Problem with delivering POST variable

[Thomas Hoheneder]

Hello,

I use PHP 4.3.10 and want to deliver a post variable from a PHP page to
itself.
In my page mypage.php I have a hidden field named "dbaction" and a form
button. When clicking the form button a javascript function is called where
the dbaction hidden field is set to the value "change" (=actn) and then the
form gets submitted.
function doAction(actn) {
document.forms[0].dbaction.value = actn;
document.forms[0].submit();
}
actn is delivered properly here!

At the recall of mypage.php (after submit) I expect the hidden field
dbaction as POST variable know. I have the statement
if (isset($HTTP_PO ST_VARS['dbaction']))
to ask whether dbaction exists or not. At the first call of mypage.php it
doesn't exist because there was no post request but after the form submit
dbaction should exist as post variable (I have defined method=post in my
<form> tag).
What now happens is that after the post request dbaction is set but always
is an empty string instead of having the value "change".
What's going on here? Why does the post parameter not get delivered as it is
set before? Why do I get an empty string as delivered value?
By the way I have the php property "register_globa ls" set off which is
highly recommended due to security reasons and I want to let it turned off.

Any help to this would be much appreciated.
Thanks in advance.

Nice greetings from
Thomas

[Kenneth Downs]

Re: Problem with delivering POST variable

Thomas Hoheneder wrote:
[color=blue]
> the form gets submitted.
> function doAction(actn) {
> document.forms[0].dbaction.value = actn;
> document.forms[0].submit();
> }[/color]

<snip>
[color=blue]
> What now happens is that after the post request dbaction is set but always
> is an empty string instead of having the value "change".[/color]

<snip>

got to be something silly. Start with this reality chec. Hardcode the
doAction(actn) to set

document.forms[0].dbaction.value = 'realitycheck';

If it still comes back empty, do a var_dump($_POST ) and see what did come
back, and find your mistake that way.

If it does show up as 'realitycheck', you are not passing what you think to
doAction().

Hope this helps.

--
Kenneth Downs
Secure Data Software, Inc.
(Ken)nneth@(Sec )ure(Dat)a(.com )

[Thomas Hoheneder]

Re: Problem with delivering POST variable

> document.forms[0].dbaction.value = 'realitycheck';[color=blue]
>
> If it still comes back empty, do a var_dump($_POST ) and see what did come
> back, and find your mistake that way.[/color]

Now I have set a hard coded value ("realitycheck" ) like above and after that
the line
alert(document. forms[0].dbaction.value );
to get an alert box with the value of dbaction. It always shows -
correctly - "realityche ck". Furthermore I have given my hidden field a
default value:
<input type="hidden" name="dbaction" value="defaultv alue">
And I have also built in var_dump($_POST ). But after recall of mypage.php
always the default value "defaultval ue" is shown in the var_dump($_POST ) and
not the exprected value "realityche ck".
So it still doesn't work (field gets delivered but with wrong value). Do you
have any idea how to fix this?
I can't believe that I cannot deliver field values by php which are set by
javascript.
Thanks in advance.

Nice greetings from
Thomas

[Kenneth Downs]

Re: Problem with delivering POST variable

Thomas Hoheneder wrote:
[color=blue][color=green]
>> document.forms[0].dbaction.value = 'realitycheck';
>>
>> If it still comes back empty, do a var_dump($_POST ) and see what did come
>> back, and find your mistake that way.[/color]
>
> Now I have set a hard coded value ("realitycheck" ) like above and after
> that the line
> alert(document. forms[0].dbaction.value );
> to get an alert box with the value of dbaction. It always shows -
> correctly - "realityche ck". Furthermore I have given my hidden field a
> default value:
> <input type="hidden" name="dbaction" value="defaultv alue">
> And I have also built in var_dump($_POST ). But after recall of mypage.php
> always the default value "defaultval ue" is shown in the var_dump($_POST )
> and not the exprected value "realityche ck".
> So it still doesn't work (field gets delivered but with wrong value). Do
> you have any idea how to fix this?
> I can't believe that I cannot deliver field values by php which are set by
> javascript.
> Thanks in advance.
>
> Nice greetings from
> Thomas[/color]

Continuing with reality check mode, we should probably strip this down to
the bare essentials. Create a php file that has only this:

----------- FILE:test.php ----------------
<script>
function doAction() {
ob("var1").valu e = "ran_doActi on";
ob("reality").s ubmit();
}

function ob(oname) {
if (document.getEl ementById)
return document.getEle mentById(oname) ;
else if (document.all)
return document.all[name];
}
</script>
<form name="reality" id="reality" method="post" action="test.ph p">
<input type="hidden" name="var1" id="var1" value="default" >
<input type="hidden" name="var2" id="var2" value="leavemea lone">
<button type="button" onclick="doActi on();">Test me</button>
</form>
<?php
if(isset($_POST["var1"])) { var_dump($_POST ); }
?>
----------- END FILE:test.php ----------------

Notice every object has both an id and a name, this is for compatibility,
and the function "ob" allows you to quickly refer to anything on the page.
Don't worry about the doctype declaration, <body> or <html> or any of that
stuff.

Bring this up and click the button a few times. Once you get this working,
compare it to your own code and find the differences.

--
Kenneth Downs
Secure Data Software, Inc.
(Ken)nneth@(Sec )ure(Dat)a(.com )