Struggling with PHP, can't figure out what I did wrong - php

Question

Alright, I'm probably missing something very obvious but I can't for the life of me figure out what it is..
The problem I am having is that the information the user types into the input fields 'username' and 'password' don't get passed on when I use $_POST['']
Here's the form I am using, very basic:
<form method="post">
<div class="container">
<label><b>Username</b></label>
<input type="text" placeholder="Enter Username" name="username" required>
<label><b>Password</b></label>
<input type="password" placeholder="Enter Password" name="password" required>
<button type="submit">Login</button>
<input type="checkbox" checked="checked"> Remember me
</div>
<div class="container" style="background-color:#f1f1f1">
<button type="button" class="cancelbtn">Cancel</button>
<span class="psw">Forgot password?</span>
</div>
</form>
And this is the PHP I have written, it is in the same document for testing purposes, the problem isn't a missing header. I have tested it in seperate files, too, but no difference.
<?php
$username = 'username';
$password = '123';
if ($username == 'username') {
echo 'username retrieved <br />';
}
if ($password == '123') {
echo 'password retrieved <br />';
}
if ($_SERVER['REQUEST_METHOD'] === 'POST') {
echo ' method retrieved <br />';
if (isset($_POST['username']) && isset($_POST['password'])) {
$u_username = $_POST['username'];
echo $u_username . $username . '<br />';
$u_password = $_POST['password'];
echo $u_password . $password . '<br />';
if ($u_username === $username && $u_password === $password) {
echo 'username and password retrieved <br />';
} else {
echo 'username and/or password not retrieved <br />';
}
}
}
Thank you in advance, I feel stupid asking this but I would really appreciate any feedback!

Answer 1

You are missing the action="login.php" since your file name is login.php in the <form> like this :
<form method="post" action="login.php">
<div class="container">
<label><b>Username</b></label>
<input type="text" placeholder="Enter Username" name="username" required>
<label><b>Password</b></label>
<input type="password" placeholder="Enter Password" name="password" required>
<button type="submit">Login</button>
<input type="checkbox" checked="checked"> Remember me
</div>
<div class="container" style="background-color:#f1f1f1">
<button type="button" class="cancelbtn">Cancel</button>
<span class="psw">Forgot password?</span>
</div>
</form>
and the php code is something like this
$username = 'username';
$password = '123';
if ($username == 'username') {
echo 'username retrieved <br />';
}
if ($password == '123') {
echo 'password retrieved <br />';
}
if ($_SERVER['REQUEST_METHOD'] === 'POST') {
echo ' method retrieved <br />';
if (isset($_POST['username']) && isset($_POST['password'])) {
$u_username = $_POST['username'];
echo $u_username . $username . '<br />';
$u_password = $_POST['password'];
echo $u_password . $password . '<br />';
if ($u_username == $username && $u_password == $password) {
echo 'username and password retrieved <br />';
} else {
echo 'username and/or password not retrieved <br />';
}
}
}
even if I think the first two tests are useless

Answer 2

I am using a version of PHPStorm which has a bug related to the use of POST, this is why GET did work.