$_POST not submitting the form, array prints as array() - php

Question

Below is the form I'm using to submit a new wheel into a DB on my local XAMPP server, problem is the post method doesn't work, I had problems with a modal which was sorted by using $_GET instead. I've changed a few php.ini settings but have changed them back was, max_upload and another one, I've read about them in other questions but they don't seem to solve the issue.
When I use the submit form below the array printed is just Array(), doesn't even have a single value, this should prompt my error check to print an error at the least.
<!-- wheels form -->
<div class="text-center">
<form class="form-inline" action="wheels.php" method="post">
<div class="form-group">
<label for="wheelName">Add a new wheel:</label>
<input name="wheelName" type="text" id="wheelName" class="form-control" value="<?=((isset($_POST['wheelName']))?$_POST['wheelName']:''); ?> "><!-- shorthand if/else-->
<label for="code">Stockcode</label>
<input name="code" type="text" id="code" class="form-control" value="<?=((isset($_POST['code']))?$_POST['code']:''); ?> "><!-- shorthand if/else-->
<input type="submit" name="add_submit" value="add wheel" class="btn btn-success">
</div>
</form>
</div><hr>
Standard php sql input and checks, the information is being pulled correctly as I have it displaying in a table further on my page.But the $_POST variable appears to be completely empty, has someone had this problem and managed to sort it? I'm assuming its to do with my php setup or .htaccess as someone else had an issue with.
<?php
require_once '../core/init.php';
include 'includes/header.php';
include 'includes/navigation.php';
// Get wheels from DB
$sql = "SELECT * FROM wheels ORDER BY part_no";
$result = $db->query($sql);
$errors = array();
// edit wheel
if(isset($_GET['edit']) && !empty(['edit'])) {
$edit_id = (int)$_GET['edit'];
$edit_id = sanitize('edit_id');
//$sql2 = "SELECT * FROM wheels WHERE recid = '$edit_id'";
//$edit_result = $db->query($sql2);
//$eWheel = mysqli_fetch_assoc($edit_result);
}
// Delete wheel
if(isset($_GET['delete']) && !empty(['delete'])) {
$delete_id = (int)$_GET['delete'];
$delete_id = sanitize($delete_id);
//$sql = "DELETE FROM wheels WHERE recid = '$delete_id'";
//$db->query($sql);
//header('Location: wheels.php');
}
// If add wheel form submitted
if(isset($_POST['add_submit'])) {
$wheel = sanitize($_POST['wheelName']);
$stockCode = sanitize($_POST['stockCode']);
// check if wheel is blank
if($_POST['wheelName'] == '') {
$errors[] .= 'Must enter wheel';
}
// if wheel exists in db
$sql = "SELECT * FROM wheels WHERE stockcode = '$stockCode'";
$result = $db->query($sql);
$count = mysqli_num_rows($result);
if($count > 0) {
$errors[] .= 'that wheel already exists.';
}
// display errors
if(!empty($errors)) {
echo displayErrors($errors);
} else {
//Add wheels to DB // incomplete unsure if feature needed at this stage.
// $sql = "INSERT INTO wheels (wheelName, stockCode, ID ETC ETC VALUES Etc ETC
// $db->query($sql);
// header ('location : wheels.php ');
}
}
var_dump($_POST);
echo file_get_contents("php://input");
?>
Here is the log
::1 - - [23/Apr/2016:14:12:32 +1200] "GET / HTTP/1.1" 302 - "-" "Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; WOW64) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/49.0.2623.112 Safari/537.36"
::1 - - [23/Apr/2016:14:12:32 +1200] "GET /dashboard/ HTTP/1.1" 200 6904 "-" "Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; WOW64) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/49.0.2623.112 Safari/537.36"
::1 - - [23/Apr/2016:14:12:32 +1200] "GET /dashboard/stylesheets/normalize.css HTTP/1.1" 200 6876 "http://localhost/dashboard/" "Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; WOW64) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/49.0.2623.112 Safari/537.36"
::1 - - [23/Apr/2016:14:12:32 +1200] "GET /dashboard/stylesheets/all.css HTTP/1.1" 200 481308 "http://localhost/dashboard/" "Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; WOW64) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/49.0.2623.112 Safari/537.36"
::1 - - [23/Apr/2016:14:12:32 +1200] "GET /dashboard/javascripts/modernizr.js HTTP/1.1" 200 51365 "http://localhost/dashboard/" "Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; WOW64) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/49.0.2623.112 Safari/537.36"
::1 - - [23/Apr/2016:14:12:33 +1200] "GET /dashboard/javascripts/all.js HTTP/1.1" 200 189003 "http://localhost/dashboard/" "Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; WOW64) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/49.0.2623.112 Safari/537.36"
::1 - - [23/Apr/2016:14:12:33 +1200] "GET /dashboard/images/xampp-logo.svg HTTP/1.1" 200 5427 "http://localhost/dashboard/" "Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; WOW64) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/49.0.2623.112 Safari/537.36"
::1 - - [23/Apr/2016:14:12:33 +1200] "GET /dashboard/images/bitnami-xampp.png HTTP/1.1" 200 22133 "http://localhost/dashboard/" "Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; WOW64) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/49.0.2623.112 Safari/537.36"
::1 - - [23/Apr/2016:14:12:33 +1200] "GET /dashboard/images/fastly-logo.png HTTP/1.1" 200 1770 "http://localhost/dashboard/" "Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; WOW64) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/49.0.2623.112 Safari/537.36"
::1 - - [23/Apr/2016:14:12:33 +1200] "GET /dashboard/images/social-icons.png HTTP/1.1" 200 3361 "http://localhost/dashboard/stylesheets/all.css" "Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; WOW64) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/49.0.2623.112 Safari/537.36"

Answer 1

well, i think you should place the <?php line at the very top of the file... before the "Get wheels from DB" comment
And instead of print_r($_POST); use var_dump($_POST);
also, in the section "if wheel exists in db" your sql query is never using the $stockCode variable, you're missing the $ , it should be $sql = "SELECT * FROM wheels WHERE stockcode = '$stockCode'";
And drop the point before the equal sign for the errors. thats for Strings, and as an array $errors[] = 'that wheel already exists.'; should work fine