How can I carry POST data to a new page in PHP without a form?

Question

Edit: I could simplify this question by asking is there a way to do something like header('Location: /msg_form.php?error=3') except sending error=3 and all the other form info via POST. I think the short answer is no, but there are alternative ways to do things.

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I integrated a message system into my website which used GET for everything but I needed to send messages to large lists of people so I had to switch to using POST. However that screws up the system when you submit the message form and there are errors. The form submits to a processing page and if there are errors it is supposed to redirect back to a form page but now that dumps all the POST info. :(

Isn't there some way for me to simulate a form submission from the php processing page? I would think that curl could do this for me but so far it seems to just send POSTS out to the netherworld but not actually redirect the browser.

I guess I could have it print out a form with some hidden variables and then redirect with html or javascript but that seems dumb. Also I could integrate the processor right into the form page, which I might do, but I'd rather not re-arrange to much stuff.

Answer 1

Often, I will use the same page for form entry and form processing. At the top of the page, you check for the POST variables, and process accordingly. I build a string with any errors. Then at the end of the processing code, if there are errors, re-display the entry page with the errors. Otherwise, redirect or display a thank you page, etc.

You could also use jQuery, to submit the form while staying on the page, and process the response (display the errors that come back, or redirect).. There are many ways to solve your issue.

Answer 2

well.. i'm not sure what you're trying to do.. but if you need to send POST from php you can do it with curl with something like this:

<?php
 $ch = curl_init('http://mysite.com/index.php');
 curl_setopt ($ch, CURLOPT_POST, 1);
 curl_setopt ($ch, CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS, "option=com_content&task=blogcategory&id=24&Itemid=55");
 curl_exec ($ch);
 curl_close ($ch);
?>

Answer 3

You could use sessions, a service provided by the server that uses the cookies. Or you could send your info with the http transmission (longer solution)...

Answer 4

You could keep the POST data in session variables.

Answer 5

You could keep the POST data in a cookie.