PHP Form will not post into my database - php

Question

My PHP form will not post into the database. I understand php and mysql connections fairly well but I'm stumped on this one. When I hit submit on my form it doesn't echo the values that I(the user) put in. The date shows up as 1969-12-31, not the date the user submits. If anyone could help that would be great. My code is as follows
The form code is:
<form method="POST" action="add_event.php" id="create_event">
<label for="event_name">Event Name:</label>
<input type="text" id="event_name"><br />
<label for="date">Date:</label>
<input class="datepicker" type="date" id="date"><br />
<label for="zip_code">Zip Code:</label>
<input type="text" id="zip_code" maxlength="5"><br />
<label for="description">Description</label>
<textarea id="description" rows="5" columns="10"></textarea>
<br>
<input type="submit" name="submit">
</form>
The add_event.php insert code is:
<?php
require_once '../app_config.php';
require_once '../database_connection.php';
require_once '../authorize.php';
session_start();
// Authorize any user, as long as they're logged in
authorize_user();
//Get the user ID of the user to show
$user_id = $_SESSION['user_id'];
$select_query = "SELECT first_name, last_name FROM users WHERE user_id = " . $user_id;
// Run the query
$result = mysql_query($select_query);
if ($result) {
$row = mysql_fetch_array($result);
$first_name = $row['first_name'];
$last_name = $row['last_name'];
}
$name = $first_name . ' ' . $last_name;
$event_name = trim($_POST['event_name']);
$date = trim($_POST['date']);
$zip_code = trim($_POST['zip_code']);
$description = trim($_POST['description']);
// $date = "2012-08-22";
$newdate = date("Y-m-d", strtotime($date));
// $event_name = "test";
// $zip_code = "22153";
// $description = "test";
$insert_sql = sprintf("INSERT INTO events " .
"(name, user_profile_id, event_name, date, zip_code, description) " .
"VALUES ('%s', %d, '%s', '%s', '%s', '%s');",
mysql_real_escape_string($name),
mysql_real_escape_string($user_id),
mysql_real_escape_string($event_name),
mysql_real_escape_string($newdate),
mysql_real_escape_string($zip_code),
mysql_real_escape_string($description));
//insert the user into the database
mysql_query($insert_sql);
echo $insert_sql;
?>
Much thanks in advance.

Answer 1

The problem is that you are not naming your input fields. If you add the name property to the input in your html code the value will be stored in the $_POST array in php once the form is submitted. The correct html code should be:
<form method="POST" action="add_event.php" id="create_event">
<label for="event_name">Event Name:</label>
<input type="text" name="event_name"><br />
<label for="date">Date:</label>
<input class="datepicker" type="date" name="date"><br />
<label for="zip_code">Zip Code:</label>
<input type="text" name="zip_code" maxlength="5"><br />
<label for="description">Description</label>
<textarea name="description" rows="5" columns="10"></textarea>
<br>
<input type="submit" name="submit">
</form>
I am not sure if you needed the ids on the inputs for anything else, otherwise you should re-add those. For more information on html forms, visit: http://www.w3schools.com/html/html_forms.asp

Answer 2

You have not included any name attribute in your form. Here is how it should be:
<label for="event_name">Event Name:</label>
<input type="text" id="event_name" name="event_name"><br />
<label for="date">Date:</label>
<input class="datepicker" type="date" id="date" name="date"><br />
<label for="zip_code">Zip Code:</label>
<input type="text" id="zip_code" maxlength="5" name="zip_code"><br />
<label for="description">Description</label>
<textarea id="description" rows="5" columns="10" name="description"></textarea>
Note that only form inputs element that have the name attribute will be sent to the server. ID is only used on the client side.

Answer 3

Don't you need some name attributes in your form?
For example:
<input class="datepicker" type="date" id="date" name="date">
and the value within your POST['your_value'] must be the same as the value for the name attribute.
so:
$my_date = $_POST['date']

Answer 4

You need to give your input elements a name attribute... This is how php uses the $_POST['name attribute'] global to identify the field you are referring to.
so for example...
<form method="POST" action="add_event.php" id="create_event">
<label for="event_name">Event Name:</label>
<input type="text" name="event_name" id="event_name"><br />
<label for="date">Date:</label>
<input class="datepicker" name="date" type="date" id="date"><br />
<label for="zip_code">Zip Code:</label>
<input type="text" id="zip_code" name="zip_code" maxlength="5"><br />
<label for="description">Description</label>
<textarea id="description" name="description" rows="5" columns="10"></textarea>
<br>
<input type="submit" name="submit">
</form>