same page form processing

[Anon]

I having trouble accessing form values when I use the same page to display and process form data. I setup a basic example below, hopefully someone can see what I'm missing. When I run this script, the value of test is not returned. If I change the "action" parameter to a differnt page, the value of test is displayed.

Any suggestions?

Thanks,

Andrew
[e-mail]

<?PHP

if (!isset($Submit)):
ShowForm1();
else:
ShowForm2();
endif;

function ShowForm1() {
print"

<form name=\"form1\" method=\"post\" action=\"\">
<input type=\"text\" name=\"test\">
<input type=\"submit\" name=\"Submit\" value=\"Submit\">
</form>
";
} # End Function ShowForm1

function ShowForm2() {
echo $test;
} # End Function ShowForm2
?>

[Anon]

Your problem is that $test only exists in the global scope (any PHP that is not in a function).

Add the line <b>global $test;</b> before your "echo $test;" line in the ShowForm2() function and everything should be fine.

But if you want to create it properly you should change your call to the ShowForm() function to be <b>ShowForm($test);</b> and your function ShowForm() to be <b>function ShowForm($test)</b>, then you don't need the global $test; line and you keep your variables integrity safe.

[Anon]

Is this method -- handling multi-part forms on one page -- accepted within the industry? I would normally follow this method using CGI. Perhaps you can offer a better alternative.

Thanks,

Andrew
[e-mail]

[Anon]

I'm not sure about being accepted, every company I've ever worked for just wanted the job done. The way I decide if a form shoul process on the same page or not is determined by the complexity of the form, and what it's ment to do. If the form is submitting information to the database and needs to display information retrieved I'd have it be a different script, if the form is only setting up some variables I'd let it process on the same page. But for me it's all situational.