POST debug techniques?

[auxone]

I am trying to POST data to a PHP page I've made, from another application. I think I know what I am sending but how can I see what is actually getting to the site?

Thanks

[NogDog]

echo "<pre>".print_r($_POST,1)."</pre>";

[auxone]

So after I've POSTed via the other application I just go to the page I posted to and that should show me it's most recent POST information? Keep in mind the POSTing application doesn't actually send me to the page where to POST goes. Won't the POST info be long gone by the time I get there?

[Ahnfelt]

If you use Firefox, you can use the FireBug plugin to see exactly what data is being sent and received from your browser to your server. It's the best debugging for web development I've come across.

I don't know about PHP-specific debugging tools though.

[NogDog]

So after I've POSTed via the other application I just go to the page I posted to and that should show me it's most recent POST information? Keep in mind the POSTing application doesn't actually send me to the page where to POST goes. Won't the POST info be long gone by the time I get there?
For testing, have it send the data to a script on your site that can either write the post data to a log file, or otherwise present it to you for verification. Once you've validated that it is sending all the required data, you can then change the target to the "real" URL and continue testing from that point.