POST vs SERVER REQUEST METHOD POST

Question

Some guy called one of my Snipplr submissions  crap  because I used if    SERVER  REQUEST METHOD       POST   instead of if    POST   Checking the request method seems more correct to me because that s what I really want to do  Is there some operational difference between the two or is this just a code clarity issue

User · Answer

They are both correct  Personally I prefer your approach better for its verbosity but it s really down to personal preference   Off hand  running if   POST  would not throw an error - the   POST array exists regardless if the request was sent with POST headers  An empty array is cast to false in a boolean check

User · Answer

I used to check   POST until I got into a trouble with larger POST data and uploaded files  There are configuration directives post max size and upload max filesize - if any of them is exceeded    POST array is not populated    So the  safe way  is to check   SERVER  REQUEST METHOD    You still have to use isset   on every   POST variable though  and it does not matter  whether you check or don t check   SERVER  REQUEST METHOD

User · Answer

this- gt method     SERVER  REQUEST METHOD    if   this- gt method     POST   amp  amp  array key exists  HTTP X HTTP METHOD     SERVER         if    SERVER  HTTP X HTTP METHOD       DELETE              this- gt method    DELETE         else if    SERVER  HTTP X HTTP METHOD       PUT              this- gt method    PUT         else           throw new Exception  Unexpected Header

User · Answer

Well  they don t do the same thing  really     SERVER  REQUEST METHOD   contains the request method  surprise      POST contains any post data   It s possible for a POST request to contain no POST data   I check the request method     I actually never thought about testing the   POST array  I check the required post fields  though  So an empty post request would give the user a lot of error messages - which makes sense to me

User · Answer

if    SERVER  REQUEST METHOD       POST   is the correct way  you can send a post request without any post data

User · Answer

It checks whether the page has been called through POST  as opposed to GET  HEAD  etc   When you type a URL in the menu bar  the page is called through GET  However  when you submit a form with method  post  the action page is called with POST

User · Answer

They are both correct  Personally I prefer your approach better for its verbosity but it s really down to personal preference   Off hand  running if   POST  would not throw an error - the   POST array exists regardless if the request was sent with POST headers  An empty array is cast to false in a boolean check

User · Answer

As long as I may need to access my PHP scripts with more than one method  what I do actually is   if  in array   SERVER  REQUEST METHOD   array  GET   POST   DELETE          do wathever I do

User · Answer

Well  they don t do the same thing  really     SERVER  REQUEST METHOD   contains the request method  surprise      POST contains any post data   It s possible for a POST request to contain no POST data   I check the request method     I actually never thought about testing the   POST array  I check the required post fields  though  So an empty post request would give the user a lot of error messages - which makes sense to me

User · Answer

They are both correct  Personally I prefer your approach better for its verbosity but it s really down to personal preference   Off hand  running if   POST  would not throw an error - the   POST array exists regardless if the request was sent with POST headers  An empty array is cast to false in a boolean check

User · Answer

I used to check   POST until I got into a trouble with larger POST data and uploaded files  There are configuration directives post max size and upload max filesize - if any of them is exceeded    POST array is not populated    So the  safe way  is to check   SERVER  REQUEST METHOD    You still have to use isset   on every   POST variable though  and it does not matter  whether you check or don t check   SERVER  REQUEST METHOD

User · Answer

this- gt method     SERVER  REQUEST METHOD    if   this- gt method     POST   amp  amp  array key exists  HTTP X HTTP METHOD     SERVER         if    SERVER  HTTP X HTTP METHOD       DELETE              this- gt method    DELETE         else if    SERVER  HTTP X HTTP METHOD       PUT              this- gt method    PUT         else           throw new Exception  Unexpected Header

User · Answer

They both work the same way  but   POST should be used as it is cleaner  You can add isset   to it to check it exists

User · Answer

It s really a 6 of one  a half-dozen of the other situation   The only possible argument against your approach is   SERVER  REQUEST METHOD       POST  may not be populated on certain web-servers configuration  whereas the   POST array will always exist in PHP4 PHP5  and if it doesn t exist  you have bigger problems  -

User · Answer

They both work the same way  but   POST should be used as it is cleaner  You can add isset   to it to check it exists

