refreshing page.. postdata

[logicopinion]

hello again..

 

i need some advice about problem described below.

 

so:

 

i have form where i enter some text

 

here is the form

 

<form action="index.php?p=itm1" method="post">
<table height="100" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0">
<TR><TD colspan="3"><i>some text</i></TD></TR>
<TR>
<TD align="center">enter new name : </TD>
<TD align="center"><input type="text" name="item"></TD>
<TD align="center"><input type="submit" value="add"></TD>
</TR>
</table>
</form>

 

after this text inserted into form as u see is sent to php file called itm1.php

 

here is the code of that page

 

 

 

<?php
include("includes/vars.php");

$item = $_POST['item']; 

if ($_POST['item']=$item)

{

mysql_connect("$hostname",  "$username",  "$password") or die(mysql_error());
mysql_select_db("$db") or die(mysql_error());
mysql_query("CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS menu(
id INT NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT,
PRIMARY KEY(id),
item VARCHAR(300)) ") or die(mysql_error());
mysql_query("INSERT INTO menu (item) 
VALUES('$item')") or die(mysql_error()); 


print "<br />";
echo "  new item named <b>$item</b> has been added";
print "<br />";
}

else

{

echo "error.. error description";

}


?>

 

 

if "if" statmant is true it adds new item to db and echos "new item has been added"  so everything goes fine.. but

 

when i refresh the page post data is added to database again..

 

how can i avoid this? i want if someone refreshes the page ... to do something else but not to add the same item again to database.

 

thanks

[kopytko]

Hi.

 

First of all, there is error in your script

Not

<?php
if ($_POST['item']=$item) //.....
?>

but

<?php
if ($_POST['item']==$item) //.....
?>

 

And now your problem. You could use header('Location: some_url'); to reload page. After reloading page all your post variables will be deleted, so they wont be inserted in database again.

[thebadbad]

When you refresh the script page, the browser (but maybe not all) WILL send the post data again. To solve your problem, you could header-redirect the user back to the form page (or just to the same script page like kopytko suggests). If the former, then you could print your 'success' message using $_GET. For example, use this instead of printing the messages:

 

<?php
header('Location: formpage.php?ok=true'); //success
?>

<?php
header('Location: formpage.php?ok=false'); //error
?>

 

To display a success/error message in you form page, use:

 

<?php
if ($_GET['ok'] == 'true') {
echo 'Added to database.';
} elseif ($_GET['ok'] == 'false') {
echo 'Error.';
}
?>

[aschk]

Following on from kopytko, i noted the following :

$item = $_POST['item']; 

 

So when you do your if test

if ($_POST['item'] == $item)

 

It will ALWAYS be true, because you just made a = b and then tested to see if a and b are the same... of course they are... DOH! *slaps forehead*

[kratsg]

Change those above code with $_POST to the following:

 

if(isset($_POST['item']) && !empty($_POST['item'])){

 

That checks to see if the user posted data, and that the data is not empty/null