Arrays are not posting to php - php

Question

HTML
<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="<?php echo CSS_URL ?>modal.css" />
<form id="postinfo" action="" method="POST">
<input type="hidden" name="technician" value="<?php echo $technician; ?>">
<input type="hidden" name="custnum" value="<?php echo htmlentities(serialize($customerNum)); ?>">
<input type="hidden" name="meternum" value="<?php echo htmlentities(serialize($meterNumbers)); ?>">
<input type="hidden" name="remcred" value="<?php echo htmlentities(serialize($remCreditArray)); ?>">
<input type="hidden" name="visitdate" value="<?php echo htmlentities(serialize($dateArray)); ?>">
<a href ="<?php echo PROCESS_URL; ?>create_maint_token_excel.php" onclick="document.getElementById('postinfo').submit();">
<img src="<?php echo IMAGE_URL ?>Excel.png" name="Print Excel" title="Print Excel" alt="Print Excel" /></a>
</form>
PHP
$customerNum = unserialize($_POST['custnum']);
$meterNumbers = unserialize($_POST['meternum']);
$remCreditArray = unserialize($_POST['remcred']);
$dateArray = unserialize($_POST['visitdate']);
$technician = ($_POST['technician']);
I have tried numerous ways of posting these arrays to a php page but the page keeps telling me that custnum, meternum, remcred and visitdate are undefined.
I have tried using a form action and post, I have tried to use a piece of javascript and I keep getting the same problem, why is this not posting?
I have also tried using $_GET instead of $_POST on php page to no avail.

Answer 1

<a href ="<?php echo PROCESS_URL; ?>create_maint_token_excel.php" onclick="document.getElementById('postinfo').submit();">
This will not work, the submit will go into nirvana and you will be taken to the PHP page without the variables. You are doing two requests at once and your browser will go to the one without the form variables.
Try changing your form to this:
<form id="postinfo" action="<?php echo PROCESS_URL; ?>create_maint_token_excel.php" method="POST">
And your Link to this:
<a href ="#" onclick="document.getElementById('postinfo').submit();">
This should submit the form correctly without following the link.
Alternatively use a propper <input type="submit" /> button, you can add the image to it with CSS.

Answer 2

Why don't you just use a form submit button, rather than making life complax with javascript? But first.. Debug, check what is actually in your hidden input.
Better would probably be to keep all these details on the server in a table called maintenance, and only pass the record ID to the webpage. A lot less info that the user can tamper with.
Also, you can just use a regulaer weblink to link to load the next page with the variables in the url (read GET), unless there is some input from the user which requires a form, which we do not see.

Answer 3

You should be trying as,
<?php foreach ($customerNum as $item): ?>
<input type="hidden" name="custnum[]" value="<?php echo $item; ?>"/>
<?php endforeach ?>
In php you could get as,
$customerNum = $_POST['custnum'];
And use,
<a href ="javascript:void(0)" onclick="document.getElementById('postinfo').submit();">

Answer 4

<input type="hidden" name="technician" value="<?php echo $technician; ?>">
<input type="hidden" name="custnum" value="<?php echo htmlentities(serialize($customerNum)); ?>">
<input type="hidden" name="meternum" value="<?php echo htmlentities(serialize($meterNumbers)); ?>">
<input type="hidden" name="remcred" value="<?php echo htmlentities(serialize($remCreditArray)); ?>">
<input type="hidden" name="visitdate" value="<?php echo htmlentities(serialize($dateArray)); ?>">
<a href ="<?php echo PROCESS_URL; ?>create_maint_token_excel.php" onclick="document.getElementById('postinfo').submit();">
<img src="<?php echo IMAGE_URL ?>Excel.png" name="Print Excel" title="Print Excel" alt="Print Excel" /></a>
just replace to inpuit type submit or you can use type image and add action url to action tag of form then you would get values by post method like below exa

Answer 5

Here's a simplified test case:
<form id="postinfo" action="" method="post">
<input type="hidden" name="foo" value="1">
Submit
</form>
If you hit "Submit" you'll see that your browser will open the href URL before your JavaScript code has any chance to make a POST request to the action URL.
You'll possibly want one of these:
<!-- No action href -->
Submit
<!-- Cancel click event -->
Submit
<!-- No link at all -->
<div onclick="document.getElementById('postinfo').submit();">Submit</div>
Side note: If you use PHP serialization, beware of object injection.