Save HTML Form Data to a MySQL Database using PHP

Learn how to create a form in HTML, then save the data from that form to a MySQL database using PHP.
For a more detailed version of the techniques shown in this video, check out the full course here: 🎓 skl.sh/3tNX25N
Please consider supporting my channel: ☕ ko-fi.com/davehollingworth
Recommended hosting:
davehollingworth.net/hosting
In this video you'll learn how to:
- create a form in HTML using best practices
- create form controls for simple text input
- use multi-line text input using the textarea element
- use select lists, radio buttons and checkboxes
- process the submitted form data using PHP
- validate the form data using filter functions
- avoid an SQL injection attack
- use a prepared statement to insert a new record into a database
- create a database and table using phpMyAdmin
- use an SQL INSERT INTO statement to insert a record
Code shown in the video:
gist.github.com/daveh/c5a6911...
Relevant documentation:
developer.mozilla.org/docs/We...
developer.mozilla.org/docs/We...
www.php.net/manual/filter.fil...
www.php.net/manual/mysqli-stm...
www.mysqltutorial.org/mysql-d...
00:00 Introduction
00:15 Create the HTML file
01:09 Simple text input
01:38 Labels
02:34 Textarea
03:19 Styling with CSS
04:19 Lists
05:49 Radio buttons
07:36 Fieldset
08:34 Checkbox
09:28 Create the PHP file
11:47 Get the form data
12:55 Filter the data
15:04 Validate the data
16:00 Create the database
16:12 Create the table
17:08 Connect from PHP
19:50 Write the SQL
20:32 SQL injection attack
21:00 Prepared statement
22:08 Bind values to placeholders
23:42 Insert the data
24:06 Summary
#HTML #PHP #MySQL #forms

[@dave-hollingworth]

What do you find most challenging about working with HTML forms and PHP?

[@judgeguilty]

Security on the client and server side.

[@realchicagophill]

You currently have a course on codeigniter 4 on Udemy. How comprehensive is that tutorial covering features of the framework? I might be interested in that one.

[@dave-hollingworth]

@@realchicagophill It's pretty comprehensive - you can access the course here: davehollingworth.net/codeignitery

[@realchicagophill]

@@dave-hollingworth I'm half way through it.

[@davidacq2026]

The question of how much input sanitization e.g. strip_tags( trim( $_POST['value'] ) ) would be advisable before validation, or rather not using any sanitization at all before input validation.

[@dryandave]

This channel deserved more than 8k+ subscribers , hopefully you will not get tired in continuing in sharing your knowledge with us Dave. Blessed you. more power. ❤

[@emilym4441]

This video helped me so much! Thank You! I watched so many other videos trying to figure out this topic and you were the first to explain it well enough and show exactly how to complete the steps.

[@antoniopango1841]

Thanks Dave! I'm really impressed how you lecture. You find the right time to explain a concept or parameter. Well done!

[@ianalfwani7638]

This is the simplest and best explained tutorial on PHP and SQL very very helpful Hollingworth.......... respect

[@jchuillier]

Usually I need to watch 5 tutorials do be able to do something, you managed to make everything working well on the first try, many thanks for your help

[@rajashreejarande7907]

Thank you soooo much for this video. I was literally struggling to complete my project based on a similar concept. I referred to 10+ websites and other videos but i finally understood how to actually do this after watching your video. SO a big thank you. Please keep helping people

[@yherair-jk5qh]

Thanks Dave I was able to understand and returned back in html, php & sql coding again.

[@CodeLaniakea-tf5no]

Clear Explanation so I can follow your instruction with no error! Thankyou Dave

[@porshkabir2535]

Your content is a life saver. It's really difficult to find content where it takes you step by step process with a good explainaton. after tons searching I found this gold mine :)

[@hinglemcdingleberry5511]

You are a great teacher my friend! Good moderate pace and very well explained.

