POST variable without a name?

TruckStuff

I have been tasked with writing a script to grab information from an external data source. From the technical docs:

Data will be delivered in an HTTP POST request to the specified URL.

Problem is that no one I have talked to seems to know the NAME of the variable? I was under the impression that a POST variable had to have a name to be identified by the script. Is this incorrect? If not, how can I access the data being sent to my script? TIA.

stolzyboy

yeah that would probably be helpful, how are you gonna access

$_POST['variablename']

if you don't know the variablename

Weedpacket

Get something posted to the URL, then print_r($_POST) to see what it contains; that should give you the name(s) being used (what they're being used for is another matter entirely, of course; so you'll still need to talk to whoever's posting the stuff after all).

stolzyboy

or try this

<?php
if(isset($HTTP_POST_VARS))
{
while(list($var, $val) = each($HTTP_POST_VARS))
{
echo "$var<br>";
}
}
?>

TruckStuff

That's more-or-less what I'm doing right now, stolzyboy. Its telling me that nothing is being passed.

Question about print_r: My host is only using PHP4.2.0 and the return paramaeter that I would need to use to send the data in an email was not added until 4.3. According to PHP.net, I can redirect the output using the output control functions, but I can't garner anything useful from teh man pages on those functions. Any guidance?

Weedpacket

print_r would do just what stolzyboy's code would do - only with more detail (it would list field values as well as names).

I still say you should be talking to whoever is supplying the external data.

stolzyboy

yeah what kind of outfit is sending you data but doesn't know how it is getting there