get PHP POST from dynamically loaded page - php

Question

I have a page that gets updated dynamically using ajax, I have a form loaded dynamically and when the submit button is clicked it dynamically loads another page. How would I access my POST variables when doing this? I've tried the $_POST['variable'] with no luck.
ajaxloader.js
register-form.php
<?php
session_start();
if( isset($_SESSION['ERRMSG_ARR']) && is_array($_SESSION['ERRMSG_ARR']) && count($_SESSION['ERRMSG_ARR']) >0 ) {
echo '<ul class="err">';
foreach($_SESSION['ERRMSG_ARR'] as $msg) {
echo '<li>',$msg,'</li>';
}
echo '</ul>';
unset($_SESSION['ERRMSG_ARR']);
}
?>
<form id="loginForm" name="loginForm" method="post" action="javascript:ajaxpage('account/register-exec.php', 'content');">
<table width="300" border="0" align="center" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0">
<tr>
<th>First Name </th>
<td><input name="firstName" type="text" class="textfield" id="firstName" /></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th>Last Name </th>
<td><input name="lastName" type="text" class="textfield" id="lastName" /></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th>Username</th>
<td><input name="username" type="text" class="textfield" id="username" /></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th>Password</th>
<td><input name="password" type="password" class="textfield" id="password" /></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th>Confirm Password </th>
<td><input name="cpassword" type="password" class="textfield" id="cpassword" /></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td> </td>
<td><input type="submit" name="Submit" value="Register" /></td>
</tr>
</table>
</form>
register-exec.php
<?php
//Start session
session_start();
//Include database connection details
require_once('config.php');
//Array to store validation errors
$errmsg_arr = array();
//Validation error flag
$errflag = false;
//Connect to mysql server
$link = mysql_connect(DB_HOST, DB_USER, DB_PASSWORD);
if(!$link) {
die('Failed to connect to server: ' . mysql_error());
}
//Select database
$db = mysql_select_db(DB_DATABASE);
if(!$db) {
die("Unable to select database");
}
//Function to sanitize values received from the form. Prevents SQL injection
function clean($str) {
$str = #trim($str);
if(get_magic_quotes_gpc()) {
$str = stripslashes($str);
}
return mysql_real_escape_string($str);
}
//Sanitize the POST values
$firstName = clean($_POST['firstName']);
$lastName = clean($_POST['lastName']);
$username = clean($_POST['username']);
$password = clean($_POST['password']);
$cpassword = clean($_POST['cpassword']);
//Input Validations
if($firstName == '') {
$errmsg_arr[] = 'First name missing';
$errflag = true;
}
if($lastName == '') {
$errmsg_arr[] = 'Last name missing';
$errflag = true;
}
if($username == '') {
$errmsg_arr[] = 'Username missing';
$errflag = true;
}
if($password == '') {
$errmsg_arr[] = 'Password missing';
$errflag = true;
}
if($cpassword == '') {
$errmsg_arr[] = 'Confirm password missing';
$errflag = true;
}
if( strcmp($password, $cpassword) != 0 ) {
$errmsg_arr[] = 'Passwords do not match';
$errflag = true;
}
//Check for duplicate username
if($username != '') {
$qry = "SELECT * FROM member WHERE username='$username'";
$result = mysql_query($qry);
if($result) {
if(mysql_num_rows($result) > 0) {
$errmsg_arr[] = 'Username already in use';
$errflag = true;
}
#mysql_free_result($result);
}
else {
die("Query failed");
}
}
//If there are input validations, redirect back to the registration form
if($errflag) {
$_SESSION['ERRMSG_ARR'] = $errmsg_arr;
session_write_close();
header("location: register-form.php");
exit();
}
//Create INSERT query
$qry = "INSERT INTO member(firstName, lastName, username, password) VALUES('$firstName','$lastName','$username','".md5($_POST['password'])."')";
$result = #mysql_query($qry);
//Check whether the query was successful or not
if($result) {
header("location: register-success.php");
exit();
}else {
die("Query failed");
}
?>
You can see my full form by clicking the "Join" button at tri-peoria.org and clicking on the 2nd link.

Answer 1

Your javascript is not sending any data and is using a GET request, not a POST. You will need to extract the data from your form into a variable to send. Replace the parameter names and elementIDs below with your form element IDs.
formData = buildData();
page_request.open('POST', url, true);
page_request.setRequestHeader("Content-type", "application/x-www-form-urlencoded");
page_request.send(formData);
function buildData() {
//build a variable to store the form data, use encodeURI to encode any chars that require encoding
var postFormVars = "addressLine1=" + encodeURI( document.getElementById("addressLine1").value ) +
"&addressLine2=" + encodeURI( document.getElementById("addressLine2").value ) +
"&addressLine3=" + encodeURI( document.getElementById("addressLine3").value ) +
"&town=" + encodeURI( document.getElementById("town").value ) +
"&postcode=" + encodeURI( document.getElementById("postcode").value );
return postFormVars;
}

Answer 2

Your Javascript is sending a GET request and as per your statement you are checking $_POST
page_request.open('GET', url, true)
So update those to match then try again