Order Form With PHP MySQL (Very Simple Example)

Welcome to a tutorial and example on how to create a simple order form with PHP and MySQL. Need to add an order form to your website? Contrary to what some beginners think, it is actually a pretty straightforward process.

Let us walk through a simple order form in this guide – Read on!

 

 

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) ORDERS DATABASE TABLE

CREATE TABLE `orders` (
  `order_id` bigint(20) NOT NULL,
  `dop` datetime NOT NULL DEFAULT current_timestamp(),
  `name` varchar(255) NOT NULL,
  `email` varchar(255) NOT NULL,
  `qty` int(5) NOT NULL
) ENGINE=InnoDB DEFAULT CHARSET=utf8mb4;

ALTER TABLE `orders`
  ADD PRIMARY KEY (`order_id`),
  ADD KEY `dop` (`dop`);

ALTER TABLE `orders`
  MODIFY `order_id` bigint(20) NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT, AUTO_INCREMENT=1;

The first step is to create a database table to store all the required order details. In this example, we will be capturing:

Field	Description
order_id	Primary key, just a unique running number in the system to keep track of which order is which.
dop	Date of purchase.
name	Name of customer.
email	Customer’s email.
qty	Quantity.

But this is only an example ultimately – Feel free to add/remove fields in your own project as necessary.

P.S. For the total beginners, you can easily manage your database with a free manager such as phpMyAdmin or MySQL Workbench.

 

 

STEP 2) ORDER HTML PAGE 

<?php
// (A) PROCESS ORDER FORM
if (isset($_POST["name"])) {
  require "3-process.php"; 
  echo $result == "" 
    ? "<div class='notify'>Thank You! We have received your order</div>" 
    : "<div class='notify'>$result</div>" ;
}
?>
 
<!-- (B) ORDER FORM -->
<form method="post" target="_self">
  <label>Name</label>
  <input type="text" name="name" required value="Jon Doe">
 
  <label>Email</label>
  <input type="email" name="email" required value="jon@doe.com">
 
  <label>Quantity</label>
  <input type="number" name="qty" required min="1" max="99" value="1">
 
  <input type="submit" value="Place Order">
</form>

Wait, there is PHP code mixed inside! Keep calm and look carefully:

• (B)  A simple HTML order form with the 3 fields. Name, email, quantity.
• (A) When the HTML form is submitted, we use PHP to handle things accordingly.

 

 

STEP 3) PHP PROCESSING

<?php
// (A) PROCESS RESULT
$result = "";

// (B) CONNECT TO DATABASE - CHANGE SETTINGS TO YOUR OWN!
$dbhost = "localhost";
$dbname = "test";
$dbchar = "utf8mb4";
$dbuser = "root";
$dbpass = "";
$pdo = new PDO(
  "mysql:host=$dbhost;dbname=$dbname;charset=$dbchar",
  $dbuser, $dbpass, [
  PDO::ATTR_ERRMODE => PDO::ERRMODE_EXCEPTION,
  PDO::ATTR_DEFAULT_FETCH_MODE => PDO::FETCH_ASSOC
]);

// (C) SAVE ORDER TO DATABASE
if ($result=="") { try {
  $stmt = $pdo->prepare("INSERT INTO `orders` (`name`, `email`, `qty`) VALUES (?,?,?)");
  $stmt->execute([$_POST["name"], $_POST["email"], $_POST["qty"]]);
} catch (Exception $ex) { $result = $ex->getMessage(); }}

// (D) SEND ORDER VIA EMAIL
if ($result=="") {
  $to = "admin@site.com"; // CHANGE TO YOUR OWN!
  $subject = "ORDER RECEIVED";
  $message = "";
  foreach ($_POST as $k=>$v) { $message .= "$k - $v\r\n"; }
  if (!@mail($to, $subject, $message)) { $result = "Error sending mail!"; }
}

This may look like a “confusing bunch”, what it does is straightforward – Connect to the database, save the order, and send it out via email. That’s all to the “complicated system”.

 

 

 

RECOMMENDATIONS

As you may have noticed, this order form may work, but it is raw barebones. A couple of recommended “homework” and “add-ons”:

• An open order form is just waiting for spammers to open fire upon. You might want to add Google ReCaptcha and protect it against spam.
• Alternatively, consider opening it to registered users only –
  • User Registration System
  • AJAX Login Page
• There is no admin page for the database orders. Feel free to use PHPMyAdmin, MySQL Workbench, or create your own simple admin panel.

 

 

HOW ABOUT MULTIPLE ITEMS?

Quick and dirty way:

• Add more “quantity” fields to the orders database table.
• Add more quantity fields in the HTML form for different items.
• On form submit, “map” the submitted quantities to the database fields.

But yep, I will recommend a proper shopping cart.

 

LINKS & REFERENCES

• HTML Forms – MDN
• PHP Mail – Official PHP Manual
• Fix “email not working” – Code Boxx
• Simple PHP MYSQL Shopping Cart – Code Boxx