Submitting a form, via PHP

Chris_Evans

Hi there,
I'm trying to write a script which displays to the user a form, of which they enter details and click submit. The submit button then forces php to submit those details via a form on another web site, which then returns the result, and then displays what I want it to display.

How would I go about doing the submission through php?

Chris

poison

submit button then forces php to submit those details via a form

erm...the browser submits the Form...
if you want parts of a different webpage in yours...i.e. you want results from google displayed direcly in your page...you write a script that does a HTTP GET based on the data from your form, fetch it and parse the stuff you want from that page...
this and much more can be achieved with socket programming...
have fun =D

Chris_Evans

Yes I realise, but I actually want to post the result to another site via mine.

Chris_Evans

Thinking about it, is it possible to POST data via SOCKETS?

poison

well...If you could provide us with a little more in depth description what your up to....maybe I can answer
regards

Chris_Evans

Ok, a corporate web site of which we, as a company, are supposed to use to check another persons line for compatability for a particular product, that's no problem, but we'd like to customise it (no worries in terms of use etc, they're happy with it).

Customer opens company web site.
Customer clicks on check compatability.
A form opens, they put in their telephone number.
Telephone number is submitted.

My script then takes the telephone number and submits the details via POST to the right url.

The result returned from this is then checked... I continue from here.

Thanks in advance,

Chris

poison

this would work with sockets...
but why not use some interfaces PHP already provides...like XML-RPC (http://zend.com/zend/tut/tut-xml-rpc-client.php)...or SOAP...
regards

Weedpacket

You can use sockets (of course - that's the industry standard for machine communication); there are examples on (I think it is) the fsockopen() page. But remember that you'll have to do all the form encoding and http yourself (fsockopen and the socket functions only give you the socket - it's your job to do protocol). Alternatively you could (install and) use the protocol wrappers provided by the [man]cURL[/man] functions.

You could use XML-RPC or related protocols, but that assumes that the server at the other end can be made to cooperate and use the same protocol. If you're writing what happens on the other server as well then it offers a number of advantages.

Chris_Evans

Hi there,
Thanks both. It appears as though I'll be using sockets, looks simpler to me.

Thanks,

Chris