PHP Form Handling
The PHP superglobals $_GET and $_POST are used to collect form-data.
PHP - A Simple HTML Form
The example below displays a simple HTML form with two input fields and a
submit button:
Example
<html>
<body>
<form action="welcome.php" method="POST">
Name: <input type="text" name="name"><br>
E-mail: <input type="text" name="email"><br>
<input type="submit">
</form>
</body>
</html>
When the user fills out the form above and clicks the submit button, the form
data is sent for processing to a PHP file named "welcome.php". The form data is
sent with the HTTP POST method.
To display the submitted data you could simply echo all the variables.
The "welcome.php" looks like this:
<html>
<body>
Welcome <?php echo $_POST["name"]; ?><br>
Your email address is: <?php echo $_POST["email"]; ?>
</body>
</html>
The output could be something like this:
Welcome John
Your email address is john.doe@example.com
The same result could also be achieved using the HTTP GET method:
Example
Same example, but the method is set to GET instead of POST:
<html>
<body>
<form action="welcome_get.php" method="GET">
Name: <input type="text" name="name"><br>
E-mail: <input type="text" name="email"><br>
<input type="submit">
</form>
</body>
</html>
and "welcome_get.php" looks like this:
<html>
<body>
Welcome <?php echo $_GET["name"]; ?><br>
Your email address is: <?php echo $_GET["email"]; ?>
</body>
</html>
The code above is quite simple, and it does not include any validation.
You need to validate form data to protect your script from malicious code.
Think SECURITY when processing PHP forms!
This page does not contain any form validation, it just shows how you can send
and retrieve form data.
However, the next pages will show how to process PHP forms with security in
mind! Proper validation of form data is important to protect your form from
hackers and spammers!
GET vs. POST
Both GET and POST create an array (e.g. array( key1 => value1, key2 =>
value2, key3 => value3, ...)). This array holds key/value pairs, where keys are
the names of the form controls and values are the input data from the user.
Both GET and POST are treated as $_GET and $_POST. These are superglobals,
which means that they are always accessible, regardless of scope - and you can
access them from any function, class or file without having to do anything
special.
$_GET is an array of variables passed to the current script via the URL
parameters.
$_POST is an array of variables passed to the current script via the HTTP POST
method.
When to use GET?
Information sent from a form with the GET method is visible to everyone (all
variable names and values are displayed in the URL). GET also has limits on the
amount of information to send. The limitation is about 2000 characters.
However, because the variables are displayed in the URL, it is possible to
bookmark the page. This can be useful in some cases.
GET may be used for sending non-sensitive data.
Note: GET should NEVER be used for sending passwords or other sensitive
information!
When to use POST?
Information sent from a form with the POST method is invisible to others (all
names/values are embedded within the body of the HTTP request) and has no
limits on the amount of information to send.
Moreover POST supports advanced functionality such as support for multi-part
binary input while uploading files to server.
However, because the variables are not displayed in the URL, it is not possible
to bookmark the page.
Developers prefer POST for sending form data.
PHP Form Validation
Think SECURITY when processing PHP forms!
These pages will show how to process PHP forms with security in mind. Proper
validation of form data is important to protect your form from hackers and
spammers!
The HTML form we will be working at in these chapters, contains various input
fields: required and optional text fields, radio buttons, and a submit button:
The validation rules for the form above are as follows:
Field Validation Rules
Name Required. + Must only contain letters and whitespace
E-mail Required. + Must contain a valid email address (with @ and .)
Website Optional. If present, it must contain a valid URL
Comment Optional. Multi-line input field (textarea)
Gender Required. Must select one
First we will look at the plain HTML code for the form:
Text Fields
The name, email, and website fields are text input elements, and the comment
field is a textarea.
The HTML code looks like this:
Name: <input type="text" name="name">
E-mail: <input type="text" name="email">
Website: <input type="text" name="website">
Comment: <textarea name="comment" rows="5" cols="40"></textarea>
Radio Buttons
The gender fields are radio buttons and the HTML code looks like this:
Gender:
<input type="radio" name="gender" value="female">Female
<input type="radio" name="gender" value="male">Male
<input type="radio" name="gender" value="other">Other
The Form Element
The HTML code of the form looks like this:
<form method="post" action="<?php echo
htmlspecialchars($_SERVER["PHP_SELF"]);?>">
When the form is submitted, the form data is sent with method="post".
What is the $_SERVER["PHP_SELF"] variable?
The $_SERVER["PHP_SELF"] is a super global variable that returns the filename
of the currently executing script.
So, the $_SERVER["PHP_SELF"] sends the submitted form data to the page
itself, instead of jumping to a different page. This way, the user will get error
messages on the same page as the form.
What is the htmlspecialchars() function?
The htmlspecialchars() function converts special characters into HTML
entities. This means that it will replace HTML characters
like < and > with < and >. This prevents attackers from exploiting the
code by injecting HTML or Javascript code (Cross-site Scripting attacks) in forms.
Warning!
The $_SERVER["PHP_SELF"] variable can be used by hackers!
If PHP_SELF is used in your page then a user can enter a slash / and then some
Cross Site Scripting (XSS) commands to execute.
Cross-site scripting (XSS) is a type of computer security vulnerability
typically found in Web applications. XSS enables attackers to inject
client-side script into Web pages viewed by other users.
Assume we have the following form in a page named "test_form.php":
<form method="post" action="<?php echo $_SERVER["PHP_SELF"];?>">
Now, if a user enters the normal URL in the address bar like
"http://www.example.com/test_form.php", the above code will be translated to:
<form method="post" action="test_form.php">
So far, so good.
