Using PHP With HTML Forms
It is time to apply the knowledge you have obtained
thus far and put it to real use. A very common application of PHP
is to have an HTML form gather information from a website's visitor and then use
PHP to do process that information. In this lesson
we will simulate a small business's website that is implementing
a very simple order form.
Imagine we are an art supply store that
sells brushes, paint, and erasers. To gather order information
from our prospective customers we will have to make a page with an HTML form
to gather the customer's order.
Note: This is an oversimplified example to educate you how to
use PHP to process HTML form information. This example
is not intended nor advised to be used on a real business website.
Creating the HTML Form
If you need a refresher on how to properly make an HTML form,
check out the HTML Form
Lesson before continuing on.
We first create an HTML form that will let our customer choose
what they would like to purchase. This file should be saved
as "order.html" .
order.html Code:
<html><body>
<h4>Tizag Art Supply Order Form</h4>
<form>
<select>
<option>Paint</option>
<option>Brushes</option>
<option>Erasers</option>
</select>
Quantity: <input type="text" />
<input type="submit" />
</form>
</body></html>
Display:
Tizag Art Supply Order Form
Remember to review HTML Forms
if you do not understand any of the above HTML code. Next we must alter
our HTML form to specify the PHP page we wish to send this information to. Also,
we set the method to "post".
order.html Code:
<html><body>
<h4>Tizag Art Supply Order Form</h4>
<form action="process.php" method="post">
<select name="item">
<option>Paint</option>
<option>Brushes</option>
<option>Erasers</option>
</select>
Quantity: <input name="quantity" type="text" />
<input type="submit" />
</form>
</body></html>
Now that our "order.html" is complete, let us continue on and
create the "process.php" file which will process the HTML form information.
PHP Form Processor
We want to get the "item" and "quantity" inputs that we have specified
in our HTML form. Using an associative array (this term is explained in the array lesson),
we can get this information from the $_POST associative array.
The proper way to get this information would be to create two new variables, $item
and $quantity and set them equal to the values that have been "posted". The name
of this file is "process.php".
process.php Code:
<html><body>
<?php
$quantity = $_POST['quantity'];
$item = $_POST['item'];
echo "You ordered ". $quantity . " " . $item . ".<br />";
echo "Thank you for ordering from Tizag Art Supplies!";
?>
</body></html>
As you probably noticed, the name in $_POST['name'] corresponds
to the name that we specified in our HTML form.
Now try uploading the "order.html" and "process.php" files to a PHP
enabled server and test them out. If someone selected the item brushes
and specified a quantity of 6, then the following
would be displayed on "process.php":
process.php Code:
You ordered 6 brushes.
Thank you for ordering from Tizag Art Supplies!
PHP & HTML Form Review
A lot of things were going on in this example. Let us step through
it to be sure you understand what was going on.
- We first created an HTML form "order.html" that had two input fields
specified, "item" and "quantity".
- We added two attributes to the form tag to point to "process.php" and
set the method to "post".
- We had "process.php" get the information that was posted
by setting new variables equal to the values in the $_POST associative array.
- We used the PHP echo function to output the customers order.
Remember, this lesson is only to teach you how to use PHP to get information
from HTML forms. The example on this page should not be used for a real business.
Download Tizag.com's PHP Book
If you would rather download the PDF of this tutorial, check out our
PHP eBook from the Tizag.com store.
Print it out, write all over it, post your favorite lessons all over your wall! Found Something Wrong in this Lesson?Report a Bug or Comment on This Lesson - Your input is what keeps Tizag improving with time! | 
