Inserting form results into a Postgres database

[rhofing]

Hello all, I am taking a PHP course at our local college. I am trying to insert the results of a form into a database.

Once the form is filled out I want to program the onClick event of the Save button and call a function to do the insert. I know that I have to use pg_exec() (along with the insert query) but I do not know how to perform this when the Save button is clicked.

Maybe using the onClick event is not the best way? Can someone point me to a code sample that demonstrates the best best way to do this?

Thanks to everyone for their kind help.

Ric

[shu]

I think you are confused between server-side and client-side scripting. As javascript, your onClick event is on the client-side, and your insertion into the database is on the server-side. These two functionalities can not interact with each other.

You must use the POST or GET method of your form to feed the variables to php (server-side), and do your postgres insert there!

[rhofing]

Thanks shu. Can you point me to sample code that shows this being done? (ie inserting the contents of a form into the database)?

Ric

[shu]

if ($_SERVER['REQUEST_METHOD'] == 'POST') {
   //Establish DB connection
   $conn = pg_Connect("host=$hostIP user=$username password=$password dbname=$dbname");
  //Prepare your insert query
  $query_string = "INSERT INTO $tableName(col1,col2...) VALUES($var1, $var2...)";
  //Execute query
  $result = pg_exec($conn, $query_string);
  //You might wanna check the $result to see if it's successful...
}

[rhofing]

thanks again shu, that code is very clear. Can you tell me one more thing? Where would this code go in the page?

Ric

[shu]

This code should be placed at the very top of the page where the action of your form points to! Let say you started your form like:

<form name="myform" method="post" action="processform.php">

Then the code would be in processform.php. I personally like the action of the form be the same file, that is:

<form name="myform" method="post" action="<?php echo $_SERVER['PHP_SELF']; ?>">

This way, you don't have to joggle between multiple files!

[rhofing]

hi shu, putting the code in another file makes sense. You say that personally you like to keep it in the same file where the form is; I am not certain how your form action points to the code though, could you elaborate?

Regards,

Ric

[shu]

If you notice the if statement:

if ($_SERVER['REQUEST_METHOD'] == 'POST') 

that will guarantee the code to be executed ONLY when the request method is an POST from a form (that's when you press the submit button). All the variables in your form are then 'posted' to the url you specified in the form action; and making them available to the php engine as php variables.

[rhofing]

I think this will be enough to get me going. Thanks again shu, you have been very helpful.

Best regards,

Ric