How do I send POST (Form) information without the user hitting Submit? 1

[Tama]

Hi there

How do I make a PHP script mimic a FORM sending POST information? I want to make a script that translates a search request and then sends it as $HTTP_POST_VAR to another script I have on my server.

Any ideas?

Cheers
Tama

I do my sums on fingers and thumbs.

 

[sleipnir214]

If you must send the data by invoking the script through the web browser, see FAQ434-2502

However, doing it that way is the most resource-intensive way of doing it. Most of the time, making that particular script's functionality in multiple scripts is best done with PHP's include() function.



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[sleipnir214]

If your question was about programmatically submitting an HTML form on a user's browser page, this is something PHP cannot do. PHP runs on the web server, not the web client.

To programmatically submit a form on a web page, you must use a client-side scripting language such as JavaScript. Getting details on how to do this in JavaScript is a question for the JavaScript forum.



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[BitFuzzy]

auto form submit (on change of a selection item)

<select name="cctype" onChange="document.thisForm.submit()" SIZE="1">
<option value="visa">Visa</option>

make sure you don't have a "submit" button on the page though, as it will over-ride the auto submit.

 

[Tama]

Hi guys

Thanks for the input - I should be a bit clearer about what I want to do. sleipnir had it right with his link to CURL. A simplified version of what I'm after follows:

[b]mypage.html[/b]
<form action='search-selector.php' method='POST'>
<input type='text' name='search_keywords'>
<select name='search_type'>
<option value='1'>Search Forums</option>
<option value='2'>Search Photos</option>
</select>
<input type='submit' value='Search'></form>

[b]search-selector.php[/b]
[i]Gets FORM information from [b]mypage.html[/b]
if (search-type=='1') then send FORM as POST to [b]search-forum.php[/b]
if (search-type=='2') then send FORM as POST to [b]search-photos.php[/b][/i]

[b]search-forum.php[/b]
[i]GNU script that parses HTTP_POST_VARS into search engine and displays results[/i]

The reason for "search-selector" existing is that the FORM information from mypage.html will need to be altered depending on whether forums/ photos etc. are getting searched.

I hope this makes sense - I think that CURL might be the way to go but I'll need some time to play with it.

Cheers
Tama

I do my sums on fingers and thumbs.

 

[sleipnir214]

As I have said before, using cURL to pass data between scripts on the same physical server is the least-efficient way to do it. Using include() invoke the same core functionality from two different scripts is much better.



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[Tama]

Ah... I think I just clicked...

I could put a case list in search-selector.php that does the required alterations to the POST info from mypage.html - and then include search-forum.php (or whatever) and the POST information would then be picked up from mypage.html (with alterations?)

Slap me if I've got it wrong again.

Tama

I do my sums on fingers and thumbs.

 

[sleipnir214]

You're getting very close.

What you will have to do is take from search-forum.php the common functionality that both scripts need. Put that in a separate file. Then both scripts use include() to use functionality provided by the include-file.

You also have the benefit that you need only change the include-file to change the behavior of both search-selector.php and search-forum.php.



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[Tama]

Hmmm... this might be a bit trickier than that...

search-forum.php is my "easy" name of the search function in phpBB which is sitting inside PHPNuke - so there's quite a few layers there.

It's 11:30am Monday morning here (New Zealand) so I'll have to wait until I get home before I can fiddle around with it.

Cheers
Tama

I do my sums on fingers and thumbs.

 

[sleipnir214]

It's 18:40 Sunday, here. U.S. Central time zone.
<facetious>
It's like time travel!
</facetious>

PHPNuke is object-oriented. You can certainly instantiate its objects to perform the functions you need.



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