[Resolved] Form passes all vars but submit var!

dartcol

Slightly strange behaviour going on here so hopefully someone can shed some light. Here's the form:

<fieldset>
<legend>Create a new section:</legend>
<form action="<?php echo $_SERVER['PHP_SELF']; ?>" method="POST">

<label for="New Chapter">New Section Title</label>
<input type="text" name="newch" id="New Chapter" /><br />

<input type="hidden" name="num" value="<?php echo $_POST['num']; ?>" class="hidden" />
<input type="hidden" name="type" value="<?php echo $_POST['type']; ?>" class="hidden" />

<input type="submit" name="submit_new_chapter" value="Create New Section" title="create new section" class="submit" />
</form>
</fieldset>

The action to the form is called depending on the name in the submit.

    // New chapter required for text?
    if (isset($_POST['submit_new_chapter'])) {
        include '../../inc/lib/usercp_edit_3bb.php';
    }

This includes a file in the central edit page that inserts, deletes etc but only does this on condition that $_POST['submit_new_chapter']) is set.

However, now and again - and that's the weird thing - the following page comes up blank. After running a check on all variables being passed to the final include, on the occasion that there is a blank page, there are no variables being passed, therefore $_POST['submit_new_chapter']) is not being found by the central edit page.

So, the problem appears to be with the form sometimes sending the submit and other vars and sometimes just sending the vars (something I thought couldn't happen until I saw it with my own eyes!)

If anyone has any idea as to why this might happen, then please let me know. I'm bemused, bothered and definitely bewildered. But I'm sure it's something blatantly obvious!
Cheers.

nemonoman

What you're describing (i.e., any or all variables being submitted except $_POST[ 'submit_new_chapter']) can't happen (at least not repeatably). It would be all or nothing.

There's something flaky with your connection with the server, IMO.

To prove the point, use the method GET instead of POST for testing. That way, you can look at the variables in the URL assembled by the form.

dartcol

I'm testing locally: PHP 4.3/Apache 2/MySQL 4

I placed a foreach(); query at the top of the page to cough up all the vars at each stage. At the end point, ie when it goes to the insert file it it listed nine times out of ten:

newch: chapter 2
num: 9
type: po
submit_new_chapter: Create New Section

Yet, occasionally it was:

newch: chapter 2
num: 9
type: po

Bizarre.

dartcol

Well, it seems that it was IE after all. I wasn't having the problems with Mozilla. After putting: header("Cache-control: private"); in the header everything worked. If someone can give a layman's explanation, I'd be appreciative. I get that IE prevents the form from essentially replying to itself by not caching the information but why pass the vars and not the submit, or is that the catch? That it will pass the vars and not the submit? Hmm, wish I'd done Computer Science instead of English at university. Far more useful. :bemused:

[Edit]
Ah-hah! http://www.php.net/manual/en/function.session-cache-limiter.php

dartcol

In case anyone is interested in this, you cna find out a decent explanation at: http://www.mnot.net/cache_docs/

If I can understand it, then so can you! One question though: do I need to set a max age for the cahced request so that the information can't be submitted a second time or am I veering off the path (again)?