST['top']) {
$toppings = $_POST['top'];
foreach ($toppings as $key => $value) {
echo $key. ' = ' . $value . '<br />';
}
} else {
echo 'No toppings selected.';
}
?>
Murach's PHP and MySQL, C7 © 2010, Mike Murach & Associates, Inc. Slide 13
 The HTML for a text area
<textarea name="comment" rows="4" cols="50">
Welcome to PHP and MySQL!</textarea>

A text area in the browser

If the user types past the end of the text area, a soft return is
created
If the user presses Enter or Return, a hard return is created.

Murach's PHP and MySQL, C7 © 2010, Mike Murach & Associates, Inc. Slide 14
 The URL when using the GET method
When the user includes spaces in the text area
process_data.php?comment=Welcome+to+PHP+and+MySQL!

When the user presses the Enter or Return key

to start a new line
process_data.php?comment=Welcome+to%0D%0APHP+and+MySQL!

When the user doesn’t enter any text

process_data.php?comment=

The PHP to get the data from the text area

<?php
$comment = $_POST['comment'];
?>

Murach's PHP and MySQL, C7 © 2010, Mike Murach & Associates, Inc. Slide 15
htmlspecialchars() converts certain characters into their
character entity so that they will show in the browser and
not be interpreted.

Common HTML character entities

Character Character entity
& &amp;
< &lt;
> &gt;
" &quot;
' &#039;
Non-breaking space &nbsp;

Murach's PHP and MySQL, C7 © 2010, Mike Murach & Associates, Inc. Slide 16
Syntax of the htmlspecialchars function
htmlspecialchars($string[, $quote_style[, $charset
[, $double_encode]]])

The available quote styles are:

 ENT_COMPAT - Default. Encodes only double quotes

 ENT_QUOTES - Encodes double and single quotes

 ENT_NOQUOTES - Does not encode any quotes

A double-encoded less-than entity

&amp;lt;

The text entered by the user

Murach's PHP and MySQL, C7 © 2010, Mike Murach & Associates, Inc. Slide 17
 Converting special characters to entities
<?php
$comment = $_POST['comment'];
$comment = htmlspecialchars($comment, ENT_COMPAT,
'ISO-8859-1', false);
?>
<p><?php echo $comment; ?></p>

The data displayed in the browser

Murach's PHP and MySQL, C7 © 2010, Mike Murach & Associates, Inc. Slide 18
 Syntax of the nl2br function
nl2br($string[, $is_xhtml])

Murach's PHP and MySQL, C7 © 2010, Mike Murach & Associates, Inc. Slide 19
 The text entered into the text area

Converting line break characters

to line break tags
<?php
$comment = $_POST['comment'];
$comment = nl2br($comment, false);
?>
<p><?php echo $comment; ?></p>

The data displayed in the browser

Murach's PHP and MySQL, C7 © 2010, Mike Murach & Associates, Inc. Slide 20
 The echo statement
Syntax
echo $var1
echo($var1)
echo $var1 [, $var2 ...]

Examples
echo 'Welcome to PHP and MySQL!';
echo 'Name: ' . $name;
echo('Name: ' . $name);
echo 'Cost: $', $cost;

Murach's PHP and MySQL, C7 © 2010, Mike Murach & Associates, Inc. Slide 21
 The print statement
Syntax
print $var1
print($var1)

Examples
print 'Welcome to PHP and MySQL!';
print 'Name: ' . $name;
print('Name: ' . $name);

Using print in an expression

<?php
($age >= 18) ? print('Can vote.') :
print('Cannot vote.');
?>

Murach's PHP and MySQL, C7 © 2010, Mike Murach & Associates, Inc. Slide 22