Multiple forms on one page

[Anon]

I've got a script the produces multiple forms, each with one input box and a button. All the buttons call the same page, but i can do with just one, i need one for each form.

The problem here is that when a button is pressed, i want the value in the coresponding inputbox so be send with the page. I've tried several solutions without succeding.

Anyone got a "smart" sollution to this problem?

[Anon]

As long as each form has it's own <form></form> tags, there should be no prob.

Ex:

<form action="my_page.php" method="POST">
<input type="text" name="form1">
<input type="submit" name="submit" value="Submit>
</form>

<form action="my_page.php" method="POST">
<input type="text" name="form2">
<input type="submit" name="submit" value="Submit>
</form>

<form action="my_page.php" method="POST">
<input type="text" name="form3">
<input type="submit" name="submit" value="Submit>
</form>

[Anon]

Problem is that each form is generated based on info from a database. I never know how many forms will come out. It's like a shopping system, where you get lot's of articles, outputted in a table, with a quantity field and "putinbasket" button, on each form. On form is one row in the HTML table.

I though about trying to make the textfield a "dynamic"-variable. Something like this : <input type="text" name="qty <? $dbarray["artid"]; ?>">.
But i did'nt get it to work, don't even know if it's possible.

[Anon]

<input type="text" name="qty <? $dbarray["artid"]; ?>">

One tiny problem. you need to print $dbarray["artid"];

if you stick the print statement in there, it should work just fine.

Hint: check the source code of the pages your script output and look for the values you are expecting to be there.

I suspect, that your source code currently looks like this for each dynamically created input: name="qty "

if you don't put a print or echo in there, it won't send the output to the browser.

Cheers!

[Anon]

BUT, now that i have a bunch of dynamic variables, i allso need to use them.
Lets say i have 3 forms on the page, each with a submitbutton, and a <input type="text" name="qty<? echo print $dbarray["artid"]; ?>">, how do i link this up to the button. I don't think this works : <a href"<? $php_self?qty=$qty$dbarray["artid"]; ?> this would be wrong, so the question is, how do i access the variable name.

[Anon]

hmm,I am not sure what you mean by accessing the variable name.

if each line is a form, whose action is the same script, then you don't need to do anything with that. IF you are using <form></form> tags

If you are simply building an href link to use the GET method (which is what it is looking like above) then you just need to be careful about how you build it.

inside your <? ?> tags, you have to use print to output anything to the browser.

Double quotes (" ") will evaluate anything that lloks like a variable inside them, but it won't properly evaluate $arrayname[] type variables. Those MUST be outside the quotes (using the concatenation operator ('.')

The php code that you submitted above:
<? $php_self?qty=$qty$dbarray["artid"]; ?>
looks completely wrong.

If this is the style of tag you are trying to generate, it should be done like this:

<a href="<?
print "$PHP_SELF?qty=$qty" . $dbarray["artid"];
?> >

Look closely at where i have placed the double quotes. I put 2 variables ($PHP_SELF and $qty) inside the double quotes, because they are simple variables. But the keyed array is concatenated outside the quotes so that it will be properly evaluated.

You original code would have output an <a> tag that looked like this:

<a href="

NOW, for the next problem,
wrapping that <a> tag around an <img> tag will give you a graphical button, that submits whatever the dynamic qty is, but it won't post your <input> fields.

what you need to do is get rid of the <a> tag.

If you want that <input> tag value to be submitted, you need to put in some <form> tags
the method="post" the action="nameofform.php"

you don't need anything dynamic in the <form tag>
to make an image button you need to use this
<input type="image" name="<doesn't really matter>" src="<location of graphic file">

That is the proper way to make an image button

Any input of type image, will cause a form submission of whatever form it is within.

So remember, every <tr> should start like this:
<form method="post" action="yourscript.php"><tr>

and end like this
</tr></form>

Hope this helps!!
If you are still having problems with it,
post the snippet that generates the table, and i will check your PHP syntax.

Cheers!

[Anon]

One other thing you might wanna try that might make your life a good deal easier on this one : instead of returning a dynamicly created variable for the text input fields, make the variable name for that one standard. Then add a hidden field to each form with a standard name and a value of whatever item you're working on. This way you end up with :

$quantity = <quantity input from user>
$article = <article id from hidden>
$submit

This saves you the trouble of having to loop through the possible articles looking for the variable $qty<some id>.

[Anon]

Here's the code the makes the table.

