Question

I am new to php and need to understand how post get method could be useful for my code. My scenario is, I have 3 webpages, 1st webpage is an html form , I am using post method here then I take firstname and last name from form and enter in a sql query(for e.g. $_POST[firstname]) on 2nd webpage which generates some data for me and I am printing that data.

Now I need to pass same parameters to 3rd page which generates some graph based on firstname and lastname entered in 1st HTML form?

How can I persist these values on 3rd php page? I am referencing url for page 3 on page and I believe that is not sufficient, I tried Google search and found out post get could be useful however need some expert advice.

Thanks

Answer 1

You can use something like this:

1st page (page1.php)

<form action="page2.php" method="post">
    <input type="text" name="firstname" value="" />
    <input type="text" name="lastname" value="" />
    <input type="submit" value="Submit" />
</form>

2nd (page2.php)

Retrieve and validate $_POST['firstname'] and $_POST['lastname'], then create an output with your required data, you can use hidden fields or create links, according your needs. For instance:

$firstname = $_POST['firstname'];
$lastname  = $_POST['lastname'];

// Output with links can pass data by GET method
echo '<a href="page3.php?firstname='.$firstname.'&lastname='.$lastname.'"></a>';

// Output with hidden fields, you can use POST or GET method or even Javascript/Ajax
echo '
<form action="page3.php" method="get">
    <input type="hidden" name="firstname" value="'.$firstname.'" />
    <input type="hidden" name="lastname" value="'.$lastname.'" />
    <input type="submit" value="Submit" />
</form>';

3rd page (page3.php)

If you use the solution with a link or with a form with GET method, you can retrieve the data in page3.php just doing the following:

$firstname = $_GET['firstname'];
$lastname  = $_GET['lastname'];

Hope it can help you!