3 Steps To Save HTML Form Into Database In PHP MySQL

Welcome to a beginner’s tutorial on how to save an HTML form into the database with PHP and MySQL. So you have finally come to fight the boss stage of full-stack programming – Combining HTML, PHP, and MySQL to save a submitted form into the database.

Yep, it’s really that simple but read on for an actual example!

 

 

TABLE OF CONTENTS

 

 

EXAMPLE CODE DOWNLOAD

Source code on GitHub Gist

Just click on “download zip” or do a git clone. I have released it under the MIT license, so feel free to build on top of it or use it in your own project.

 

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TUTORIAL VIDEO

 

STEP 1) CREATE THE DATABASE TABLE

CREATE TABLE `survey` (
  `email` varchar(255) NOT NULL,
  `name` varchar(255) NOT NULL,
  `color` varchar(128) NOT NULL
) ENGINE=InnoDB DEFAULT CHARSET=utf8mb4;
 
ALTER TABLE `survey`
  ADD PRIMARY KEY (`email`);

For this example, we will be doing a simple “survey” on the favorite color that the users like; We will be capturing 3 fields – The email, name, and the color itself.

 

 

STEP 2) CREATE THE HTML FORM

<?php
// (A) SAVE SURVEY FORM ON SUBMIT
if (isset($_POST["email"])) { require "3-save.php"; }
?>
 
<!-- (B) SURVEY FORM -->
<form method="post">
  <label>Email</label>
  <input type="email" name="email" required>
  <label>Name</label>
  <input type="text" name="name" required>
  <label>Favorite Color</label>
  <input type="text" name="color" required>
  <input type="submit" value="Go!">
</form>

Shouldn’t have any trouble with this one too. This is an HTML form with exactly what we want to capture – The email, name, and favorite color. Take note of that if (isset($_POST["email"])) though, we will only include the “save to database” PHP script only when the form is submitted.

 

 

STEP 3) PHP SAVE FORM INTO DATABASE

<?php
// (A) DATABASE CREDENTIALS - CHANGE TO YOUR OWN!
define("DB_HOST", "localhost");
define("DB_NAME", "test");
define("DB_CHARSET", "utf8mb4");
define("DB_USER", "root");
define("DB_PASSWORD", "");
 
// (B) CONNECT TO DATABASE
$pdo = new PDO(
  "mysql:host=".DB_HOST.";charset=".DB_CHARSET.";dbname=".DB_NAME,
  DB_USER, DB_PASSWORD, [
  PDO::ATTR_ERRMODE => PDO::ERRMODE_EXCEPTION,
  PDO::ATTR_DEFAULT_FETCH_MODE => PDO::FETCH_ASSOC
]);
 
// (C) INSERT
$stmt = $pdo->prepare("INSERT INTO `survey` (`email`, `name`, `color`) VALUES (?, ?, ?)");
$stmt->execute([$_POST["email"], $_POST["name"], $_POST["color"]]);
 
// (D) RESULTS
echo "OK";

I don’t think this one needs a lot of explanation either – Connect to the database and do an SQL INSERT. That’s all, really.

 

 

EXTRA) SEND EMAIL NOTIFICATION

/* (X) SEND EMAIL
$message = "";
foreach ($_POST as $k=>$v) { $message .= "$k : $v\r\n"; }
mail("admin@site.com", "Survey Received", $message);
*/

Need to send out an email? Just add a few more lines after the database insert is done.

 

 

 

LINKS & REFERENCES

• Your first form – Learn web development | MDN
• HTML Form Validation – Code Boxx
• How to Import SQL File In MySQL – Code Boxx
• PHP PDO
• Mail not sending out? – Code Boxx