Two different POST actions? Possible?

[axlq]

How do I create a form that two submit buttons, where each one
submits the form input data to a different server?

Consider this situation: I have a form where users can check various
options to subscribe to a service, and each option costs a certain
amount. When the form is submitted, my php script totals up the
options. Fine.

The form has 2 submit buttons: "print invoice" and "pay by credit
card."

The "print invoice" button is for those businesses who can't pay by
credit card but must mail us a check instead; they print an invoice
for their accounts payable department. The php script generates the
invoice based on the form inputs. Easy, no problem.

The problem is "pay by credit card." The total cost from submitted
input fields must be POSTed to a different server: our credit card
processor.

This isn't a problem if the credit card processor accepts the
form input data as a GET string in the URL; all I'd do is
header("Locatio n: $url"); to redirect the user to the credit card
processor page which handles the payment. The problem is I need
to do this by POSTing the form input data, while at the same time
retain the ability to generate invoices from MY server using the
same form.

I can't think of an elegant way to do this except to have two
different payment pages each with their own form. Or maybe force
everybody to generate an invoice as the first step, and after that
point they can choose to pay it by credit card.

-A

[Chung Leong]

Alvaro G. Vicario wrote:

*** Andrew Poelstra escribió/wrote (Fri, 25 Aug 2006 14:25:01 GMT):

Many people disable Javascript in their browsers

Many developers love to think that users do so, but they don't :)

But of course JavaScript is the worst tool for critical tasks. Among many
other reasons, because developers who abuse JavaScript tend to be terrible
coders and their scripts fail in browsers that are not Internet Explorer
(and pretty often in IE itself). Good JavaScript coders just leave
scripting for auxiliary tasks.

I wouldn't say that. When implemented correctly client-side code
usually improves the user experience. I think people just need remember
a key advantage of (and motivation for) server-side programming: you
control the environment where the code runs. Client-side code is hard
to QA because there are many variables you can't control. Testing on
multiple platforms and configurations is tedious and could require more
manhours than writing the code in the first place.

Often when I hear the word AJAX I feel like beating the speaker over
the head with a big wooden spoon.

[Chung Leong]

axlq wrote:

This isn't a problem if the credit card processor accepts the
form input data as a GET string in the URL; all I'd do is
header("Locatio n: $url"); to redirect the user to the credit card
processor page which handles the payment. The problem is I need
to do this by POSTing the form input data, while at the same time
retain the ability to generate invoices from MY server using the
same form.

You can redirect a POST with the HTTP status code 307. That only works
well with Internet Explorer though. Firefox would pop up a warning
message. Don't know if the issue's been fixed or not.

[Alvaro G. Vicario]

*** Chung Leong escribió/wrote (26 Aug 2006 12:01:11 -0700):

You can redirect a POST with the HTTP status code 307. That only works
well with Internet Explorer though. Firefox would pop up a warning
message. Don't know if the issue's been fixed or not.

Firefox 1.5.0.6 pops up a warning message prompting whether you want to
resubmit the data to the new page.

--
-+ http://alvaro.es - Álvaro G. Vicario - Burgos, Spain
++ Mi sitio sobre programación web: http://bits.demogracia.com
+- Mi web de humor con rayos UVA: http://www.demogracia.com
--

[onembk]

On 2006-08-24 11:57:46 -0600, ax**@spamcop.ne t (axlq) said:

>
How do I create a form that two submit buttons, where each one
submits the form input data to a different server?

It's not too hard. Have two submit buttons and then choose your action
based on which one was chosen.

=============== ===============
form
=============== ===============

<form action="handler .php" method="post">
Order form stuff
<input type="submit" name="invoice" value="Print invoice" />
<input type="submit" name="creditcar d" value="Pay via credit card" />
</form>

=============== ===============
handler.php
=============== ===============

<?php
if (isset($_POST['invoice'])) {
Print an invoice
}
if (isset($_POST['creditcard'])) {
Pay via credit card
}
?>

If your using two different servers as your post suggests you can just
redirect the data to the correct location in the if() statement,
otherwise just add the appropriate code or include the appropriate file
in the if(). Hope that helps.