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Accessing Request (POST) Data in Flask

Subject: Flask: Python Web Development
For web applications it’s crucial to react to the data a client sends to the server.
This data is often submitted through web or HTML form, for example Feedback Form, Registration/Login Form and Order Form.

In Flask this information is provided by the request object. So we have to import it from the flask module first:

from flask import request


And use it's method attribute to access client data (data transmitted in a POST or GET request).

Step 1.
Create an HTML file in the templates folder named "order.html" and have this HTML code in it.
Notice, that the page is primarily a form that use the POST method to submit data to the "process" view or route.


<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en">
<head>
    <meta charset="UTF-8">
    <title>Order Form</title>
</head>

<body>
<h2>Complete the order form</h2>
    <form method="POST" action ="process/">
      Your name: <br/>
      <input type="text" name="yourname" />
      <br/>
      Address: <br/>
      <input type="text" name="youraddress" />
      <br/>
      Phone number: <br/>
      <input type="text" name="phone" />
      <br/>
      <hr/>
      Choose Product :<br/>
      <select name="product">
          <option>Garri</option>
          <option>Fufu</option>
          <option>Akara</option>
      </select>
      <br/>
      Quality order: <br/>
      <input type="number" name="qty" required />
      <br/>
      <input type="submit" name="Order Now"/>
  </form>
</body>
</html>



Step 2.
Update your python file (app.py file), to include the request object imported from flask. 
from flask import request

Instead of individually having this object, with the Flask and render_template on separate lines, we can simple import all three with one line as we have we in the code below:


# import the three classes from flask
from flask import Flask, render_template, request
 
app = Flask(__name__)

@app.route('/order')
def order():
      return render_template('order.html')

@app.route('/process/', methods=['POST'])
def process():
    if request.method == 'POST':
         #collect the data using the form element name
         yourname = request.form['yourname']
         youraddress = request.form['youraddress']
         phone = request.form['phone']
         product = request.form['product']
         qty = request.form['qty']

         #calculate the total cost of order
         if product == "Garri":
               price = 500
         elif product == "Fufu":
               price = 100
         elif product == "Akara":
               price = 700

         total_cost=price * int(qty)

         msg = (f"You ordered for {qty} {product} and each cost {price}. Therefore the total cost {total_cost}. Thank you")

         return render_template('process.html', name=yourname, message=msg)
if __name__ == '__main__': 
       app.run(debug=True)


Step 3.
Now create the "process.html" file in the "templates" folder, it will display the message after the process has completed.


<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en">
<head>
    <meta charset="UTF-8">
    <title>Order Process</title>
</head>

<body>
<h2>Order Process</h2>
<h3>{{name}} Thank you for your order</h3>
Orde detail:
<hr/>
{{message}}
</body>
</html>


Step 4.
Run the python program app.py and go the web browser to access the Order form using this URL.

http://localhost:5000/order
OR http://127.0.0.1:5000/order

Complete and submit the form.

See the attached screenshots for a sample completed and submitted.

Updated app structure



http://127.0.0.1:5000/order



Process output




By: Benjamin Onuorah

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