Why is my $_POST array empty when submitting a JSON form in PHP?

Empty $_POST Array Despite Form Submission in PHP

A common conundrum encountered when troubleshooting PHP form submissions is encountering empty $_POST arrays despite successful data submission. To resolve this issue, it's essential to understand the underlying factors that may contribute to this behavior.

In this particular case, the user has verified that the form data is indeed being passed successfully via file_get_contents('php://input'), but the $_POST/$_REQUEST arrays remain empty. This indicates a specific issue that requires further investigation.

The provided solution points to the root of the problem: when JSON content-type is used in form submissions, the $_POST array is not populated by default. This occurs because JSON data is handled differently than regular form-encoded data.

Resolving the Issue

To address this issue, the user implemented a solution that involves decoding the JSON data from the file_get_contents('php://input') result and manually populating the $_POST array:

$_POST = json_decode(file_get_contents("php://input"), true);

By assigning the decoded JSON data to the $_POST array, the programmer ensured that the form data is accessible in the expected way, even though the original form submission resulted in an empty $_POST array.

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