Interacting with a MySQL Database Table in PHP

Now that you can create HTML forms and receive HTTP POST data and properly set up a table in a MySQL database, you are ready for the next step: interacting with this MySQL database through the use of an HTML form. All that's left for you to know and do is run MySQL queries from PHP code. Here's the script we're going to be looking at in this tutorial:

Creating HTML Forms and Receiving HTTP POST Data

In my previous post, I showed you how to use HTTP GET to transfer/receive data through a page's URL (as well as how to intermingle PHP code with HTML code). What if you want the user to submit data through an HTML form to your website? That's where HTTP POST comes in.

There are two parts to making standard HTML forms: the HTML form code itself (including graphics, placement, text, and logic/data) and the PHP script that will retrieve the form data. We'll start with a brief overview of how you might want to make the form.