php form action handler and save it - php

Question

i am trying to make a page for form action handler using php
the the problem is that i want the action to be saved on that page
here's my form on index.php
<form method="get" onSubmit="return val()" action="han.php">
<label>Name:</label>
<input type="text" id="name" name="name" />
<input type="submit" name="submit" id="submit" value="Submit" />
</form>
and here's my php code on han.php
<?php
$name = $_GET['name'];
echo "Your Name is:".$name;
?>
i need that name to be saved on han.php file like this every time i submit a name:
Your Name is: Brian
Your Name is: Jack
Your Name is: Daniel
Your Name is: Bob

Answer 1

What you can do is to create another file for saved names for example names.txt then in your han.php you could write this to save the name each time the form is submitted:
<?php
$name = $_GET['name'];
$file = fopen("names.txt","a");
echo fwrite($file,"$name, \n");
fclose($file);
return header('Location: index.php'); // to redirect to index.php page
?>

Answer 2

You can save them in the current session
<?php
session_start();
if(!isset($_SESSION['names']))
$_SESSION['names'] = array();
if(isset($_GET['name']))
array_push($_SESSION['names'], $_GET['name']);
if(isset($_SESSION['names']))
foreach($_SESSION['names'] as $name)
echo $name."<br>";
?>

Answer 3

It is not fully clear, what you mean by save, but here are some possible solutions:
1. Every name schould be saved "for ever" (big amount of names expected):
Use a Database like MySQL (see here)
2. The current name should be saved for a period of time:
Use session variables for this case
if(!isset($_SESSION['name']) {
$_SESSION['name'] = $_GET['name'];
$_SESSION['name'] = date();
}
you can also check befor this, if a period of time has expired and overwrite the name variable.
3. One or more names should be saved for all calls of the script (from any user):
You can use a file and save the names in this file:
create and write to file
read from file OR get whole file (file_get_contents)