Submit Form to Multiple URLs With PHP
A form submission to a PHP script can be relayed to another URL. The effect is a submission to two different scripts.
As an example of use, you capture the email address right away and then submit the form to a third-party newsletter mailing service. The form submits to your own script to do the capture. And your script relays the form submission to the mailing service.
As another example, you want to capture the buyer's name, email address, and ID of the product being purchased before submitting the purchase data for payment to PayPal (or to ClickBank, Authorize.net, Stripe, or other payment gateway).
Similar to the previous example, the form submits to your PHP script. Your script captures the information you want. It then relays the form submission to the payment gateway.
(To use Ajax for multiple form submission instead of a PHP relay, see Submit Form to Multiple URLs With Ajax.)
The source code of the PHP script accompanying this article sends an email to you with the content of the form that was submitted. Then it relays the form information to the next destination.
The PHP script may be updated by you to also store the form information to a file or MySQL table along with (or instead of) emailing the information to you. And/or to send you a text message. Or anything else a PHP script can do.
Two caveats:
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This system won't process file upload form fields.
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This system is unable to successfully relay to the URL of form scripts requiring CAPTCHA or other authentication.
There is no example in this article because there is no action to show. All action is done on the server after the form is submitted.
When your form submits to the PHP script accompanying this article, it:
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Accepts the form submission.
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Sends the form data to the email address specified in the PHP script.
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Submits the form data to the URL specified in the PHP script.
Here is the source code of the PHP script. Customization notes follow.
<?php
/*
Form Submission Relay
Version 2.0
Version 1.0, August 21, 2011
Version 2.0, November 27, 2016, updated to:
1. Include stripping slashes from form data before relaying.
2. Publish submit button in case of slow internet or server.
Will Bontrager Software, LLC
https://www.willmaster.com/
Copyright 2011,2016 Will Bontrager Software, LLC
This software is provided "AS IS," without
any warranty of any kind, without even any
implied warranty such as merchantability
or fitness for a particular purpose.
Will Bontrager Software LLC grants you
a royalty free license to use this software
provided this notice appears on all copies.
*/
# Specify the URL where the form contents shall be submitted to.
$finalDestination = "http://example.com/formprocessing.php";
function TasksToDo()
{
# This example sends an email with the form contents.
# It may be deleted. If kept, update the email address below.
# Other tasks may be added.
$emailAddress = "name@example.com";
$emailSubject = "Form contents!";
$dataToSend = '';
foreach( $_POST as $k => $v )
{
$dataToSend .= "$k = $v\r\n\r\n";
}
mail($emailAddress, $emailSubject, $dataToSend, "From: $emailAddress");
} // end of function TasksToDo()
$Method = "post";
if( ! count($_POST) )
{
$Method="get";
$_POST = $_GET;
$_GET = array();
}
$formFields = '';
foreach( $_POST as $kk => $vv )
{
$k = stripslashes($kk);
$v = stripslashes($vv);
if( empty($_POST[$k]) ) { unset($_POST[$kk]); }
$_POST[$k] = $v;
$formFields .= '<input type="hidden" name="' . htmlspecialchars($k) . '" value="' . htmlspecialchars($v) . '">';
}
TasksToDo();
echo <<<RELAYPAGE
<html><body>
<form id="form-submission-relay-ID-value" method="$Method" action="$finalDestination">
$formFields
<input id="form-submission-relay-submit-button" style="display:none;" type="submit" value="Click to proceed ...">
</form>
<script type="text/javascript">
document.getElementById("form-submission-relay-ID-value").submit();
function DisplayButton() { document.getElementById("form-submission-relay-submit-button").style.display="block"; }
setTimeout(DisplayButton,3000); // Display submit button if takes longer than 3 seconds to submit.
</script>
</body></html>
RELAYPAGE;
exit;
?>
Save the source code as relay.php or other PHP file name that is appropriate for your installation. Then do the customization.
File name relay.php will be used in these instructions.
Customization Notes:
-
At line 26, is a line colored red.
Replace
http://example.com/formprocessing.phpwith the URL of the form's final destination. This is the URL the form data will be relayed to from thisrelay.phpscript. -
At line 29 through line 42 is function TasksToDo()
TasksToDo() is where whatever tasks you want done is accomplished before the form data is relayed to the final destination URL.
Currently, it sends an email with the form data. You'll need to customize:
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The name@example.com email address on line 34 to the address where the form data shall be sent to.
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The Form contents! email subject line on line 34 to the subject line you prefer for the email being sent to the above address.
The emailing may be deleted from TasksToDo() and other tasks may be added to that function. Any tasks PHP can do may be added to TasksToDo()
You'll need to know how to program with PHP for adding tasks to TasksToDo(). Depending on what functionality you wish to implement, a search on the internet may provide example code.
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To use the script, upload the customized relay.php to your server and make a note of its URL. Then change your form's action attribute URL to the URL of relay.php
The system is now ready to test. Submit the form and verify the things it is designed to do actually get done.
The relay.php script can process forms submitted with method POST and method GET, either way.
When a form is submitted, relay.php does its tasks and then sends a self-submitting form to the browser. The self-submitting form submits itself to the final destination.
(This article first appeared in Possibilities ezine.)
Will Bontrager
