Create dynamic sites with PHP & MySQL - Creating an HTML form
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So now you can view records stored in your MySQL database and display them in your browser using PHP. But you want to add new record. Assuming that you know about HTML forms, let's code a page that will do just that. First we'll create a static form, datain.html:
<HTML> <BODY> <form method="post" action="datain.php"> First name:<input type="Text" name="first"><br> Last name:<input type="Text" name="last"><br> Nick Name:<input type="Text" name="nickname"><br> E-mail:<input type="Text" name="email"><br> Salary:<input type="Text" name="salary"><br> <input type="Submit" name="submit" value="Enter information"> </form> </HTML>
Now we have a form that will post the information to a page "datain.php". We must code this page so that it is able to process the posted data and send it to our MySQL database. The following listing of datain.php will do that:
The first 3 lines are same as before, only we use the SQL command "INSERT INTO", which means insert into the database into the columns specified (here firstname, lastname, nick, email) the data contained in the variable '$first', '$last', '$nickname', '$email' respectively.
But where did these variables come from? Well, PHP has a wonderful way of creating the variables automatically from the data posted to it. So the text box with name "first" created the variable $first and it contained the text typed in that textbox.
Important Note: As of PHP 4.2, php no longer automatically creates the variables for you. If you want posted variables to be automatically created. You have to edit your php.ini file and set the register_globals variable to on. The line should read:
register_globals = on
If that is not possible, you have to initialize the variables in your code everytime. The method is, if you are posting a form with the field "name" you have to write the following code in the page where you are posting:
<?php $name=$_POST[name]; //for post method $name=$_GET[name]; //for get method ?>
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