submitting POST request

July 2, 2006

Hello PHP freaks,

I'm working on a php project and have run into some difficulty getting my post submission request to be recogonized by the target
website. In this case the website is:

http://www.eslteachersboard.com/cgi-bin/esljobs/index.pl?form=0

(NOTE: I have recieved premission to post to the website via a program)

The form to be posted to is: (Apologies for the compressed nature of the code - i did not want to alter it's original state)

[code]
<FORM ENCTYPE="multipart/form-data" METHOD=POST ACTION="http://www.eslteachersboard.com/cgi-bin/esljobs/index.pl?post" NAME="message" TARGET="_self">
 <CENTER>
<TABLE BORDER=0 CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=4 BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF">

<TR><TD></TD></TR>
</TABLE>
<TABLE BORDER=0 CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=4 BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF"><TR>
<TH COLSPAN=2><BIG><big>Post ESL job in Korea</big>
 Requirements: 
Welcome Korean schools and recruiters! 
Please support the high quality of contents and of traffic of this board by posting 
detailed INDIVIDUAL job offers, including the following 7 items for EACH JOB: 
           1. City where the job is located (no "All over Korea") 

           2. SALARY 
           3. Start date 
           4. Work schedule 
           5. Students level 
           6. Airfare/Accommodations and 
           7. Your requirements. 

RECRUITERS: Please do not post general statements about your firm or generic descriptions of your pool of job offers. 
Sorry, but postings that do not comply will be deleted. Thank you for your collaboration and best of luck. 
</BIG></TH></TR><TR><TD COLSPAN=2></TD></TR><TR>
<TH ALIGN=RIGHT>School/recruiter name (required):</TH><TD><INPUT TYPE=TEXT NAME="name" SIZE=40 MAXLENGTH=75></TD></TR><TR>
<TH ALIGN=RIGHT>E-mail address (required):</TH><TD><INPUT TYPE=TEXT NAME="email" SIZE=40 MAXLENGTH=100></TD></TR><TR>
<TH ALIGN=RIGHT>City where the school is located (required):</TH><TD><INPUT TYPE=TEXT NAME="subject" SIZE=40 MAXLENGTH=75></TD></TR><TR>
<TD COLSPAN=2 ALIGN=CENTER>

 <TEXTAREA COLS=80 ROWS=20 NAME="body" WRAP=VIRTUAL></TEXTAREA></TD></TR><TR>
<TD COLSPAN=2 ALIGN=CENTER></TD></TR><TR>
<TH ALIGN=RIGHT>Optional Link URL:</TH><TD><INPUT TYPE=TEXT NAME="url" SIZE=40 MAXLENGTH=250 VALUE="http://"></TD></TR><TR>
<TH ALIGN=RIGHT>Link Title:</TH><TD><INPUT TYPE=TEXT NAME="url_title" SIZE=40 MAXLENGTH=75></TD></TR><TR>
<TD COLSPAN=2 ALIGN=CENTER></TD></TR><TR>
<TH ALIGN=RIGHT></TH><TD><INPUT TYPE=TEXT NAME="imageurl" SIZE=40 MAXLENGTH=250 VALUE="Use the box below to upload a picture"></TD></TR><TR>
<TH ALIGN=RIGHT>Optional Graphic Upload:</TH><TD><INPUT TYPE=FILE NAME="postgraphic" SIZE=40></TD></TR><TR>
<TD COLSPAN=2 ALIGN=CENTER>
To include a picture, click on the 'Browse' button above and upload one 
JPG/GIF from your computer, MAXIMUM 120KB and 500 x 500. <big>NO LOGOS</big>, please.


 If you'd like to have the option of deleting your post later, please provide a
password (CASE SENSITIVE!):</TD></TR><TR>
<TH ALIGN=RIGHT>Password:</TH><TD><INPUT TYPE=PASSWORD NAME="password" SIZE=40></TD></TR><TR>
<TH ALIGN=RIGHT>Save Password:</TH><TD><INPUT TYPE=RADIO NAME="CookiePW" VALUE="Yes"> Yes <INPUT TYPE=RADIO NAME="CookiePW" VALUE="No"> No</TD></TR><TR>
<TD COLSPAN=2><HR WIDTH=75% NOSHADE></TD></TR><TR>
<TD COLSPAN=2 ALIGN=CENTER><INPUT TYPE=SUBMIT NAME="Preview" VALUE="Preview your Job Offer"> <INPUT TYPE=SUBMIT NAME="Post" VALUE="Post your Job Offer"></TD></TR></TABLE></CENTER></FORM>
[/code]

My post submission code:

[code]
<?php
error_reporting(E_ALL);