However, consider that a user enters the following URL in the address bar:
http://www.example.com/test_form.php/%22%3E%3Cscript
%3Ealert('hacked')%3C/script%3E
In this case, the above code will be translated to:
<form method="post"
action="test_form.php/"><script>alert('hacked')</script>
This code adds a script tag and an alert command. And when the page loads,
the JavaScript code will be executed (the user will see an alert box). This is just
a simple and harmless example how the PHP_SELF variable can be exploited.
Be aware of that any JavaScript code can be added inside the <script>
tag! A hacker can redirect the user to a file on another server, and that file can
hold malicious code that can alter the global variables or submit the form to
another address to save the user data, for example.
How To Avoid $_SERVER["PHP_SELF"]
Exploits?
$_SERVER["PHP_SELF"] exploits can be avoided by using
the htmlspecialchars() function.
The form code should look like this:
<form method="post" action="<?php echo
htmlspecialchars($_SERVER["PHP_SELF"]);?>">
The htmlspecialchars() function converts special characters to HTML
entities. Now if the user tries to exploit the PHP_SELF variable, it will result in the
following output:
<form method="post"
action="test_form.php/"><script>alert('hacked')</
script>">
The exploit attempt fails, and no harm is done!
Validate Form Data With PHP
The first thing we will do is to pass all variables through
PHP's htmlspecialchars() function.
When we use the htmlspecialchars() function; then if a user tries to submit
the following in a text field:
<script>location.href('http://www.hacked.com')</script>
- this would not be executed, because it would be saved as HTML escaped code,
like this:
<script>location.href('http://www.hacked.com')</script>
The code is now safe to be displayed on a page or inside an e-mail.
We will also do two more things when the user submits the form:
1. Strip unnecessary characters (extra space, tab, newline) from the user
input data (with the PHP trim() function)
2. Remove backslashes \ from the user input data (with the
PHP stripslashes() function)
The next step is to create a function that will do all the checking for us (which is
much more convenient than writing the same code over and over again).
We will name the function test_input().
Now, we can check each $_POST variable with the test_input() function, and
the script looks like this:
Example
// define variables and set to empty values
$name = $email = $gender = $comment = $website = "";
if ($_SERVER["REQUEST_METHOD"] == "POST") {
$name = test_input($_POST["name"]);
$email = test_input($_POST["email"]);
$website = test_input($_POST["website"]);
$comment = test_input($_POST["comment"]);
$gender = test_input($_POST["gender"]);
function test_input($data) {
$data = trim($data);
$data = stripslashes($data);
$data = htmlspecialchars($data);
return $data;
Notice that at the start of the script, we check whether the form has been
submitted using $_SERVER["REQUEST_METHOD"]. If
the REQUEST_METHOD is POST, then the form has been submitted - and it should
be validated. If it has not been submitted, skip the validation and display a blank
form.
However, in the example above, all input fields are optional. The script works
fine even if the user does not enter any data.
PHP - Required Fields
From the validation rules table on the previous page, we see that the "Name",
"E-mail", and "Gender" fields are required. These fields cannot be empty and
must be filled out in the HTML form.
Field Validation Rules
Name Required. + Must only contain letters and whitespace
E-mail Required. + Must contain a valid email address (with @ and .)
Website Optional. If present, it must contain a valid URL
Comment Optional. Multi-line input field (textarea)
Gender Required. Must select one
In the previous chapter, all input fields were optional.
In the following code we have added some new
variables: $nameErr, $emailErr, $genderErr, and $websiteErr. These error variables
will hold error messages for the required fields. We have also added an if
else statement for each $_POST variable. This checks if the $_POST variable is
empty (with the PHP empty() function). If it is empty, an error message is stored
in the different error variables, and if it is not empty, it sends the user input data
through the test_input() function:
// define variables and set to empty values
$nameErr = $emailErr = $genderErr = $websiteErr = "";
$name = $email = $gender = $comment = $website = "";
if ($_SERVER["REQUEST_METHOD"] == "POST") {
if (empty($_POST["name"])) {
$nameErr = "Name is required";
} else {
$name = test_input($_POST["name"]);
if (empty($_POST["email"])) {
$emailErr = "Email is required";
} else {
$email = test_input($_POST["email"]);
if (empty($_POST["website"])) {
$website = "";
} else {
$website = test_input($_POST["website"]);
if (empty($_POST["comment"])) {
$comment = "";
} else {
$comment = test_input($_POST["comment"]);
if (empty($_POST["gender"])) {
$genderErr = "Gender is required";
} else {
$gender = test_input($_POST["gender"]);
PHP - Display The Error Messages
Then in the HTML form, we add a little script after each required field, which
generates the correct error message if needed (that is if the user tries to submit
the form without filling out the required fields):
Example
<form method="post" action="<?php echo
htmlspecialchars($_SERVER["PHP_SELF"]);?>">
Name: <input type="text" name="name">
<span class="error">* <?php echo $nameErr;?></span>
<br><br>
E-mail:
<input type="text" name="email">
<span class="error">* <?php echo $emailErr;?></span>
<br><br>
Website:
<input type="text" name="website">
<span class="error"><?php echo $websiteErr;?></span>
<br><br>
Comment: <textarea name="comment" rows="5" cols="40"></textarea>
<br><br>
Gender:
<input type="radio" name="gender" value="female">Female
<input type="radio" name="gender" value="male">Male
<input type="radio" name="gender" value="other">Other
<span class="error">* <?php echo $genderErr;?></span>
<br><br>
<input type="submit" name="submit" value="Submit">
</form>
