How To Build forms to save data into your own database tables in a WordPress site, without the use of Plugins

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FREE, Simple process to Create, Read, Update and Delete form data (CRUD) into your own database tables in a WordPress site, without the use of Plugins.

Example is to create a site to manage your workout activity.

Create a table to store the data.

Using phpMyAdmin, create the following table in your wordpress site database

Create a child theme of the theme you wanna use. I am using Child Theme Configurator

Now add the following to the functions.php file of your theme. This will handle form submissions.

// workout form processing

add_action( ‘template_redirect’, function() {

//make sure its our form

if (isset($_POST[‘workoutformbtn’]) && wp_verify_nonce($_POST[‘tuokrow_etaerc’], ‘create_workout’)) {

// these next 4 lines are for degugging, they write to php_error.log file

// comment them out when you’re done debugging your site and it goes live

error_log(“workoutdate”);

error_log($_POST[‘activity’]);

error_log($_POST[‘time_mins’]);

error_log($_POST[‘user_id’]);

// create an array of the form fields to pass to the php file that will handle inserting

// new data into the database table

$fields = array(

‘workoutdate’ => $_POST[‘workoutdate’],

‘activity’ => $_POST[‘activity’],

‘time_mins’ => $_POST[‘time_mins’],

‘user_id’ => $_POST[‘user_id’]);

// this calls the php file that will insert the data into your database table

wp_remote_post( ‘http://localhost/testsite/my_stuff/create_workout.php’, [

‘body’ => $fields,

]);

// after the data is inserted into the database you redirect them back to the workout form page

wp_safe_redirect(‘http://localhost/testsite/my-workout/’);

}

}, 10);

Next copy the page.php file in your site active theme

site>wp-content>themes>YourTheme>page.php

site>wp-content>themes>YourTheme>my_workout_page.php

This is the page.php file for my theme

<?php

/**

* The template for displaying all pages.

* This is the template that displays all pages by default.

* Please note that this is the WordPress construct of pages

* and that other ‘pages’ on your WordPress site will use a

* different template.

* @package Workout Lite

get_header(); ?>

<?php while ( have_posts() ) : the_post(); ?>

<?php get_template_part( ‘content’, ‘page’ ); ?>

<?php

//If comments are open or we have at least one comment, load up the comment template

if ( comments_open() || ‘0’ != get_comments_number() )

comments_template();

<?php endwhile; // end of the loop. ?>

</div>

<?php get_sidebar(); ?>

</div>

<?php get_footer(); ?>

This is the content of my_workout_page.php

<?php

/**

Template Name: my workout page

get_header(); ?>

<?php wp_nonce_field( ‘create_workout’, ‘tuokrow_etaerc’ ); ?>

<label for=”workoutdate”>Workout Date </label><input id=”workoutdate” name=”workoutdate” type=”date” class=”form-control input-sm” required=””>

</div>

<label for=”activity”>Activity </label><input id=”activity” name=”activity” type=”text” placeholder=”activity” class=”form-control input-sm” required=””>

</div>

</div>

<input id=”user_id” name=”user_id” type=”hidden” value=”<?php echo get_current_user_id(); ?>” class=”form-control input-sm” required=””>

</div>

</div>

</form>

<div>

<label>Workout History</label>

</div>

<div>

</div>

jQuery( document ).on(‘submit_success’, function( event, response ){

read();

});

jQuery( document ).ready(function( $ ){

read();

});

function getReadUrl() {

var params = new URLSearchParams(window.location.search);

var url = “../my_stuff/read_workouts.php”;

if (params.has(‘id’)) {

url = url + “?id=” + params.get(‘id’);

}

return url;

}

function read(){

var url = getReadUrl();

$.get( url, function( data ) {

document.getElementById(“records”).innerHTML = data;

});

}

</script>

</div>

<?php get_sidebar(); ?>

</div>

<?php get_footer(); ?>

Set the workout page to use the workout template

Now we will make the 5 file files needed to communicate with your database table

The database connection file called mydbfile.php
1. You will create this in the root directory of your website.
2. This will be used by all the remaining files to Create, Read, Update and Delete data in your WordPress database table(s).

B. The Create file. Mine is called create_workout.php and is in a subdirectory of the web root directory called mystuff

C. The Read file. Mine is called read_workouts.php and is in a subdirectory of the web root directory called mystuff

D. The Update file. Mine is called update_workout.php and is in a subdirectory of the web root directory called mystuff

E. The Delete file. Mine is called delete_workout.php and is in a subdirectory of the web root directory called mystuff

Contents of mydbfile.php

<?php

# connection to database tables

$conn = new mysqli(“localhost”,”root”,”root”,”testsite”);

Contents of create_workout.php

<?php

include ‘../../mydbfile.php’;

$workoutdate = $_POST[“workoutdate”];

$activity = $_POST[“activity”];

$time_mins = $_POST[“time_mins”];