[@FebryanIbadurrahman]

Thank you Dave! You helped me to understand the part that i dont understand to make my coursework :) I wish you everything good in life :)

[@thejoker8705]

We had a 1st gen Echo in our master bathroom for listening to music in the morning kzbin.infoUgkxABghAEkaIDGZfHRBH3D3rBrlraNmnC71 and while in the shower. I didn't realize how tinny and awful the sound output on the original Echo was until we replaced it with the Studio. It was a sonic upgrade far beyond what I was expecting. Just wow. I love it because it's like having speakers IN the shower. My friend likes it because the music is so loud that she can no longer hear me singing. So that's a win-win.

[@novabunny663]

Hey, I just watched this video and this was quite helpful to me, Thanks Man. Im gonna check all your videos. Love you man. Your discription was way good and understandable.

[@someutubchannel69]

Dave is an amazing teacher and Masters PHP, I took one of His courses in Udemy and it was one of the best courses I have ever taken.

[@FriedrichBoettger]

I'm with you. His Beginner's PHP course was so simple even I understood it. Dave's a cut above most of the instructors on Udemy (though many are knowledgeable). He's got a great and measured speaking voice, knows his subject and takes his time explaining the subject.

[@sathvikthandra8592]

Saved my day, month ,semester

[@arminegilavyan952]

Thank you so much, had a dozen of tries , but no success, and here...my problems are solved any more!!!

[@kenaquino3815]

Great tutorial Dave. Thanks!

[@nadergad8725]

Thank you very much seriously. Simple, focused, and powerful.

[@ravichandrasangam1162]

Excellect video with minute details. Thanks so much for uploading this video. I am sure I will be watching more of your videos

[@matheusvieirabloise6387]

Dave is reference when we discuss about tests, his courses in Udemy are impressive due quality and good modern/up-to-date approaches, principally those about tests using testing framework as phpunit. thank you Dave for always are doing the best for PHP community.

[@dave-hollingworth]

Thank you so much for your kind words Matheus!

[@gensys244]

This is amazing clear nice speed and amazing as usual i really enjoy every one you do. Thank you for you work on these !

[@craigc5879]

Funny was only thinking yesterday, we must be due for a video. Purchased three of your courses on Udemy and found them easy to learn to the point I am cutting code in a major work project

[@orlignegron1790]

Excellent video, the best explanation I've had, thank you.

[@kramerbua4306]

really excellent, noone could explain it better

[@Lowlandlilin]

Greatest video i've ever seen. You might just be a genius at the process of education

[@TradingToolkit]

Amazing Tutorial, absolutely life saver!

[@earlpatterson6404]

Hi Dave, I am new to PHP and have tried about a dozen different videos but could not get the data from my registration form to populate into my database. Your the first one that I had success. I also learned a lot while I was following along. I hope you decide to do a tutorial on designing a membership login system. Keep up the great work and I appreciate you taking the time to do this video.

[@dave-hollingworth]

I do have a signup and login system video already, that I hope to expand on soon with a "part 2": kzbin.info/www/bejne/a32chpuFo9qiqZI

[@dragunyt2727]

Very well explained and easy to follow, thanks.

[@ansaraliakash]

Thank you so much Dave! I'm really curious about security of php code as I'm new to it

[@raziehzabihiasrami9264]

Your explanation was excellent and sweet and understandable thanks

[@monduli]

Great tutorial - thank you very much. You've got a new subscriber!

[@user-xd9ru6pm4l]

thank you so much for helping me. I'm a newbie in web development. looking a mentor. :) i will followed you and thank you so much. im from philippines.

[@kimmimiley900]

Thank you thank you thank you for all of these amazing videos about php!

[@Adhithya2003]

Superb video, you are calm and composed :)

[@romilpatel9968]

very detailed explanation helped alot thank you....

[@nazareno.marcelli]

Best Tutorial ever!

[@Rayaneeeee]

you're a legend!! thanks a lot, sir.

