my form/php/javascript puzzle

andyman

I have a questionnaire form on one page, but I want the filled in fields to persist.

i.e. if the user decides to half fill in the form and then go to another page, and then come back and finish filling it in.

I was thinking about using the javascript onUnload event handler to store all the field entries as javascript variables just before the page unloads - but then how do I then store these as php variables so I can then use php sessions?

(or am I going about this in a silly way?)

This is bugging me
Any ideas would be gladly received

Thanks

Andy.

Anon

Hey Andy,
We have all our form with partial fill and remember. Session or DBSessions are couple of alternatives. On serves having limited scope of session maintenance we use DBsessions, every DBsession id generated for this date store the field values as a blob text data seperated by "|" or any seperators. While loading the specific page echo the data in the fields.
In the session method you avoid storing in the DB and DB connects. Your session will remember the state of the form fields, and all you have to do is create the input fields with value pointing to the session varaible name. But this method needs more /tmp space.

ex:
<INPUT TYPE=TEXT NAME="testDat" VALUE="<? echo $testDat;?>">

andyman

Thanks for the help Kaushik. I'm afraid I don't know what DBsession is (or a blob). What I'm doing at the moment is including

<?
session_start();
session_register("data");
?>

at the top of the page, and then as you said echoing the data variable back as the value attribute of the form element.

Unfortunately this still doesn't work - how does the data get stored in $data when I leave the page?

Sorry to trouble you, but I am relatively new to php.

Thanks again

Andy.

Anon

Hi
I am sorry, i didnt mean to confuse you. DBSessions stand for database sessions, its doesnt come with php build. But you need to make the logic yourself. I was trying to explain the logic to you and I guess i confused you.
The session declaration you have made is perfect. Try and check if the session is registered, which can be checked with session_is_registered("data"), this will tell you if the session is registered or not. Else there could be an installation issue. What system are you using as your server ?

andyman

Kaushik,

I am using windows 98 PWS with Php4. I already use sessions on another page - to test if the user has voted in a survey, and then to not let him vote again until a new session is started. This works perfectly, and the session id is created each time.

So when he comes along to the form page the session has already started.

Am I missing some vital point here!?

Once again thankyou for all the help.

Regards Andy.