How to avoid re-posting data

zzz

I have a simple page with a form for data input.

if ($_POST['message'] != '') {

  // store message into my db

}

<form action='thispage.php' method=post>
   <textarea rows=5 name=message></textarea>
   <input type=submit value='Add Comment'>
</form>

The problem is is I submit data and then click reload page the message gets re-entered into the db again, because the browser "can not be refreshed without re-sending the information".

How can I avoid this?

Mgccl

how about give that form a session like $SESSION['posted'] = 0; and when the time you put things in db, change $SESSION['posted'] = 1;
and then put something like

if ($_SESSION['posted'] == 1){
   echo 'you have already posted data';
   exit;
}

before the query DB thing.

zzz

That's definitely an option. I'm really not sure though why I have to do that...

shonuff

A better solution would be to perform a redirect after the form data is posted. On the page that does the form processing, after everthing is inserted into the database, just put this in your code...

header("Location: commentpage.php");
exit;

You can even put in a message to confirm the data was entered correctly.

header("Location: commentpage.php");
$_SESSION["messages"] = "Your comment has been successfully added.";
exit;

zzz

Well, I already have a large number of pages... Just trying to keep related things together.

zzz

Yes, after consideration, I decided to implement redirect version. Thanks.