php and forms

Hello,

Sorry if my question is stupid. Is it possible to use values entered in a html form in a php script on the same page? All I know about forms and php is that i can use the POST values on the 2nd page when the form in the first page is submitted.


Another question: Is it possible to setup a php page that is hidden from the user (kind of a redirection page) which processes some values and insert into the database form values entered by the user in a previous page? What I am trying to do is basically have the user fills out a form, when they click submit, they get redirected into another website (but during redirection, the form values will be inserted into the database).

Thank you!

Yes and yes.

To post forms to the same page either leave the action blank, make it the name of the page you're on or use $_SERVER['PHP_SELF'] then at the top of the page you want something like


if(isset($_POST['name of some form field (usually input button']))
{
//process form here
}


to redirect use header() (http://www.php.net/manual/en/function.header.php)
eg.

header('Location: http://www.example.com');