[@RishirajDesigns]

Excellent teaching skills!

[@farhadali593]

Amazing, Love you buddy!

[@Mari_SMS]

Great job Sir 👏

[@bigsmoke5930]

Thank you very much sir! God bless you

[@thomasmv6440]

Thank u Dave, good

[@OpenFreeTechnologies]

its good precise and to the point

[@sixtusushahemba9419]

Great job, thank you!

[@atharvambokar6187]

thank you for your wonderful explanation sir

[@akhileshkumar-iu9uq]

I have subscribed your api course from udemy

[@Divinetots]

this video saved me. thanks.

[@mateuszmurak9965]

Exactly what I needed. Man, i owe you my college diploma

[@rixochixo]

THANK YOU SO MUCH!!! :D

[@mojtabaheidari3170]

GREAT VIDEO😄😄😄

[@frantzlapointe9965]

wow thanks a lot!

[@mathdothings]

This channel is awesome! Thanks for every content you do, I can see how much effort you expend to bring us truly good videos. I know this is beyond this video scope, I'm curious to know which distro you're generally using on your videos showcases?

[@dave-hollingworth]

I use Xubuntu 22.04 LTS

[@aaronargottelopez3488]

thanks!

[@yashashreeprabhukhanolkar3277]

thank you so much☺

[@ilya_123__]

thank you

[@xanzerex1926]

Very nice video you are an absolute help for me 🤠

[@karimkaunda6733]

That is awesome Boss

[@Kysk]

thank u very helpful

[@AmirKartik]

thanks you for the guide! is there a way to send everything done here to another PC and for it to work the same? including the DB configuration on phpmyadmin? how do i do that? if not what can i do to create a simple page with db to be able to send it to others and work the same as it works for me?

[@Youcan352]

Thank you.

[@micheldenostredame408]

This is stuff that i could buy :)

[@fredericoamigo]

Brilliant video! I am trying to learn how to do this I JavaScript. For some reason I find this easier to do in php.. If you by chance know about a good resource that teaches how to do this I JavaScript also I would appreciate that:-) In the meantime, I’ll stick with this in php:-)

[@wanplanet7083]

Nice work

[@dowhilltourismorganisation1979]

It is terrific

[@guodalaurinaviciute487]

Great video

[@nguyenhuuhoang8131]

nice tutorial

[@chibuzordesmond3937]

Was character binding originally introduced for security? There are easier ways to edit strings and I’m completely new to php [and web dev], kinda curious. Those methods do involve quotes, but the param binding still ends in quotes, so is there a real difference between it and the other string manipulation methods?

[@saeidvaygani9709]

Perfect

[@JewelWildmoon]

How do you do this with Wordpress?

[@InspirationBroadcast]

Thanks for your wonderful contents. It's really helping me. Please can you make a core PHP tutorial with the Twitter API? Thank you

[@dave-hollingworth]

Thanks for the idea!

[@nkuutushaban8320]

So interesting

[@3101199]

Could you please make a video about how to show the stored data and be able to filter it? Thanks in advance

[@Easysleeze]

Wow 🤯🤯

[@AkshatGarg-xk7tt]

awesome

[@sreevallis7751]

The data is entered in to php tables is it possible to insert into mysql tables.

[@abdelhamidnehlil7277]

Merci

[@Dean1991x]

Brilliant video! Is this possible to do but where the html form is stored in a shared drive and the database is Microsoft access? Any guidance on this would be amazing!

[@dave-hollingworth]

You can connect to an Access database using PHP, details here: www.infocaptor.com/microsoft-access-database-using-php-pdo-odbc-example Although you'd still need a web server to run the PHP code.

[@Dean1991x]

@@dave-hollingworth thanks! Maybe this could be your next video? Haha

[@BenjaminDeMesmaeker]

Hi Dave. I am still a bit new to coding but was wondering if it is possible to add a button: "take photo". Can a picture then be taken and added to the mysql database or does this option not exist?

