PHP newbie, how to send data on new page? - php

Question

I'm learning PHP and I need help to "send" informations on an another page.
I read a text file and I put data on 2 arrays :
$nomVille;
$nomFichier;
$index; // index is use for arrays
Now I want to build a drop-down list and a submit button.
The drop-down list : show all items on $nomVille
The button : open "villes.php"
villes.php will have to retrieve $nomFichier and $index but I'm not able to do that.
Here is a part of my code :
echo 'Make your choice : ';
echo "<select name='ville'>";
foreach($nomVille as $option){
echo "<option value='{$option}'>{$option}</option>";
}
echo "</select>";
echo '<FORM METHOD="post" ACTION="villes.php">';
echo '<INPUT TYPE="submit" VALUE="Display">';
echo '</FORM>';
Is that correct ?

Answer 1

You've not got your select element wrapped in form tags which will prevent it being sent. What you actually want is this:
echo '<FORM METHOD="post" ACTION="villes.php">';
echo 'Make your choice : ';
echo "<select name='ville'>";
foreach($nomVille as $option){
echo "<option value='{$option}'>{$option}</option>";
}
echo "</select>";
echo '<INPUT TYPE="submit" VALUE="Display">';
echo '</FORM>';
On the page "villes.php", you should then be able to refer to the variable $_POST["ville"] which will contain the selected option in the select.
echo $_POST["ville"];
In order to transfer the values of $nomFichier and $index, you want to send them as hidden elements as part of the form, so add the lines:
echo "<input type='hidden' name='nomFichier' value='".$nomFichier."'>";
echo "<input type='hidden' name='index' value='".$index."'>";
Which will again, be able to be grabbed from the $_POST array.

Answer 2

Moving your select into the FORM element will allow the application to post the data on submit.
echo 'Make your choice : ';
echo '<FORM METHOD="post" ACTION="villes.php">';
echo "<select name='ville'>";
foreach($nomVille as $option){
echo "<option value='{$option}'>{$option}</option>";
}
echo "</select>";
echo '<INPUT TYPE="submit" VALUE="Display">';
echo '</FORM>';
From the villes.php page you then have data retrievable in the data that you can access like this:
if (isset($_POST['ville'])) {
$someVar = $_POST['ville'];
}
You'll find it worth your time to Google "PHP form tutorial" and seeing how things work from there.