PHP Problem

[apwade]

Is possible to post values directly to a webpage, but without using a submit button, i.e. directly from the server and no human interaction.

Cheers

Andrew

[DaveSawers]

What does that mean exactly?

Are you asking if you can use the POST protocol to pass data to a web page?

If so, what would you use that for that you couldn't do directly using PHP?

[kgun]

Do you mean transclusion?

<simplelink href="MySite.xml" show="embed" actuate="onload" />

Combining XLink with XML's fragment identifier XPointer or XPath, you can embed fragments of an XML or XHTML document into another.

It should be possible serverside with PHP and one of it's many XML parsers where DOM is the most advanced.

Note: XHTML documents can be regarded as XML documents in this respect.

[seiretto]

Hi Andrew,

You can do that via a cron job to fire a PHP script which POSTs variables to your website.

If you do not have access to cron on your server, or find cron too technical try this free PHP scheduler:
phpJobScheduler - scheduling PHP scripts to run at set intervals your replacement for cron jobs

Hope that helps

Dave Walker

[apwade]

To clarify want i am trying to do, i am trying to send data to an external webserver using the command fsockopen. I have a form submit example below but i do not know want data is actually sent from this page as i want to build the output from this page into a string so i can send using the fsockopen command.

<form method="post" action="Example Web Page">
<P>Username:<br>
<INPUT name="Username" type="text"></P>
<P>Password:<br>
<INPUT name="Password" type="password"></P>
<P>Account:<br>
<INPUT name="Account" type="text"></P>
<P>Sender :<br>
<INPUT name="Originator" type="text"></P>
<P>Recipient:<br>
<INPUT name="Recipient" type="text"></P>
<P>Message:<br>
<input type="submit" value="Send">
</form>

Essentially i need to know the output from this form/submit so i can send the same data to a webserver via the fsockopen and fputs commands.

Cheers

Andrew

[seiretto]

There are loads of examples here:
PHP: fsockopen - Manual

Do not forget that on some hosts PHP fsockopen is disabled.
In that case use:
PHP: CURL, Client URL Library Functions - Manual

[kgun]

Originally Posted by apwade

Essentially i need to know the output from this form/submit so i can send the same data to a webserver via the fsockopen and fputs commands.

Need to know the output before submitting the form? If yes, isn't that a typical AJAX solution?

[wige]

If you just need to know what the request looks like so you can imitate it, well, there are a few different methods. The easiest is for Firefox users. There is an add-on called "Live HTTP Headers". Install the Addon, go to view, Live HTTP Headers. Then, fill out and submit the form. In the sidebar you will see the raw headers from your browser and the raw server response.

If you do not use Firefox, or if you need more than just the headers, you can also use a caching proxy such as ParosProxy, which is used by hackers to manipulate queries as they are being sent. This will also allow you to easily test your various commands and see how the server reacts to your program.

[kgun]

A very good principle is to start making a site function well in the most used web browser.

Fx now beats IE 6 and IE 7 individually, but not together.

Here is a related thread of user statistics.

[letraspedia]

i'll use a temporary database, load it and empty it when you consider

[apwade]

Thanks for all the help and possible solutions, i will look into the possible solution using firefox to see the responses.

Cheers Andrew

[shannonlp]

This sounds like a spider that is needing to input form data. If thats the case check out this book:

WEBBOTS, SPIDERS and SCREEN SCRAPERS by Michael Schrenk

The book has a utility for doing what you are talking about. It allows you to see the form variables for the form.

[anadirsitio]

The following example is good:
<INPUT name="Password" type="password"></P>
<P>Account:<br>


So just pay attention and work to it.