$_POST variable - php

Question

I'm encountering a problem. I'm using Wordpress, but this ain't a Wordpress question.
I'm using two forms, on one form I have all the input fields and one hidden input field which I use for checking which form the user has submitted. I have saved its value as 'save'. There is another form which is just for resetting all the options and its value is 'reset'. In PHP, I check the value of the hidden field and take respective actions. But the problem is that the reset thingy isn't working.
Here is my HTML for the forms:
<fieldset>
<form method="post">
<!-- Some input fields here-->
<p class="submit">
<input name="save" type="submit" value="Save changes" />
<input type="hidden" name="action" value="save" />
</p>
</form>
</fieldset>
<fieldset>
<form method="post">
<p class="submit">
<input name="reset" type="submit" value="Reset" />
<input type="hidden" name="action" value="reset" />
</p>
</form>
</fieldset>
In PHP, I verify them like this:
// if I change the 'save' literal to something else like 'savea', $_POST variable will not be empty
// but if I dont, then $_POST variable is NULL
if ('save' == $_POST['action']) {
foreach ($this->cp_options as $option) {
if (isset($_POST[$option['id']])) {
update_option($option['id'], $_POST[$option['id']]);
}
else {
delete_option($option['id']);
}
}
header("Location: themes.php?page=functions.php&saved=true");
die;
}
// if I change the 'reset' literal to something else like 'reseta', $_POST variable will not be empty
// but if I dont, then $_POST variable is NULL
elseif ('reset' == $_POST['action']) {
foreach($this->cp_options as $option) {
delete_option($option);
}
header("Location: themes.php?page=functions.php&reset=true");
die;
}
The problem is if I change the 'reset' or 'save' literal to anything else like 'reseta' or 'saveasdfasd', $_POST variable won't be empty, but if I dont, then $_POST variable is NULL.
Any ideas on why this is happening?

Answer 1

[Old Answer Redacted]
EDIT
Try to isolate your testing environment first. This gave me results I expected.
<?php
if ( isset( $_POST['action'] ) )
{
switch( $_POST['action'] )
{
case 'save':
echo 'Save Action Requested';
break;
case 'reset':
echo 'Reset Action Requested';
break;
default:
echo 'Unknown action requested:';
var_dump( $_POST['action'] );
}
} else {
echo 'No action parameter received';
}
?>
<fieldset>
<form method="post">
<!-- Some input fields here-->
<p class="submit">
<input name="save" type="submit" value="Save changes" />
<input type="hidden" name="action" value="save" />
</p>
</form>
</fieldset>
<fieldset>
<form method="post">
<p class="submit">
<input name="reset" type="submit" value="Reset" />
<input type="hidden" name="action" value="reset" />
</p>
</form>
</fieldset>

Answer 2

I know you said that $_POST is null but are you assuming that or did you actually check $_POST == null? Have you tried doing a var_dump($_POST) to print out exactly what is getting sent across? Just comment out your re-direction and see what is in $_POST. Maybe that will give you a better clue as to what is happening.

Answer 3

Simple... remove the hidden inputs and change both of your "submit" buttons to have the same name, but different values:
<input type="submit" name="action" value="Reset" />
<input type="submit" name="action" value="Save" />
Then you can test it like this:
if ($_POST['action'] === 'Reset') {
// Do a reset here
} else {
// Do a save here
}
And you probably want to wrap the whole thing in:
if (isset($_POST['action'])) {
// Put your form handling here
}

Answer 4

If you have multiple forms on one page I'd recommend you send each form to a different URL. This is by far the simplest and most reliable way to detect where the form is going, just have two different scripts to deal with processing that form. You can then include or redirect to the final page you want the user to see.

Answer 5

This might because there are duplicate elements with the same name.
Can you try putting an id or name to your form?