GET method of a FORM

quanghoc

When do do like this:
<FORM method=get action="somefile.php?para=something">
The $para parameter won't appear in somefile.php as a variable, but it will happen if I use POST method though? How can I fix this? Without having to use <INPUT type=hidden name=para value=something>

sarahk

😕 Why the resistance to using a hidden field?
Post forms are better too as the data posted isn't visible in the url and the data can be any length.

bad_goose

Yeah, use a hidden input on the form. What's wrong with that?

quanghoc

But can you explain why there such a behaviour like this of PHP?

Rayn

well I am not to sure but I would take it as the "action" is hte direction string and the "input" are the variable strings..

MrAlaska

That is odd behavior. The only way I can see you avoiding using a hidden form is to name your button para and giving it the value you want to pass. That option might be more annoying to you than hidden form.

For a reason, I can only surmise that it is because the Get method works by putting a question mark at the end of the URL, and it isn't smart enought to recognize your question mark and change itself into an ampersand so it just rips it out.

I have done this successfully in either JSP or ASP (can't remember), so it isn't all servers that act this way.

yelvington

There is nothing unusual in this regard about PHP. Quanhoc, your question is puzzling -- there is nothing to "fix," as it is how the Web works.

The action of a POST form may be a URL that contains encoded arguments.

When it receives such a request, PHP processes POST, GET, and other inputs separately, and makes them available separately as the POST[], GET[], and other superarrays.

You may do anything you wish with the transmitted information. If you want to ignore the GET information, ignore it. If you want to process it, process it.

If PHP is configured with register_globals enabled (which is NOT the default in current issues, for security reasons), the various externally passed variables are copied into regular global variables. If there is a collision, the default behavior is that POST variables override identical GET variables. See the section of the manual that describes the php.ini file for more information.