Question

Hi just looking for some direction, I have a HTML form which has several fields and basically what I am wanting to do is save the data entered from the form to a PHP config file and also have the ability to edit the saved data by accessing and submitting the form again. I would prefer to do this without the use of a database.

So here’s an example:

<form method="post" name="config_form">
<div id="field">
<label>Keywords</label>
<br />
<input type="text" name="keyword">
</div>

<br />

<select name="color">
<option value="green">Green</option>
<option value="orange">Orange</option>
<option value="blue">Blue</option>
<option value="red">Red</option>
</select>

</form>

So the user enters ‘computer’ as the keyword and selects the color ‘blue’. I want to then save this data into my config.php file as variables allowing my other website pages to access this data. Should this all be in an array as well?

<?php
//config file
$keyword = "computer";
$color = "blue";

?>

Also when I go back access the form again can I make it so the fields are prefilled with the data from the config.php file?

Any help would be much appreciated thank you!

Answer 1

You can include your configuration file in your main php script file:

// main.php
<? php include("config.php"); ?>

and build the form with something like this:

// main.php
<?php
?>
    <form method="post" name="config_form">
        <div id="field">
            <label>Keywords</label>
            <br />
            <input type="text" name="keyword">
        </div>

        <br />

        <select name="color">
            <option value="green" <? if ($color == "green") echo "SELECTED"; ?> >Green</option>
            <option value="orange" <? if ($color == "orange") echo "SELECTED"; ?> >Orange</option>
            <option value="blue" <? if ($color == "blue") echo "SELECTED"; ?> >Blue</option>
            <option value="red" <? if ($color == "red") echo "SELECTED"; ?> >Red</option>
        </select>

</form>
<?
?>

finally you can save the form data in your config.php file using fopen() and fwrite() functions on form submit:

$key = $_POST["key"];
$color = $_POST["color"];

if ($key != '' && $color != '') {
    $f = fopen('config.php', 'w') or die("can't open file");
    fwrite($f, '<?php $keyword=' . $key . ';$color=' . $color . ';?>');
    fclose($f);
} else { // write default values or show an error message }