PHP Form Submission: Recognize Image Input Buttons

By  on  

As you probably know, you can recognize a form submission from a "submit" input type by placing the following code in the "processing" PHP script:

if(isset($_POST['submit'])) { /* do stuff */ }

Did you know, however, that when using an "image" input type to submit the form, the above wont work? You need to add a "_x" to the field name in PHP:

if(isset($_POST['submit_x'])) { /* do stuff */ }

Odd, huh? This works the same when using a form "GET" method.

Recent Features

  • By
    Responsive and Infinitely Scalable JS Animations

    Back in late 2012 it was not easy to find open source projects using requestAnimationFrame() - this is the hook that allows Javascript code to synchronize with a web browser's native paint loop. Animations using this method can run at 60 fps and deliver fantastic...

  • By
    Create a CSS Flipping Animation

    CSS animations are a lot of fun; the beauty of them is that through many simple properties, you can create anything from an elegant fade in to a WTF-Pixar-would-be-proud effect. One CSS effect somewhere in between is the CSS flip effect, whereby there's...

Incredible Demos

  • By
    CSS pointer-events

    The responsibilities taken on by CSS seems to be increasingly blurring with JavaScript. Consider the -webkit-touch-callout CSS property, which prevents iOS's link dialog menu when you tap and hold a clickable element. The pointer-events property is even more JavaScript-like, preventing: click actions from doing...

  • By
    MooTools Documentation Search Favelet

    I'm going to share something with you that will blow your mind: I don't have the MooTools documentation memorized. I just don't. I visit the MooTools docs frequently to figure out the order of parameters of More classes and how best to use...

Discussion

  1. The _x and _y represent the coordinate location you clicked the image at.

  2. Think this is only an issue with IE.

  3. Yeah. The _x- and _y-coordinates are great for improving the security of a form! I’ve used this to determine if the form has been filled by a human. A spam-bot won’t submit any coordinates but a human has to click on the button and so there will always be coordinates (you’ll have to deactive submitting with the ENTER-button).

  4. @Matthias: Good point on the security enhancement — I’ve never though of that!

  5. Braxo

    @ Matthias

    Thanks for posting your comment. I think telling the user that the ENTER button has been deactivated for bot protection is easier than having the user type in a captcha.

    I’ll definitely be looking into that method and most likely incorporating it into my projects.

  6. @Braxo – Wait – “Enter button” is deactivated? How would this affect someone who cannot use a mouse/relies on accessibility tools to fill out forms and the like?

    Some sites cannot get away with it (coughtargetcough).

  7. You can save yourself the trouble and just give the input a name attribute and check for that. Saves from changing code in two places (the input and the PHP submit validation).

    <input type="image" src="image.png" name="submitted" value="Submit" />

  8. I should clarify that…

    It saves from changing code in 2 places should you want to change to/from an image submit or a standard submit.

Wrap your code in <pre class="{language}"></pre> tags, link to a GitHub gist, JSFiddle fiddle, or CodePen pen to embed!