Simple PHP $_post not working

[neonscoid]

Ok i am new to php but this code is extremely simple and no matter what i do it wont work i get no errors or nothing just a blank screen after i press enter heres the code.

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
<head>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8" />
<title>Untitled Document</title>
</head>

<body>
<form action='filter.php' method='POST' name='essay'>
: <input type='text' />

<input type='submit' />
</form>

</body>
</html>

<?php 

$essay = $_POST['essay'];


echo $essay; 

?>

[whitewingz]

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
<head>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8" />
<title>Untitled Document</title>
</head>

<body>
<form action='filter.php' method='POST' name='essay'>
: <input type='text' />

<input type='submit' />
</form>

</body>
</html> 

you have something forgot to input there


correct code is

<form action='filter.php' method='POST' name='essay'>
: <input type='text' name='essay' />

<input type='submit' />

[just_m3.]

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
<head>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8" />
<title>Untitled Document</title>
</head>

<body>
<form action='filter.php' method='POST' name='essay'>
: <input type='text' />

<input type='submit' />
</form>

</body>
</html> 

you have something forgot to input there


correct code is

<form action='filter.php' method='POST' name='essay'>
: <input type='text' name='essay' />

<input type='submit' />

yeah right .. a tip also .. $_POST['name']; requests data from an submited INPUT TYPE not from a form .. you have named the <form action='filter.php' method='POST' name='essay'> instead input type .. where your data / text should be inserted ... and something else always !! close your damn </form> because if you forgot that and if you have more than 1 form action in your page /// the data can be send in a wrong way / :p cheers ..