About "posting" forms

[tony]

Is it possible to use the post method to send a form from PHP without
having to put the form in a html page?

<form action="https://www.mysite.com/cgi/incoming.php" method="post">
<input type="hidden" name="data01" value="12">
<input type="hidden" name="data02" value="rejected">
<input type="hidden" name="star" value="sirius">
<input type="image" src="https://www.mysite.com/grid001/image1.gif"
border="0" name="submit" alt="send data">
</form>

What I would like to do is make the use of this form as invisible to the
user as possible by

1. getting rid of the image (but then how do I "post" it)
2. putting PHP variables into the value fields
3. send the form

The PHP variables are set up as in
$data01 = 12;
$data02 = 'rejected'
etc
then

after just including it as in "include_once('senddata.php'); the form
above is in senddata.php and just gets posted

I've been looking at this and can't see how without having to include the
form on a html page. I looked at document.write but that again is
javascript.

Can this be done with just PHP?

thanks

tony

[Jerry Stuckle]

to**@tony.com wrote:

Is it possible to use the post method to send a form from PHP without
having to put the form in a html page?

<form action="https://www.mysite.com/cgi/incoming.php" method="post">
<input type="hidden" name="data01" value="12">
<input type="hidden" name="data02" value="rejected">
<input type="hidden" name="star" value="sirius">
<input type="image" src="https://www.mysite.com/grid001/image1.gif"
border="0" name="submit" alt="send data">
</form>

What I would like to do is make the use of this form as invisible to the
user as possible by

1. getting rid of the image (but then how do I "post" it)
2. putting PHP variables into the value fields
3. send the form

The PHP variables are set up as in
$data01 = 12;
$data02 = 'rejected'
etc
then

after just including it as in "include_once('senddata.php'); the form
above is in senddata.php and just gets posted

I've been looking at this and can't see how without having to include the
form on a html page. I looked at document.write but that again is
javascript.

Can this be done with just PHP?

thanks

tony

Tony,

A form is an html construct - so not being in an html page is meaningless.

Maybe if you tell us exactly what you're trying to accomplish we can give you
other ideas.
--
==================
Remove the "x" from my email address
Jerry Stuckle
JDS Computer Training Corp.
js*******@attglobal.net
==================

[Paul Lautman]

to**@tony.com wrote:

Is it possible to use the post method to send a form from PHP without
having to put the form in a html page?

<form action="https://www.mysite.com/cgi/incoming.php" method="post">
<input type="hidden" name="data01" value="12">
<input type="hidden" name="data02" value="rejected">
<input type="hidden" name="star" value="sirius">
<input type="image" src="https://www.mysite.com/grid001/image1.gif"
border="0" name="submit" alt="send data">
</form>

What I would like to do is make the use of this form as invisible to
the user as possible by

1. getting rid of the image (but then how do I "post" it)
2. putting PHP variables into the value fields
3. send the form

The PHP variables are set up as in
$data01 = 12;
$data02 = 'rejected'
etc
then

after just including it as in "include_once('senddata.php'); the form
above is in senddata.php and just gets posted

I've been looking at this and can't see how without having to include
the form on a html page. I looked at document.write but that again is
javascript.

Can this be done with just PHP?

thanks

tony

The POST method is used to send data from a web page to the server so that
you can use it in things like php variables.
You don't need an image or even a button to submit a form. A text input box
will work to submit a form just by pressing the enter key.
What you need to do is to explain what you ultimately want to happen.

[Tom]

<to**@tony.com> wrote in message
news:MP************************@news-text.blueyonder.co.uk...

Is it possible to use the post method to send a form from PHP without
having to put the form in a html page?

Unless I've failed to understand what you're after, you could use the CURL
library.
It allows you to call any web page (not necessarily a PHP page) from within
your PHP.
Make sure the "extension=php_curl.dll" is uncommented in your PHP.ini.

Something like this (which uses buffering to stop the returned web page
being displayed)...
ob_start();
$ch = curl_init('https://www.mysite.com/cgi/incoming.php');
curl_setopt( $ch, CURLOPT_POST, true );
curl_setopt( $ch, CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS, 'data01=12&data02=rejected');
curl_exec($ch);
$getinfo_results = curl_getinfo($ch);
curl_close( $ch );
$return_page = ob_get_contents();
ob_end_clean();

"$getinfo_results" will give an array of information telling you if the page
request was successful or not, and "$return_page" will contain the full HTML
of the request.

Tom

[tony]

In article <4e*************@individual.net>, pa**********@btinternet.com
says...

to**@tony.com wrote:

Is it possible to use the post method to send a form from PHP without
having to put the form in a html page?

<form action="https://www.mysite.com/cgi/incoming.php" method="post">

What you need to do is to explain what you ultimately want to happen.

I'm sorry I assumed you could see what I want to do by looking at the
form action I posted

I want to send the data to another web server as if it had been posted
using the forms post method without having the form appear in the source
of the clients web page.

Looking at it another way I want to "post" the data without using the
form but it MUST be using the "post" method because thats how the
reciever is set up and I cant control that.

I already have the data I just want to use the post method to send it
without the client getting it as well.

I hope that explains it - I can't think of a way to say it any clearer.

tony

[tony]

In article <44***********************@ptn-nntp-reader01.plus.net>,
to**************@ETHISgmail.com says...

<to**@tony.com> wrote in message
news:MP************************@news-text.blueyonder.co.uk...

Is it possible to use the post method to send a form from PHP without
having to put the form in a html page?

Unless I've failed to understand what you're after, you could use the CURL
library.
It allows you to call any web page (not necessarily a PHP page) from within
your PHP.
Make sure the "extension=php_curl.dll" is uncommented in your PHP.ini.

Something like this (which uses buffering to stop the returned web page
being displayed)...
ob_start();
$ch = curl_init('https://www.mysite.com/cgi/incoming.php');
curl_setopt( $ch, CURLOPT_POST, true );
curl_setopt( $ch, CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS, 'data01=12&data02=rejected');
curl_exec($ch);
$getinfo_results = curl_getinfo($ch);
curl_close( $ch );
$return_page = ob_get_contents();
ob_end_clean();

"$getinfo_results" will give an array of information telling you if the page
request was successful or not, and "$return_page" will contain the full HTML
of the request.

Tom

Hi Tom - I think you do get the idea (from your buffering comment)
I've never heard of curl (I'm just getting over wasting loads of my time
with that pear rubbish)

I'll take a look at curl (assuming my service provider allows its use -
these people are very daft about what they do and dont allow sometimes)

thanks for the idea

tony

[tony]

It turns out that you can use the Post method to send data as if it came
from a form easy enough - no other libraries etc are needed.

Just create a php script that writes a "POST" header then url encode what
would have been the form items names and values as the body and then use
PHP's fsockopen to send the data.

The remote end thinks it came from a form which is exactly what I needed.

Hope this helps anyone reading this.

tony