** START ****

printf("<TR BGCOLOR=%s>
<FORM ACTION=\"anotherscript.php?ArtID=%s&GruppeID=%s&qty\">
<TD WIDTH=%s>
<CENTER>
<A HREF=\"%s\"onclick=\"NewWindow(this.href,'name','400','400','yes');return false\"><IMG SRC=\"../images/artdriverbutton.gif\" ALT=\"Drivere\" WIDTH=36 HEIGHT=26 BORDER=0></A>
<A HREF=\"artinfo.php?ArtID=%s\"onclick=\"NewWindow(this.href,'name','400','400','yes');return false\"><IMG SRC=\"../images/artinfobutton.gif\" ALT=\"Info om produktet\" WIDTH=26 HEIGHT=26 BORDER=0>
</CENTER>
</TD>
<TD>%s</TD>
<TD><A HREF=\"artinfo.php?ArtID=%s\"onclick=\"NewWindow(this.href,'name','400','400','yes');return false\">%s</A></TD>
<TD>%s</TD>
<TD>%s</TD>
<TD><INPUT TYPE=\"text\" NAME=\"Ant%s\" SIZE=\"2\" MAXLENGTH=\"2\"></TD>
<TD><input alt=\"Putt i handlevogn\" type=\"image\" border=\"0\" src=\"../images/cart.gif\" WIDTH=\"31\" HEIGHT=\"17\"></TD>
</FORM>
</TR>","#FFFFFF",$artarray["ArtID"],"0%",$Ant / pkt.1 /,$GruppeID,$artarray["ArtDrivers"],$artarray["ArtID"],$artarray["VareNr"],$artarray["ArtID"],$artarray["ArtNavn"],$artarray["Prisumva"],$lager,$artarray["ArtID"],$artarray["ArtID"]);

pkt.1 : this variable is supposed to reflect the variable made for the input field, but i don't know quite how to solve that one

[Anon]

That's kinda tough to read. You should try breaking this up into different print lines. And you really don't need a formated print... it's making it more complex and difficult to read. Try making the code a bit more friendly.. take it one step at a time as you're outputing it.

[Anon]

okay, that is hard to read. No doubt about it.

Yes it will take a few more lines of code to creat, but you will find it so much easier to follow, you ONLY put in the php tags where you need output. Get rid of that printf. Only use them individually..

switching from HTML to php only when you need to will mean you don't have to escape all those double quotes.

Remember, if you are not evaluating any variables inside a string, you can use single quotes so that you don't have to escape all the double quotes.

If you back up a step and prototype the way a table row should look when it is output, you can then go through and insert <? print $variable; ?> every place the dynamic information needs to appear.

In your <FORM> tag, getrid of the ?blah=blah&blah=blahblah

that stuff shouldn't be in <FORM> the tag, they should be in hidden input tags
<input type="hidden" name="blah" value="blah">

OR, here is how i print out rows inside w while(){} statement. Pay careful attention to which kind of quote i use and where:

<code>
while($row = mysql_fetch_array($myresult)) {
$prodid= $row[prodid];
print '
<td valign="top" align="center" bgcolor="#0066CC">
<a href="?page=products/orderform/';

print $prodid . ".php&session=$session&prodid=$prodid";

print '"><img src=graphics/order.gif height=12 border=0 align=left></a><br clear=all>
<a href="javascript: MM_openBrWindow(\'http://mydomain/directory/directory/preview.php?prodid=';

print $prodid;

print '\',\'preview\',\'resizable=yes,status=no,height=350,width=470,scrollbars=no\')">

<img src="products/thumbnails/';

print $prodid . '.jpg" width="80" height="50" border="0"></a>
<br><font color="#FFFFFF" size="2"><b>';

print $row[prodname] . ' 
</b></font><br>
</td>';

if(($mycrsr % 4) == 0) { print "</tr>\n<tr>\n"; }
$mycrsr++;

}
</code>

this is the code i use to print a dynamic image catalog that is 4 cells wide. I am not using individual forms, just coded hrefs with?field=value&field2=value

but take note of how i output the HTML.
I use single quotes to encapsulate my print strings, then i end the line and start a new print statement for the variable, and then pick up the HTML in the next print statement.

May seem clunky, but it sure is easier to follow.

[Anon]

Just my preference, but I prefer to output almost everything in PHP. You don't have to bother with the escaping double quotes if you use a single quote to output the string. And I just concantonate for arrays. So:

echo '<form action="$PHP_SELF">';
echo '<table>';
while ($row = mysql_fetch_array($results)):
echo '<tr><td>';
echo '<input type=text name="'.$row["itemid"].'">';
echo '<input type=submit></td></tr>';
endwhile;
echo '<table>';

Just preference though.

[Anon]

Thanks for all the input, i see now that i've got along way to go before i master this language. I will rewrite the whole script, make it more easier to read, and make use of the hidden fields.
Again...thanks ?:-)