PHP php input vs POST

Question

I want to know what is the benefits of using this vs the global method of $_POST or $_GET?

Answer 1

The PHP superglobal $_POST, only is supposed to wrap data that is either.

• application/x-www-form-urlencoded (standard content type for simple form-posts) or
• multipart/form-data (mostly used for file uploads)

If you simply POST a good old HTML form, the request looks something like this:

POST /page.php HTTP/1.1

key1=value1&key2=value2&key3=value3

The server and PHP traditionally don't expect to receive any other content type.  In most cases, JSON is the best choice. But a request with a JSON payload would look something like this:

POST /page.php HTTP/1.1

{"key1":"value1","key2":"value2","key3":"value3"}

So php://input returns all the raw data after the HTTP headers of the request, regardless of the content type.

I hope this helps you.