Submit sometimes doesn't work, Too much to submit to database?

Cherphas

Hi,

I created a form on a website to enter specific types documents in a database. The documents are in Word format and usually contains definitions divided by sections. Basically, the forms I created lets you add the number of sections you need, then the number of definitions for each sections, and then I am able to copy and paste every thing in it's respective text box(is there an easier/faster to do all this btw?) So you would be able to add a doc like this:

Section 1: <text field>
def 1.1 <text field>
def 1.2 <text field>
def 1.3 <text field>

Section 2: <text field>
def 2.1 <text field>
def 2.2 <text field>
def 2.3 <text field>

  etc.

Everything works fine. I enter the info, I click "Submit to database" and everthing goes into it's respective tables/cells, but only when there is not much info...

Sometimes theres is lots in a doc, like 10 sections and 10 to 20 definitions for each and the definitions can be long. If I fill up ALL the text field and click submit, nothing happens. It doesn't freeze or anything, but all the button including the submit button don't seem to work. It's as if there is too much info to send. This can be frustrating for someone who took 15 minutes to copy and paste all the info and then cannot send it to the database.

Does anybody know why this happens and how I can stop it from happening? Is there a limit of text that can be sent at one time?

common_ground

Are you using get or post in your form tag I think you can send a lot more using post then get

coditoergosum

There isn't a specific limitation within php, or even the http protocol that says you can only upload so much info... but, there are a few different things that could be causing it. PHP has a script maximum execution time ( set in the php.ini file). It might be happening in the database too. It could also be that the user's internet connection is slow (56k or less), and they're trying to submit a meg or so of data. Obviously this is going to take a long time over 56k, and it would give the impression that something just isn't working.

You'll probably need to do some more testing to find the problem. I'd start by writing a script that just took the input from your form and dumped it onto a page. Then try submitting a ton of data and see what it does (give it enough time to run). If that works, then it could be a problem with your db. If it doesn't work... do more testing. At that point I'd split the script up into parts that would write the first bit of data to a text file before moving on to the next. Then you can look at the text files it wrote to see exactly how much data is making it to the server... The point is, you're going to have to dig in and do some testing. There isn't a simple answer to it.

common_ground

There might not be a specific limit but I had the exact same problem with a form using get with a lot of text. I messed around with the content and found that as I took more text away It would work. In the end I found that there was a maximum number of characters that the form would take. It was not a case of the script timing out it was like cherphas said you click on the button and nothing happens at all.

I was using explorer 6. I changed the form from get to post and it worked straight away.

coditoergosum

Certainly you're using method="post", right? If you're using GET then that'd definitely the problem. I just assumed that you'd be using POST for a form like this.

stolzyboy

yeah using get would be senseless in this case since the url can only handle so many characters and then trying to push a whole crap load of text through

ereptur

GET has a limit to the length that the URL can be, so definitely use POST.

Even then, PHP DOES HAVE A LIMIT to the amount of data that can be posted at a time. It is defined in the php.ini as post_max_size and is set to 8M by default. Also, PHP has a defined max_input_time which defines the amount of time that PHP can spend parsing request data (in otherwords, your GETs, POSTs, COOKIEs, and SESSIONs) before it times out. This is set to 60 seconds by default.