POST Form not working - $_POST receiving variable name as the value

[jfourman]

This is my first attempt to use the FORM POST method. My problem is that the receiving $_POST variable is getting the value equal to the POST'ed variable name (not the actual value of the variable).

form method="POST" page code:

<form action="orderupdate.php" enctype='multipart/form-data' method="POST">
<input type="hidden" name="order_id" value=$ordid>
  <input type="hidden" name="email_addr" value=$email>
  <input type="hidden" name="order_status" value=$statPublic>
<p align="center"><input name="Update Order" type="submit" value="Update Order" align="middle"></p>
</form>

orderupdate.php code:

<?$order_id = $_POST['order_id'];?>
<?$email_addr = $_POST['email_addr'];?>
<?$order_status = $_POST['order_status'];?>
<p><?printf ($order_id);?></p>
<p><?printf ($email_addr);?></p>
<p><?printf ($order_status);?></p>

The printf statements display the values: "$ordid $email $statPublic" rather than the actual values of the fields. If I add a printf statement to the "POSTing" form after the inputs, the value shows correctly (e.g. email_addr = [email protected]. If I change the input tag from type='hidden' to type='text' and enter a value, the value POSTs and displays correctly on the updateorder.php page. So I know the POST is working. It seems that the type='hidden' is my problem?

I did get the transfer of the variable values to work with the GET method, but I don't want the values to be part of the URL. I prefer to get the POST method to work.

???Thank you for your help.

[Jeremysr]

Change the input tags to this:

[code=php:0]<input type="hidden" name="order_id" value="<? echo($ordid); ?>">[/code]

I think that's the problem.

[onlyican]

The problem is that on the value, you are not putting quotes

value="something";
value='something';
value='".$something."' />

[jfourman]

;D Yipee! I am soooo grateful for your help. Jeremysr: you're solution was on the mark! I tried all 3 of onlyican's options; but they still just displayed what ever was in the quotes rather than the value of the variable.

I had fooled around with this problem for 6 hours reading and trying options before posting my question here. With your help, it was solved in a minute.

In reading my Programming PHP book to understand why the ?echo was required I now see that the echo() command puts the string from the PHP generated page into the HTML. I have a lot more learning to do.

Thank you for teaching me something!

[onlyican]

I though u were echoing the form

echo "<input type=...

Anything shown to the users machine needs to be in an echo (or print or simular functions)
if its not in an echo, its not read out

[jfourman]

Now I understand, thanks onlyican. In fact, the example I was using that did not echo the variable was echoing the form. Got it!