$user_id = $_POST[“user_id”];

// next four lines are for debugging, they appear in the php_error.log file

// comment them out before putting into production

error_log(‘workoutdate = ‘.$workoutdate);

error_log(‘activity = ‘.$activity);

error_log(‘time_mins = ‘.$time_mins);

error_log(‘user_id = ‘.$user_id);

$sql = “insert into my_workouts (user_id,workout_date,activity,time_mins) values(‘$user_id’, ‘$workoutdate’, ‘$activity’,’$time_mins’)”;

error_log(‘sql = ‘.$sql);

$conn->query($sql);

$conn->close();

Contents of read_workouts.php

<?php

include ‘../../mydbfile.php’;

global $wpdb;

include ‘../wp-load.php’;

// get current user ID, with default value, if empty

$current_user_id = get_current_user_id();

// next two lines are for debugging, they appear in the php_error.log file

// comment them out before putting into production

error_log(‘current_user_id ‘.$current_user_id);

error_log(‘id = ‘.$_GET[‘id’]);

$sql = “select * from my_workouts where user_id = “.$current_user_id;

$result = $conn->query($sql);

// next line is for debugging, they appear in the php_error.log file

// comment it out before putting into production

error_log(‘sql = ‘.$sql);

// webpage form starts here

echo “<tbody>”;

echo “<tr>”;

echo “<td>Date</td><td>Workout</td><td>Time Spent (Mins)</td><td>Update</td><td>Delete</td>”;

echo “</tr>”;

while($row = $result->fetch_assoc()) {

if ($row[‘id’] == $_GET[‘id’]) {

echo ‘<tr><td colspan=”5″><form action=”/testsite/my_stuff/update_workout.php” method=”POST”>’;

echo ‘<table border=”1″>’;

echo ‘<tr><td><input type=”date” name=”workout_date” value=”‘ . $row[‘workout_date’] . ‘”></td>’;

echo ‘<td><input type=”text” name=”activity” value=”‘ . $row[‘activity’] . ‘”></td>’;

echo ‘<td><input type=”text” name=”time_mins” value=”‘ . $row[‘time_mins’] . ‘”></td>’;

echo ‘<td><input type=”hidden” name=”user_id” value=”‘ . $row[‘user_id’] . ‘”><input type=”submit” value=”Save”></td>’;

echo ‘<td><input type=”hidden” name=”id” value=”‘ . $row[‘id’] . ‘”></td></tr>’;

echo ‘</form>’;

echo ‘</td></td>’;

} else {

echo “<tr>”;

echo “<td>” . $row[‘workout_date’] . “</td>”;

echo “<td>” . $row[‘activity’] . “</td>”;

echo “<td>” . $row[‘time_mins’] . “</td>”;

echo ‘<td><a href=”/testsite/my-workout/?id=’ . $row[‘id’] . ‘”>Update</a></td>’;

echo ‘<td><a href=”/testsite/my_stuff/delete_workout.php?id=’ . $row[‘id’] . ‘”>Delete</a></td>’;

echo “</tr>”;

}

echo “</tbody>”;

$conn->close();

Contents of update_workout.php

<?php

include ‘../../mydbfile.php’;

global $wpdb;

include ‘../wp-load.php’;

// get current user ID, with default value, if empty

$current_user_id = get_current_user_id();

// next two lines are for debugging, they appear in the php_error.log file

// comment them out before putting into production

error_log(‘current_user_id ‘.$current_user_id);

error_log(‘workout id = ‘.$_POST[‘id’]);

$workout_date = $_POST[‘workout_date’];

$activity = $_POST[‘activity’];

$time_mins = $_POST[‘time_mins’];

$id = $_POST[‘id’];

$sql = “update my_workouts set workout_date='”.$workout_date.”‘, activity='”.$activity.”‘, time_mins='”.$time_mins.”‘ where id=” . $id . ” and user_id=” . $current_user_id;

// next line is for debugging, they appear in the php_error.log file

// comment it out before putting into production

error_log(‘sql = ‘.$sql);

$result = $conn->query($sql);

$conn->close();

header(“location: /testsite/my-workout/”);

Contents of delete_workout.php

<?php

include ‘../../mydbfile.php’;

global $wpdb;

include ‘../wp-load.php’;

// get current user ID, with default value, if empty

$current_user_id = get_current_user_id();

// next two lines are for debugging, they appear in the php_error.log file

// comment them out before putting into production

error_log(‘current_user_id ‘.$current_user_id);

error_log($_GET[‘id’]);

$id = $_GET[‘id’];

$sql = “delete from my_workouts where id=”.$id.” and user_id=”.$current_user_id;

// next line is for debugging, they appear in the php_error.log file

// comment it out before putting into production

error_log(‘sql = ‘.$sql);

$result = $conn->query($sql);

$conn->close();

header(“location: /testsite/my-workout/”);