[@dave-hollingworth]

You can do this with JavaScript in the browser, e.g. usefulangle.com/post/352/javascript-capture-image-from-camera To save it, you'd have to upload it to the server. You don't usually store binary files like images in a MySQL database, what you'd do is upload the file to a folder on the server, and store the filename in the database instead.

[@callmejames1010]

first i'd like to convey words of appreciation for your impressive work. are u using visual studio to write the code or any recommendation for HTML,PHP texteditor? do i need to start the mysql server in my xampp before doing all this? or are you using xampp at all in the first place? your answer is greatly appreciated. thanks

[@dave-hollingworth]

I used Atom for the video, but this has been discontinued now. At the moment I recommend VSCode as an editor. Yes, you need to start the web server and the database server for this to work. I'm using (and recommend) XAMPP.

[@anthonyplanos1580]

what shortcut did you use to automatically adjust the indentation in vscode?

[@dave-hollingworth]

Highlight the text you want to indent, press tab (or shift-tab to reduce the indentation)

[@user-tg4vl8sl3w]

Hi Dave, thanks for the video I was looking for. Everything else is working fine instead the records are not inserting into message table and there is no error showing in code or error log. Connection to the database was successful.

[@dave-hollingworth]

Try using the mysqli_error function just after the code is insterted, and temporarily comment out the line that redirects so you can see the error. Documentation is here: www.php.net/manual/en/mysqli.error.php

[@bankoledada]

can you create a search function to pull from the database created via the html form? i am thinking this would be a php funtion

[@imlittledoo6969]

is it possible to replace the "echo" at 23:40 with an html page (with css and stuff)?

[@dave-hollingworth]

Absolutely, just close the PHP with the closing tag ?> and start some HTML

[@MrMahesh7001]

Hi Dave, Nice video tutorial . One small query here, how to run it on localhost?

[@dave-hollingworth]

You need a web server and database server installed - I recommend XAMPP if you don't have one

[@dusabimanamartin5395]

Thank you sir now I can connect html form to database! The problem is that I can only see one record in the database after adding more

[@dave-hollingworth]

This could be for many reasons - try comparing your code to the code from the video (link in the description)

[@edbull4891]

Great presentation. When an error is experienced, or the form was completed successfully how do you restart the form entry ?

[@dave-hollingworth]

In this example, you just go back in the browser. If you want to clear the form, you can refresh it by holding down the left shift key while pressing reload. In practice you'd probably have some client-side validation in JavaScript on the form, to make sure the form is valid when it's submitted. The server-side validation is just to make sure valid data doesn't get to the database.

[@thomasnorupjensen551]

Hi! Thank you for a very nice tutorial, well explained. It works on my server, but not if I copy it to a child theme in wordpress, to submit a form through the rest api. In Postman it seems to work, using jwt auth, but the values are not saved. Any idea why ?

[@dave-hollingworth]

If you're using an API, the data might need to be json encoded, instead of just using the $_POST array. Check out my video on APIs to see how the data is passed using the PHP input stream instead of the $_POST array: kzbin.info/www/bejne/jmaUfIKAgNeinLc

[@anpvr]

Hai, I have a doubt, i have changed the mysql and apache server port numbers, I have printed the values in the aray but can't connect to localhost, need to add any additional codes because i have change the default port numbers

[@dave-hollingworth]

You can specify the MySQL port number as the fifth parameter to mysqli_connect: www.php.net/manual/en/mysqli.construct.php

[@nutthywdw6089]

Hi, i'm so new in this. In the minute 1 that we have to type "localhost/form.html" in the browser and it will show the work. But when i try it doesn't show the work. It says "Not found". Help me please, thank you

[@dave-hollingworth]

You need a web server installed, e.g. XAMPP will install all you need. Then you need to put the files in the root folder of the web server, e.g. C:\xampp\htdocs

[@buwiesit2813]

Hello! ive been wondering where can you access phpmylogin because I can't find that certain web. Do I need to download it?

