Question

I have a hidden input field that I fill with some arbitrary value using jquery such that:

function foo() {
    // Obtains the contents of a div within the current page
    var $elem = $("#something").html();
    // Places the contents of the div into a hidden input field
    $("#hidden").val($elem);
}

In debugging the thing, I can see that the elem variable obtains the html from within the desired div, but not whether the variable is passed to the hidden input field value.

I have a form:

<form method="POST" action="file.php" target="_blank">
    <input id="hidden" type="hidden" value=""/>
    <input type="submit" onmouseover="foo()" value="Download"/>
</form>

That upon submission executes the file.php:

<?php
    $html = $_POST["hidden"];
    echo $html;
?>

The echo call returns nothing, and all I get is a blank page. I am wondering why the value of the hidden input field is not being changed, or why it is not being passed during the POST call.

Some further experimentation revealed that even if I set the value of the hidden field with some random value:

<input id="hidden" type="hidden" value="Some Value"/> 

it is still not obtained during the execution of the PHP file. The echo call returns nothing. What is the problem with my obtaining the value of this hidden input field? I have worked very sparingly with PHP but in the past have not had issue with obtaining values from a form upon POST submission.

Answer 1

You need to have a name for your input field in order to access it in php with $_POST

<input id="hidden" name="hidden" type="hidden" value=""/>