Member Avatar for nikez

Hi guys,

I have been looking at various form processing scripts, bascially to gain some understanding of how they work.

I have managed to work through one section apart from one bit. I keep seeing the following:

$_POST

I was just wondering what this was. I am using Dreamweaver MX and it changes the colour of every $_POST. So it doesnt look like a variable.

Can someone explain what it is and what it does - or is it just a variable for something?

Thanks,
JameZ ;)

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Member Avatar for nikez

I think i know what this is now....is it a replacement for the $HTTP_POST_VARS function?

Basically it stores the data from a form that has been submitted with the post action. Is that right?

J

Member Avatar for ReDuX

Yup. its a way to pass data from one page to another. you could call it a variable but as you say its moved around by HTTP rather than php scripts temselves.
and yes it is a replacement for HTTP_POST_VARS .. somewhat shorter and easier to remember dont you think :)

Member Avatar for nikez

hehehe....yeah a lot easier to remember. Its just i have 2 EXCELLENT books that i have learnt PHP from but neither of them mention $_POST....when i found out that it was a replacement for HTTP... i found it in one of them immediately!

You said its a way to pass data from one page to another....how exactly? Is it JUST a way to pass info from an HTML form to a php script? Or can you pass php variable data from a php script to another php script?

JameZ

Member Avatar for ReDuX

Well yes because its passed using the HTTP headers you can use it for anything from php to ASP to javascript etc.
When requesting a page page.html for example. the header requests it using the URL http://www.domain.com/page.html .
If you pass data in the '$_POST' http variables it is also sent in the header in the form of a string (9 think POST is invisible and GET is visible, i forget which way round that is though) eg. http://www.domain.com/page.html?variable1=something&variable2=something_else and so on
You can then call this information for use in say and email script or whatever use you may have for it.

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