PHP Post data to url with curl

I know you will need sometimes to use a php code to send data (text) to an url using POST method, just like it was sent by a form.
So all you have to do now, is to copy this function and use it, you have to specify the url and the data to post and it goes !

<?php
function post_content($url,$nfields,$fields_string)  
{
    $ch = curl_init();  
    curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_URL, $url);  
    curl_setopt($ch,CURLOPT_POST,$nfields);
    curl_setopt($ch,CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS,$fields_string);
    curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_HEADER, 1);
    curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_USERAGENT, 'Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; MSIE 7.0; Windows NT 6.0; en-US)');  
    ob_start();  
    curl_exec ($ch);  
    curl_close ($ch);  
    $string = ob_get_contents();  
    ob_end_clean();  
    return $string;      
}
?>

How this will work ? It's very easy:
1- First you need to know what url you want to post to using curl
2- You need to know what are the names of variables to post (textarea, checkbox..)
3- Their number
4-And their values

This is a quite easy exemple:
if the original form has these fields: textarea1, textarea2, and sends to "www.site.com/page.php", like this example:
<form name="form1" method="post" action="www.site.com/page.php">
  <textarea name="textarea1"></textarea>
  <textarea name="textarea2"></textarea>
</form>

You should use this function in this way:
post_content("http://www.site.com/page.html",2,"textarea1=value1&textarea2=value2")

$nfields=2 because you have two fields (textarea1 and textarea2) ,
$fields_sring = "textarea1=value1&textarea2=value2" because you want to post two variables ( fields values) value1 for the field textarea1 and value2 for the field textarea2, you have to write always "&" between each couple of fieldname-value.

What does this all mean, and for what ?
With this function you will be able to "assimilate" the use of the form and the submit button, and this mean you will be able to get the content of the page www.site.com/pahe.php without using the form, because php can't use a form :)

That's all !

HTML code directly in IF Conditions

This is the most amazing thing in php conditions, and exactly the if statement.
In a php condition, you can put directly a html code without the echo function :)

This is what I'm talking about, with echo function, then without.:



if ($condition == 'something') {
echo '
My Website...
'; } else { echo '
My Website...
'; } ?>
With the new way I'm talking about, the script will be like this:




 if ($condition = 'something') {?>
<div class="style1">My Website...<div>
 } else { ?>
<div class="style2">My Website2...<div>
 }?>




Now  why this can be useful ?
In fact, when you are using a html editor like dreamweaver, you will be able to design easily the html code in the if statement, you can add tables, images, div, change colors ... directly using the design view, or when you use the code view you can see the html code highlighted (like in the exemple above) wich believe me will help you a lot and make your programming so much easier !


Thank you.

PHP forms

Using PHP With HTML Forms

We use forms to interact with the website visitor, we can get and save his name, email address, comments, and even his purchased item, color of the item, his street address.
The form is made in two steps: creating a html form to be visible in the browser of the visitor, and creating a php script that will process the form, such as sending email, saving name and email in database, ...

The complete Tutorial is here: PHP Forms

Tutorials-Planet.com

I'm moving to Tutorials-planet.com, you can find there all php articles, tutorials and script you need to be a successfull php programmer.
All php sources should be here
PHP tutorials include strings, variables, functions, arrays and form tutorials, other tutorials are coming !

Free web hosting services

Every one who want to start online business, need a very cheap or free web hosting to start with.

Many companies online provide a good free web hosting services, and they may differ by their:
  • Disk Space
  • Data Transfer / bandwidth
  • databases
  • email services
  • usable languages: php/asp/perl ...
All are free, but only the file hosting is free, and surely not the domain name. In every web hosting plan, you need to buy your own domain name ( whatever from your hosting company or another company ), or, for your quick start and testing, you can use their free subdomain like: yourname.theirdomain.com or myphpsource.blogspot.com where blogger (blogspot) is the hosting company who offer free subdomain.

I collected for you the best free web hosting services, with their reliable/dedicate server. Where you can apply for a free subdomain along with the hosting, or attach your own domain name to their servers.


-> orgfree.com
they offer good webhosting, with ftp, web-based file manager, php, mysql database, but they add their own ads to all your pages, which not seems to be good for many people. see orgfree.com.

-> zymic.com
This is an excellent free web hosting service with 6000 MB hosting space, php, 5 MySQL databases, ftp & file manager ...
They are also ad-free hosting so they do not add their ads to your pages, and they also provide you with quality free templates for your new website. See their details here.

-> Gofreeserve.com
Gofreeserve.com is my best at all ! 99.9% server uptime, it's a reliable webhosting service: 1000 MB hosting space, 15 Add-on domains, 15 Sub domains, Website Builder, Webmail (RoundCube), 15 MySQL databases, php MyAdmin, no ads and much more in their free hosting plan that you can see here.

-> 50gigs.net
50gigs.net is also a good webhosting, 5000 MB hosting space, 50 Add-on domains, 50 Sub domains, Website Builder, free RoundCube Webmail, MySQL databases, no ads. You can see more here.

I will post more and more good and free webhosting services, or cheap hosting, or reliable.