My PHP $_POST is posting empty values, how do I fix?

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I have created a form, as shown below that displays according to a switch statement. I am needing the inputs from the form submission to either be saved to a table in the WordPress Database or to be saved to a text file saved in the uploads section of the sites core files. However, when the form is submitted it is outputting empty values for the variables. What am I doing wrong? How can this be fixed? Thank you!

Code for the form's switch statement:

PHP

<?php /* code for pop-up button conditions */
    $host = 'https://' .$_SERVER["HTTP_HOST"] . $_SERVER["REQUEST_URI"]; /* gets the current page's URL */
    switch ( $host ){
      case 'https://example1.com/': 
      case 'https://example2.com/': 
      case 'https://example3.com/':
      	require 'pop-up-button.php'; /*calls the PHP file containing the code for the form*/
    	echo '<button id="close" class="open-button" onclick="openForm()"></button>'; /*echo runs and outputs the HTML code for the button */
      	break; 
      default : 
    	break; 
    }; ?>

Code for the form:

HTML

<html>
    <style>
    
    /* Stylings for Heading Statement */
    	.h3{
    		text-align: center;
    		font-size: 24px;
    		padding: 10px;
    		color: white;
    	}
    /* Stylings for checkbox */
    	.box{
    		font-size: 20px;
    		padding: 20px;
    		color: white;
    	}
    /* Stylings for input labels (names and checkbox labels) */
    	.input-label{
    		text-align: center;
    		font-size: 20px;
    		padding: 10px;
    		color: white;
    	}
    /* Button used to open the contact form - fixed at the bottom of the page */
    	.open-button {
    		width: 170px; 
    		height: 60px; 
    		background-color: transparent; 
    		outline: none; 
    		position: relative; 
    		left: -168px; 
    		top: 20px;
    	}
    /* The popup form - hidden by default */
    	.form-popup {
    		display: none;
    		position: absolute;
          	top: 25%;
    		border: none;
    		z-index: 9;
          	background-color: #1e1e1e;
          width: 100%;
    		padding: 20px;
    		border-radius: 20px;
          	text-align: center;
    	}
    /* Sets style and size of input fields  */
    	.form-popup input[type=text] {
    		width: 20%;
    		padding: 5px;
    		margin: 5px 0 22px 0;
    		border: none;
    		background: #FFFFFF;
    	}
    /* Sets color and style of the input boxes when selected */
    	.form-popup input:focus {
    		background-color: #FFFFFF;
    		outline: none;
    	}
    /* Stylings of the submit button */
    	.btn {
    		background-color: #DB2600;
    		border-radius: 9999px;
    		font-size: 24px;
    		width: 120px;
    		height: 45px;
    		transition: 0.3s;
    		color: white;
    	}
    /* Changes the color of the sugmit button when curser hovers over it */
    	.btn:hover {
    		opacity: 1;
    		background-color: #000000;
    	}
    /* Hides the default checkbox */
    	.box input {
    		position: absolute;
    		opacity: 0;
    		cursor: pointer;
    		height: 0;
    		width: 0;
    	}
    /* creates custom checkbox */
    	.checkmark {
    		position: absolute;
    		height: 20px;
    		width: 20px;
    		background-color: white;
    		border-radius: 2px;
    	}
    /* Sets the color of checkbox when checked */
    	.box input:checked ~ .checkmark {
    		background-color: #DB2600;
    	}
    /* creates checkmark inside checkbox */
    	.checkmark:after {
    		content: "";
    		position: absolute;
    		display: none;
    	}
    /* Displays checkmark when checkbox is clicked */
    	.box input:checked ~ .checkmark:after {
    		display: block;
    	}
    /* Positions and styles checkmark */
    	.box .checkmark:after {
    		left: 7px;
    		top: 3px;
    		width: 6px;
    		height: 12px;
    		border: solid white;
    		border-width: 0 3px 3px 0;
    		-webkit-transform: rotate(45deg);
    		-ms-transform: rotate(45deg);
    		transform: rotate(45deg);
    	}
    /* Column formatting for checkbox and statement. This is what is aligning the two items. */
    	.column1 {
            float: left;
            width: 17%;
    	}
        .column2 {
            float: left;
            width: 74%;
          	margin-top:-5px;
        }
    /* Clears floats after the columns */
        .row:after {
            content: "";
            display: table;
            clear: both;
        }
    
