PHP: Possible to automatically get all POSTed data?

Question

Simple question: Is it possible to get all the data POSTed to a page, even if you don't know all the fields?

For example, I want to write a simple script that collects any POSTed data and emails it. I can foresee that the fields in the form are likely to change a lot over time, and so to save myself some time in the long run, I was wondering if I could write something that automatically gathered everything?

Is it possible?

ofcourse just use the global arrays $_POST, $_GET, $_Ser..... — Khurram Ijaz
– Khurram Ijaz, Commented Jun 13, 2011 at 18:54
possible duplicate of How to grab all variables in a post (PHP) — mario
– mario, Commented Jun 13, 2011 at 19:06

2 revs, 2 users 67% · Accepted Answer · 2018-07-11 15:42:17Z

131

Sure. Just walk through the $_POST array:

foreach ($_POST as $key => $value) {
    echo "Field ".htmlspecialchars($key)." is ".htmlspecialchars($value)."<br>";
}

edited Jul 11, 2018 at 15:42

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2 revs, 2 users 67%
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3 Comments

jeroen Over a year ago

@Django Reinhardt Note that non-checked checkboxes do not appear in the $_POST array so if you use checkboxes, you will need to handle them differently by using isset for example.

bhawin Over a year ago

what if there is a file , will it come with it

Kaspar L. Palgi Over a year ago

Can the same be used for $_GET?

Roman Newaza · Accepted Answer · 2012-09-27 10:03:41Z

50

No one mentioned Raw Post Data, but it's good to know, if posted data has no key, but only value, use Raw Post Data:

$postdata = file_get_contents("php://input");

PHP Man:

php://input is a read-only stream that allows you to read raw data from the request body. In the case of POST requests, it is preferable to use php://input instead of $HTTP_RAW_POST_DATA as it does not depend on special php.ini directives. Moreover, for those cases where $HTTP_RAW_POST_DATA is not populated by default, it is a potentially less memory intensive alternative to activating always_populate_raw_post_data. php://input is not available with enctype="multipart/form-data".

edited Sep 27, 2012 at 10:03

answered Sep 27, 2012 at 9:56

Roman Newaza

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Comments

xkeshav · Accepted Answer · 2011-06-13 19:55:19Z

8

Yes you can use simply

     $input_data = $_POST;

or extract() may be useful for you.

edited Jun 13, 2011 at 19:55

user212218

answered Jun 13, 2011 at 18:56

xkeshav

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3 Comments

netcoder Over a year ago

extract($_POST) will mimic register_globals. Don't do that.

xkeshav Over a year ago

@netcoder; i just suggest him that it can be useful; it is an option too. and will u please give me an example to make ur comments valuable.

mickmackusa Over a year ago

Using extract on an unfiltered/unsanitized user supplied data is super, super bad idea. Do yourself a favor and don't bake insecurity into your code.

George Cummins · Accepted Answer · 2011-06-13 19:39:53Z

5

All posted data will be in the $_POST superglobal.

http://php.net/manual/reserved.variables.post.php

edited Jun 13, 2011 at 19:39

user212218

answered Jun 13, 2011 at 18:54

George Cummins

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Comments

Tickthokk · Accepted Answer · 2011-06-13 18:57:01Z

4

As long as you don't want any special formatting: yes.

foreach ($_POST as $key => $value) 
    $body .= $key . ' -> ' . $value . '<br>';

Obviously, more formatting would be necessary, however that's the "easy" way. Unless I misunderstood the question.

You could also do something like this (and if you like the format, it's certainly easier):

$body = print_r($_POST, true);

answered Jun 13, 2011 at 18:57

Tickthokk

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1 Comment

SteveCinq Over a year ago

+1 The latter suggestion ($body = print_r($_POST, true);) worked for me as the simplest without having to iterate through child elements. I just needed to see the raw POST content temporarily while developing a webhook application.

barfoon · Accepted Answer · 2011-06-13 19:54:28Z

2

You can retrieve all the keys of the $_POST array using array_keys(), then construct an email messages with the values of those keys.

var_dump($_POST) will also dump information about all of the information in $_POST for you.

edited Jun 13, 2011 at 19:54

user212218

answered Jun 13, 2011 at 18:55

barfoon

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Comments

Tarik · Accepted Answer · 2011-06-13 18:58:43Z

1

You can use $_REQUEST as well as $_POST to reach everything such as Post, Get and Cookie data.

answered Jun 13, 2011 at 18:58

Tarik

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netcoder · Accepted Answer · 2011-06-13 19:05:00Z

1

To add to the others, var_export might be handy too:

$email_text = var_export($_POST, true);

edited Jun 13, 2011 at 19:05

netcoder

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answered Jun 13, 2011 at 19:00

searlea

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Abdul Raheem Dumrai · Accepted Answer · 2022-10-25 15:28:34Z

1

Just to echo all data of $_POST.

echo json_encode($_POST);

You can also do this for more better viewing.

echo var_dump($_POST);

edited Oct 25, 2022 at 15:28

answered Sep 24, 2022 at 18:33

Abdul Raheem Dumrai

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1 Comment

v010dya Over a year ago

why echo var_dump when var_dump already outputs?

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