Posting XML from hidden field

rcbasie

Hi people.

I want to be able to embed some XML into a hidden form field, and have it appear in my PHP page complete with tags etc. For example:

In the HTML code:
<input type="hidden" name="xmlstuff" value="<thing><widget>widget1</widget><widget>widget2</widget></thing>" />

Which should appear on the server as:
$_POST ['xmlstuff'] = <thing><widget>widget1</widget><widget>widget2</widget></thing>

At the moment my browser is displaying the data in the XML, and the post doesn't work! Is there a little trick i can use here?

thanx in advance.
Robin

matto

At the moment my browser is displaying the data in the XML, and the post doesn't work! Is there a little trick i can use here?

the xml is in the page source. however the browser ignores unknown tags - it jost doesn't display them.

in order to make the xml code visible, do:

$xml = htmlspecialchars($xml);

but keep in mind that the data has been posted correctly anyway! it's just the browser display which doesn't work. I mean, if you want wo write valid xml to a file (or database), don't do the htmlspecialchars! do it for display only.

rcbasie

Thanks for your help, matto!

I think i've sorteds this one out, you're right about my browser confusing things. Also, i dont think i explained the question very well. What i mean, is that the XML must be hidden, i'm using the XML as a kind of control field to pass information between sucessive posts to the same PHP page. When i put 'raw' XML into the value of the hidden field, my browser was displaying the XML (minus the tags, as you said) which i dont want it to. The answer is to URL encode the output, then urldecode the input. Here is some test code to illustrate:

<?php
/**
 *This page to test is a bunch of XML can be posted to a server from a hidden form
 *field (please, let it be!)
 */
?>
<html>
<head><title>XML posting test - will it work!</title>
</head>
<body>
<?php
	echo echo_post_vars();
	$xmlval = urlencode("<consultants><consultant cons_id=\"220\"><specialty>Accident and Emergency</specialty>
<title>Dr</title><fnames>Robin</fnames><snames>Harvey</snames><sex>M</sex>
<quals>FRCSEd(A&amp;E),FFAEM</quals><year_qual>1986</year_qual><where_qual>UWI</where_qual>
<e_mail>rcbasie@netscape.net</e_mail></consultant></consultants>");
?>
<p>Click the button below to post, the post variables will be echoed out to your browser
</p>
<form action="xmlposttest.php" method="post">
<input type="hidden" name="xmlpoststuff" value="<?php echo $xmlval ?>" />
<input type="hidden" name="test" value="test">
<input type="submit" />
</form>
</body>
</html>
<?php
/** 
 *This is a test function to echo out the recieved post vars.
 */
function echo_post_vars()
{
	if (is_array($_POST)) {
		foreach($_POST as $key => $value) {
			echo "<i>$key = " . urldecode($value) ."</i><br>";
		}
	}
	else {
		echo "<i>\$_POST = $_POST<br></i>";
	}
}
?>

When i post to this page, the call to echo_post_vars() echoes out the XML exactly as i want it, albeit with the tags removed. By looking at the source, i can tell that the PHP page on the server is getting the XML as i intended it from the URL encoded source.

thanks once again for your help

Robin