    </style>
    <body>
    
    <!-- Code for the form -->
    
        <div class="form-popup" id="Form"> 
            <form method="POST" action="<?php echo $_SERVER['PHP_SELF'];?>">
            
    		<!-- acknolwdgement statment -->
                  <h3 class="h3">Form Statement</h3> 
    
            <!-- label and input for First Name -->
                  <label for="fname" class="input-label">First name:</label>
                  <input type="text" name="fname" id="fname" required/> 
    
            <!-- label and input for Last Name -->
                  <label for="lname" class="input-label">    Last name:</label>
                  <input type="text" name="lname" id="lname" required/> <br> <br>
    
            <!-- checkbox and label, placed to columns to achieve desired formating -->
                  <div class="row">
                      <div class="column1" style="text-align: right;">
                          <label  class="box" style="border-color: red;">  
                          <input type="checkbox" name="consent" value="agreed" class="box" id="consent" required/>
                          
                          </label></div>
                      <div class="column2" style="text-align: left;">
                          <label class="input-label"> I have read and understand the above statement.
                          </label>
                      </div>
                  </div>
                  <br><br>	
            <!-- Submit Button -->
                  <input type="submit" onclick = "submitForm()" class="btn">
    			
    
            </form>
        </div>
    
    <script>
        function openForm() { /* Opens Consent Form */
          	document.getElementById("Form").style.display = "block";
        }
    	function submitForm() {
          	document.write = "<?php form_process() ?>"; 
    	}
    </script>
    
    </body>
    
    </html>

PHP that processes the form: (contains statements for both Database insertions and writing to the text file, I truly only need one to work)

PHP

<?php /* PHP code that processes form */
    
    	function form_process(){
           
    	$_POST = json_decode(file_get_contents("php://input"), true);
      
		$FirstName = filter_input(INPUT_POST, "fname", FILTER_SANITIZE_STRING);
        $LastName = filter_input(INPUT_POST, "lname", FILTER_SANITIZE_STRING);
        $Consent = filter_input(INPUT_POST, "consent", FILTER_SANITIZE_STRING);
        
        $Date = date("l, F jS, Y");
        date_default_timezone_set("America/Chicago");
        $Time = date("h:i:sa");
        
  
            global $wpdb;
            $mysqli = new mysqli("host", "usernme", "password", "database");
            $table_name = $wpdb -> database . 'table';
            $wpdb->insert($table_name, array('FirstName' => "$FirstName", 'LastName' => "$LastName", 'Consent' => "$Consent"));
    
    
            $data = 'I, ' . $FirstName . ' ' . $LastName . ', ' . $Consent . ' to Form on ' . $Date . ' at ' . $Time . '.' . "\n"; 
            $txtfile = "uploads/Form.txt";
            $fp = fopen($txtfile, 'a+');
            fwrite($fp, $data);
            fclose($fp);
    	}
    ?>

What I have tried:

I have tried using GET and REQUEST and neither work. I also tried var_dump($_POST); and when that runs it acts as if the form is being processed before it is even run. Also the code worked when I was writing and testing it locally, it began giving me empty values once it was moved to WordPress.

Posted 1-Nov-21 9:18am

Coding Student

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Comments

Member 15627495 6-Jul-23 1:03am

when you use 'submit', it's already a way to "act" to the server target page, and sending all 'field' about this 'form'.

as you add a function call, you're fire a second set of datas.
the server surely take it bad.

<form method="POST" action="?"> // it's equal to php_self, page_Y to page_Y

Andre Oosthuizen 7-Jul-23 4:55am

2021 Question, sure the OP found a solution by now (I know, it happens to me some times as well where the question is under the unanswered and recent questions) :)

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