Avoid resending forms on php pages

Question

Is there a way to avoid reprocessing forms when I refresh php pages? I'd like to prevent resending forms when refreshing links to php files with an insert function in them. For example, I am processing a series of notes written by users at the top of each page for a new note. Besides the obvious creating a separate php file with a header function is there another way to do it?

Answer 1

Use the Post-Redirect-Get Pattern.

1. Accept a Post request
2. Process the data
3. Issue a redirect response
4. Accept a Get request
5. Issue a 200 response

If you need to display data from the submitted stuff, then include a row id or similar in (for example) the query string of the URL you redirect to.