POST Vars

[Redline]

Out of curiousity, when are post vars sent to the server? Is it done when the user clicks the submit button, or are POST vars pulled from the user's browser when the script referred to in the action declaration loads?

[redhead]

When the user clicks the button, the action method is performed as a request from the users browser, if you'd requested it as GET, the browser will send every bit of info presented in the form as part of the url, if it is required as POST, the browser will include the info in the body of the request, where serverside you can obtain it from teh global POST var.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyperte...equest_methods

[Redline]

Okay, so the data doesn't travel across the internet until a connection is made to the "action" page, right?

Say a login form resided on http://www.mypage.com/. A user puts in their username and password, hit submit and are taken to httpS://www.mypage.com/login.php

Their username/password combo doesn't go anywhere until a secure connection is made with login.php right?

[sde]

Originally Posted by Redline

Their username/password combo doesn't go anywhere until a secure connection is made with login.php right?

that is correct. if you really wanted to test it, you could setup a sniffer and analyze the data sent over the network.

[Redline]

Any recommendations on a decent free sniffer? I've looked into it in the past, but haven't really been able to find a good program

[Redline]

Nevermind, I've got Ethereal up and running. Sweet 8)

[sde]

that is the one i would have suggested.

[teknomage1]

You can also find some good information about the specifics of the HTTP protocol for messages at w3c.org