multi-page forms with a twist

phigga

Hi all,

I'm currently involved with a rather large registration application. The application is broken down into several steps, with each step being a new web page. Obviously, each new page is given all the previous information via HIDDEN fields. Each page does some validation checks....

This is where my "problem" comes into play. Once a page is submitted, the script validates the page. If the page is valid, it continues on to the next page. If it isn't valid, it redraws the current page with a list of errors printed to the top. I'm not sure the best way to go about this. Currently, I have one page that has a switch stucture, dependent on the value of the submit button.

It would seem at first glance that the form action of page1.php would be page2.php, and so on and so forth until the end of the process. the reason that won't work is if there are errors, it would then have to go BACKWARDS to redraw the previous page.

If this is confusing, i'm sorry.... now are there any ideas out there?

phigga

i've been thinking....

if i had a page (page1.php), and i set the form's action to a new page (action=page2.php), would it be a good idea do do error checking there? (i know it's a valid idea, but is it a good idea)? basically, what i mean is this:

in page2.php, validate the info from page1. if it's good, go ahead and draw page2, but if the info is bad, go back and draw page1.

is this method better than performing the validation on the first page, and if everything checks out, only then go ahead to the second page?

Anon

Logistically it would be easier just to validate on the second page like you said like, you may even be better to include that next page to save you having any length of PHP to contend with.

// validation example

if ($name == ""){
die("form field empty");
} else {
include "page2.php";
{

techek

This is what I'd do :

Do your check of variables on the page that the variables come from. That means :

1) Submit your data to the same script as the form is on.

2) If any errors comes up, you're ready to display your form again (with errors placed at the right form-elements! =8-) )

If no errors arise, use the HEADER()-function to head over to the next script (remember to include the variables from page one in the HEADER-call AND the next HTML-form.

3) If you're smart (and what to be safe), all variable-checks are written in seperate includeable fileS. That way you'll just have to include the right check-file at each page AND reuse all checks at the end to verify ALL variables in ONE BIG check.

Does it sound confusing? I bet you'll find out when you've had a look at the HEADER- and INCLUDE-functions.

phigga

no, that's not confusing at all...in fact, this is the way i WANT to do it, but the problem is...

when I make that header call, how do i pass the variables? i'd rather not do it in the URL, but is that the only way?

Anon

lets say you are validating registration... i would make 1 script to do everything, and make use of functions...

example:

if($action=="show_form1") {
show_form1();
} elseif($action=="validate_form1") {
validate_form1($HTTP_POST_VARS) {
...
...
}

then make some functions like this:

function show_form1($HTTP_POST_VARS="") {
// code to show form 1 goes here
}

function validate_form1($HTTP_POST_VARS) {
// make sure all the values in $HTTP_POST_VARS are correct... if they are:
show_form2($HTTP_POST_VARS);
if they aren't, show errors, then
show_form1($HTTP_POST_VARS);
}

darkerstar

you can use include function, so you can keep all the variables, this will also avoid the browser redirecting, which makes it faster for the client user.

Or you can use cookies or server sessions, then again, server session is just another version of cookies.