/* VARIABLES */
$false=0; //FALSE
$true=1; //TRUE

$temp=-1; //temp
//UNTESTED...
//$i=0;

/* CONNECT TO DATABASE */
$host="****";
$uname="****";
$pass="****;
$database="****";
$tablename="mark";
$connection= mysql_connect($host,$uname,$pass);

if(!$connection)
{
die("Database connection failed ! ");
}
else
{
echo "logged into MySQL Server ", $host, " successfully. ";
}

$result=mysql_select_db($database);
if (!$result)
{
die("Database could not be selected");
}
else
{
echo "Database ", $database, " ready to be used. ";
}

/* USER clicked remove button */
if($_POST['submit'])
{
/* User did NOT eneter a job id */
if(!$jobid)
{
printf("you must enter a valid job id number from the database cletus!");
}

/*user entered a job id number */
else
{
$query="SELECT jobid FROM mark";
$result=mysql_query($query);

while ($row = mysql_fetch_object($result))
{
if($row->jobid == $jobid)
{
$temp=$true;
}
}//while

/* MAIN LOOP */
if($temp == $true){
printf("Job ID valid.");

/* MARKS ESL JOB BOARD */
if($marks)
{
printf("You checked MARKS ESL");

/* Retrieve data from DB */
$query="SELECT * FROM mark WHERE jobid = $jobid";
$result=mysql_query($query);

printf("Job Preview:");
echo " -------------------------------- ";
$id=mysql_result($result,$i,"jobid");
$name=mysql_result($result,$i,"company");
$email=mysql_result($result,$i,"email");
$location=mysql_result($result, $i, "location");
$desc=mysql_result($result,$i,"description");
$url=mysql_result($result,$i, "url");
$post="Post your Job Offer";
$reffer = "http://www.eslteachersboard.com/cgi-bin/esljobs/index.pl?form=0";
echo " $id $name $email $location $desc $url ";

/* Post data to website */
$ch = curl_init();
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_FOLLOWLOCATION, 0); //follow any redirects
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_URL, "http://www.eslteachersboard.com/cgi-bin/esljobs/index.pl?post");
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, 0); //print response page
/* REFFER TEST */
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_REFERER, $reffer);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_POST, 1);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS, "Post=$post&name=$name&email=$email&subject=$location&body=$desc&url=$url");
$data=curl_exec ($ch);
$c_error = curl_error($ch);
$c_info = curl_getinfo($ch);
curl_close ($ch);

/* Print report/email report */
echo" Completed CURL ";
//echo $data;
echo" ";
echo 'err '.$c_error;
echo" ";
echo "url ".$c_info["url"]." ";
echo" ";
//print_r($_POST);

}//marks esl
if($greenpeppers)
{
printf("You checked GP");
}
if($onions)
{
printf("You checked Onions");
}
if($olives)
{
printf("You checked Olives");
}
if(!$marks && !$greenpeppers && !$onions && !$olives)
{
printf("You didn't check any websites to submit to cletus!");
}
}//if ($temp == true)

}//else

}//submit
[/code]

The target website reports the following error's:

- Incomplete Submission!
- "Your message is incomplete! Your enthusiasm is appreciated, but you need to make sure that you include at least your name and a subject line! Please return to the entry form and try again. Thanks!"

I would speculate the submission data has not been recieved, but as
a new php programmer I am unsure of what the real problem is:

- a ENCTYPE="multipart/form-data" issue
- a incorrect post submission statement ( curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS,...);
- i'm missing something about php/curl

Things I have tested (using Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.7.12) Gecko/20050915 Firefox/1.0.7):

- submitted to the site manually (It works!)
- disabled cookies and attempted to post manually(the target website doesn't enforce cookies)
- verified submission was done (i don't trust no one and it worked)
- created a php file which accepted postings to it, and then SQLed the data into a DB (using the above php code)
- enabled error checking (no errors)
- drank a cup of green tea, and thought really long and hard about what i could do, and experiemented with
many curl_setopt's (to no avail)

To clarify:

- My submission code is not working! The website does not seem to recieve the post submission data. I am posting to http://www.eslteachersboard.com/cgi-bin/esljobs/index.pl?post.
- I am new at PHP, and have hit a deadend. This code has not been changed to any affect for the last 4 days of reading/experiementing... help!

Thanks in advance.

MasterCJ · July 4, 2006

I am still confounded as to the issue causing my problem. I am new to PHP and need help, please!

Thanks Freaks

sprinkles · July 4, 2006

If you can (with a Firefox extension), look at the headers after you've submitted the form to see if the problem lies in the form, or the php.

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submitting POST request

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