User · Answer

Well  they don t do the same thing  really     SERVER  REQUEST METHOD   contains the request method  surprise      POST contains any post data   It s possible for a POST request to contain no POST data   I check the request method     I actually never thought about testing the   POST array  I check the required post fields  though  So an empty post request would give the user a lot of error messages - which makes sense to me

User · Answer

If your application needs to react on request of type post  use this   if strtoupper   SERVER  REQUEST METHOD         POST        if form submitted with post method        validate request          manage post request differently          log or don t log request         redirect to avoid resubmition on F5 etc     If your application needs to react on any data received through post request  use this   if  empty   POST         if received any post data       process   POST values         save data to DB                if  empty   FILES        if received any  post  files       validate uploaded FILES       move to uploaded dir               It is implementation specific  but you a going to use both      FILES superglobal

User · Answer

As long as I may need to access my PHP scripts with more than one method  what I do actually is   if  in array   SERVER  REQUEST METHOD   array  GET   POST   DELETE          do wathever I do

User · Answer

Well  they don t do the same thing  really     SERVER  REQUEST METHOD   contains the request method  surprise      POST contains any post data   It s possible for a POST request to contain no POST data   I check the request method     I actually never thought about testing the   POST array  I check the required post fields  though  So an empty post request would give the user a lot of error messages - which makes sense to me

User · Answer

You can submit a form by hitting the enter key  i e  without clicking the submit button  in most browsers but this does not necessarily send submit as a variable - so it is possible to submit an empty form i e    POST will be  empty but the form will still have generated a http post request to the php page  In this case if    SERVER  REQUEST METHOD       POST   is better

User · Answer

If your application needs to react on request of type post  use this   if strtoupper   SERVER  REQUEST METHOD         POST        if form submitted with post method        validate request          manage post request differently          log or don t log request         redirect to avoid resubmition on F5 etc     If your application needs to react on any data received through post request  use this   if  empty   POST         if received any post data       process   POST values         save data to DB                if  empty   FILES        if received any  post  files       validate uploaded FILES       move to uploaded dir               It is implementation specific  but you a going to use both      FILES superglobal

User · Answer

if    SERVER  REQUEST METHOD       POST   is the correct way  you can send a post request without any post data

User · Answer

You can submit a form by hitting the enter key  i e  without clicking the submit button  in most browsers but this does not necessarily send submit as a variable - so it is possible to submit an empty form i e    POST will be  empty but the form will still have generated a http post request to the php page  In this case if    SERVER  REQUEST METHOD       POST   is better

User · Answer

It s really a 6 of one  a half-dozen of the other situation   The only possible argument against your approach is   SERVER  REQUEST METHOD       POST  may not be populated on certain web-servers configuration  whereas the   POST array will always exist in PHP4 PHP5  and if it doesn t exist  you have bigger problems  -

User · Answer

They are both correct  Personally I prefer your approach better for its verbosity but it s really down to personal preference   Off hand  running if   POST  would not throw an error - the   POST array exists regardless if the request was sent with POST headers  An empty array is cast to false in a boolean check

User · Answer

It s really a 6 of one  a half-dozen of the other situation   The only possible argument against your approach is   SERVER  REQUEST METHOD       POST  may not be populated on certain web-servers configuration  whereas the   POST array will always exist in PHP4 PHP5  and if it doesn t exist  you have bigger problems  -

User · Answer

They both work the same way  but   POST should be used as it is cleaner  You can add isset   to it to check it exists

User · Answer

if    SERVER  REQUEST METHOD       POST   is the correct way  you can send a post request without any post data

User · Answer

if    SERVER  REQUEST METHOD       POST   is the correct way  you can send a post request without any post data

User · Answer

It s really a 6 of one  a half-dozen of the other situation   The only possible argument against your approach is   SERVER  REQUEST METHOD       POST  may not be populated on certain web-servers configuration  whereas the   POST array will always exist in PHP4 PHP5  and if it doesn t exist  you have bigger problems  -

User · Answer

It checks whether the page has been called through POST  as opposed to GET  HEAD  etc   When you type a URL in the menu bar  the page is called through GET  However  when you submit a form with method  post  the action page is called with POST

User · Answer

They both work the same way  but   POST should be used as it is cleaner  You can add isset   to it to check it exists

[php] $_POST vs. $_SERVER['REQUEST_METHOD'] == 'POST'

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