[@dave-hollingworth]

Yes, you need to install it - if you're using XAMPP, it's included

[@cheeksmcclappeth6407]

This video is very insightful. Thank you! I ran into trouble when I clicked the button to submit the form. Instead of displaying an array, the PHP code is displayed. I moved the files to the root folder for XAMPP, and received a similar error (error 405, "this page isn't working") until I typed in localhost/[directory]. Hope this helps people with a similar issue.

[@makavich]

you found any fix?

[@Balaa0528]

Is it only works if you have a website? I mean can I do it in my pc only with vscode?

[@dave-hollingworth]

You need a web server in order for this to work. You can install one with XAMPP.

[@cosmonautilus1181]

Hey, I have a question. Let's say I want to use one form that is able to insert data into multiple tables, how do you do that? In the tutorial there is only one table that is being inserted with data. I can imagine you need multiple variables that have the "INSERT INTO tablename (X, Y, Z) VALUES(?, ?, ?, )" but how do you deal with the $stmt and mysqli_stmt_execute? Btw the tutorial was top notch. Learnt a lot from your vid!

[@dave-hollingworth]

I replied to this in the code Gist here: gist.github.com/daveh/c5a691136c7e3b81dc8e72b3fc1054b3?permalink_comment_id=4232439#gistcomment-4232439

[@cosmonautilus1181]

@@dave-hollingworth Hi Dave, thanks a lot for your reply. You're a great teacher and I subbed to your channel and followed your Github!

[@davidlewisn1017]

Hello Dave, how can i send an arrray with multiple data values.Thanks

[@dave-hollingworth]

I'm not sure what you mean - do you want to know how to store an array of data in the database?

[@blinkoncebuddiesreveluv6961]

Hello, I would like to ask a question. I followed the scripting process while modifying the involved data files to fit my own database, however when I press the Send button in the HTML page it redirects me to a page with the php code in plain text and the data inputted isnt saved into the mysql database. Is there a way to solve this? Much appreciated in advance!

[@dave-hollingworth]

It sounds like you're opening the form as a file (in the web browser's address bar it looks like c:\folder\form.html) instead of from a web server - the address in the browser's address bar should be something like localhost/form.html - then when you submit it, the PHP will be executed. If you need a local web server, I recommend XAMPP

[@KnowledgePower-xg5ff]

I want to enroll to your course. But im really looking on how to extract data from mysql and display it to html. none of these tutorial here works on newer version of chrome browser.

[@dave-hollingworth]

I've tried it in Chrome and it works for me - what exactly is the problem you're having?

[@systemloading45]

What software was used to write the html code and php? I'm a bit confused.

[@dave-hollingworth]

You need a code editor, which is basically a text editor. VSCode is free and does the job well.

[@systemloading45]

@@dave-hollingworth Thank you so much!

[@phelipjdudeparcon6185]

sir based in your coding in line 4 of form.html and linn 39 of process-form.php you declare it $message while your table in database was body ? how come that those 2 are not same and yet they kind of know each other,...

[@dave-hollingworth]

$message is a variable in PHP, "body" is the name of the column in the database. These don't need to match, the value of the variable is assigned to the column when we bind values to the placeholders in the SQL

[@phelipjdudeparcon6185]

@@dave-hollingworth sir how a bout a tutorial ADD EDIT DELETE that include database for do you have any video for that ? i want to learn the basic of add edit delete. thank you

[@dave-hollingworth]

@@phelipjdudeparcon6185 I don't have a video about that yet, but it's on my list...

[@tabmax22]

17:38 what do we do if we are deploying for production on the internet?

[@dave-hollingworth]

You would have a specific MySQL user that had privileges for just that database. Often your hosting provider will give you these details automatically. More details here: www.digitalocean.com/community/tutorials/how-to-create-a-new-user-and-grant-permissions-in-mysql