Custom form does not Post form data

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Supporter timezone: Asia/Karachi (GMT+05:00)

Tagged: Custom Work

This topic contains 1 reply, has 0 voices.

Last updated by Waqas Bin Hasan 3 days, 22 hours ago.

Assisted by: Waqas Bin Hasan.

Author	Posts
August 27, 2025 at 9:31 pm #17353004
Josh Warren-White	Background of the issue: I am trying to make sure a custom-built form in a page with a custom template that posts the submitted data to the expected page. The form is located at hidden link and upon submission, it should send the form data to this page - hidden link. Symptoms: The $_POST variable always returns empty. However, when I turn off the WPML plugin, the form behaves as expected. This was a recent issue as I had been testing this custom form on the staging site within the last couple of weeks with no issues and nothing was changed. Questions: Why does the $_POST variable return empty when WPML is active? What changes in WPML could affect form data submission?
August 28, 2025 at 1:06 pm #17355177
Waqas Bin Hasan WPML Supporter since 05/2014 Languages: English (English ) Timezone: Asia/Karachi (GMT+05:00)	Hi, Thank you for contacting the support. Please note that support for custom coding is out of scope of this forum, however, I analyzed the form on your given URL and I see the "action" parameter of form is set to hidden link (notice the ?lang=en at end of the URL). This is causing a redirect (302) which is receiving form data but upon redirection, not forwarding it to /your-guide/ destination. However, if you remove that ?lang=en from the URL, there's no redirect and form data reaches the destination. Since you're default language is English, you shouldn't add a language parameter to it. However, the same can create a pitfall for translated languages (i.e. Spanish). On the other hand, I see that you perhaps are hardcoding this language parameter in your code, because on Spanish form the action refers to hidden link (notice ?lang=es twice, one seems hard coded while other is being added by WPML in the switcher). I may be wrong but the action URL for translated one is surely wrong. I'll recommend using "Different languages in directories" for Language URL Format in WPML -> Languages for a better approach to deal with such scenarios. IMPORTANT: Please take full backup of your website and database beforehand. It is highly advised to try this on a staging/dev site first, so your live website isn't compromised. Regards.