What are the best practices for editing external PHP pages using a submit button?

When editing external PHP pages using a submit button, it is important to ensure that the form data is properly sanitized to prevent security vulnerabilities such as SQL injection or cross-site scripting attacks. One best practice is to use PHP's filter_input() function to sanitize input data. Additionally, it is recommended to validate the input data before processing it further to ensure it meets the required criteria.

<?php
if ($_SERVER["REQUEST_METHOD"] == "POST") {
    $input_data = filter_input(INPUT_POST, 'input_field', FILTER_SANITIZE_STRING);
    
    // Validate input data
    if (/* Add validation criteria here */) {
        // Process the input data further
    } else {
        // Display error message to the user
    }
}
?>