Cannot get drop down menu to display for pset7. Why would this be?

Question

I have set up a template form that sends the symbol selected by the user to the controller.

I cannot get the form to show when I request the page.

Here is my code for the form:

<form action="sell.php" method="post">
<fieldset>
    <div class="form-group">
        <select class="form-control" name="symbol">
                <option value=""> </option>
                <?php$rows=query("SELECT * FROM portfolio WHERE id=?" , $SESSION["id"]);?>
                <?php foreach $rows as $row:?>
                    print("<option value=\"{$row["symbol"]}\">{$row["symbol"]}</option>");
                <?php end foreach ?>
        </select>
    </div>
    <div class="form-group">
        <button type="sell" class="btn btn-default">Sell</button>
    </div>
</fieldset> 
</form>

This is my code for the controller:

<?php

//Configure page
require("..//includes/config.php");   

if ($_SERVER["REQUEST_METHOD"] == "POST")
{    
     //check if the field was filled    
    if(empty($_POST["symbol"]))
    {
        apologize("You must submit a symbol");
    }

    else

    {
      //code to deal with successful post
    }

else
{
    apologize("There was an issue confirming your sale.");
}    
?> 

When I request the page in my browser is takes me straight to the last line indicating that the post was not successful but I cannot decipher why that is.

Answer 1

The request method is GET by default. When the user visits http://pset7/sell.php, she is requesting the page (i.e., sell.php in this case) using GET. Therefore, the condition

$_SERVER["REQUEST_METHOD] == "POST"

is initially false and the else branch is executed as a result.

To fix this, you need to render the template if the requesting method is not POST (i.e., GET) rather than apologizing.