PHP: $_Get and $_Post

The GET HTTP method requests are used to get data from a specific resource, the parameters and values can be seen in the URL for example...

..index.php?param1=value1&param2=value2

POST requests submit data to be processed.

If you fail to specify a method in your form then it will default to GET. Best to define the method and then in your PHP code when accessing that data you know which to use rather than relying on defaults. There are several differences between the methods that may influence your decision on which you want to use, in general when passing data with my own code I use POST.

I guess I should have been more specific. What I'm actually having trouble with is following the flow of this page of code:

<?php

if ($_SERVER["REQUEST_METHOD"] == "POST") { $name = $_POST["name"]; $email = $_POST["email"]; $message = $_POST["message"]; $email_body = ""; $email_body = $email_body . "Name: " . $name . "\n"; $email_body = $email_body . "Email: " . $email . "\n"; $email_body = $email_body . "Message: " . $message; echo $email_body;

header("Location: contact.php?status=thanks");
exit;

} ?>

<?php $pageTitle = "Contact Mike"; $section = "contact"; include('inc/header.php');

?>

<div class="section page">

    <div class="wrapper">

        <h1>Contact</h1> 

        <?php if (isset($_GET["status"]) AND $_GET["status"] == "thanks") { ?>
            <p>Thanks for the email! I&rsquo;ll be in touch shortly!</p>
        <?php } else { ?> 

            <p>I&rsquo;d love to hear from you! Complete the form to send me an email.</p>

            <form method="post" action="contact.php">

                <table>
                    <tr>
                        <th>
                            <label for="name">Name</label>
                        </th>
                        <td>
                            <input type="text" name="name" id="name">
                        </td>
                    </tr>
                    <tr>
                        <th>
                            <label for="email">Email</label>
                        </th>
                        <td>
                            <input type="text" name="email" id="email">
                        </td>
                    </tr>
                    <tr>
                        <th>
                            <label for="message">Message</label>
                        </th>
                        <td>
                            <textarea name="message" id="message"></textarea>
                        </td>
                    </tr>                    
                </table>

                <input type="submit" value="Send">

            </form>

        <?php } ?>

    </div>

</div>

<?php include('inc/footer.php') ?>

What mostly confused me is the conditional. It says to only run certain parts of the code based upon whether or not they are POST or GET. However, it seems to me that that status hasn't already been defined anywhere. So how does it work?

Mike is using the same page for guests to contact him. The conditional is being used to determine what data to show to the user.

In plain English, if the method is equal to post then display the message in the email body redirect the user and exit the script.

If the method is get AND the status equals thanks then display the message thanks I will be in touch shortly.

For every other condition display the input form.

The user flow here would be fill in the form, submit the form, the form is processed with the post condition check, the user is redirected back to the contact page with the status of thanks, the get condition is invoked and the thank you message is displayed.

Thanks, everyone. Your answers have been extremely helpful.

I overlooked the form method being POST. I think that was the missing link I was looking for.

Thanks, again!