form won't submit with <hidden> fields

drr37

Hi, I'm working on a site that captures and displays information on all the projects my client is working on. When certain information is updated they want that earmarked, but not when other information in the form is updated. So I've put in some <hidden> fields to capture the original values, which are then compared to the new values that are submitted to see if they have changed. The problem is for some of the projects (but not all, which is the weirdest part) the form won't submit. Nothing happens. When I comment out about half of the <hidden> statements the remaining projects will work. Any idea why this happens?

Here is the code if it helps:

print "\n<input type = hidden name = \"old_objective\" value = \"$objective\">";

print "\n<input type = hidden name = "old_mngID\" value = \"$mngID_project\">";
print "\n<input type = hidden name = \"old_tims\" value = \"$tims\">";
print "\n<input type = hidden name = \"old_active\" value = \"$active\">";
print "\n<input type = hidden name = \"old_flex_info\" value = \"$flex_info\">";
print "\n<input type = hidden name = \"old_least_flex\" value = \"$least[flex]\">";
print "\n<input type = hidden name = \"old_moderately_flex\" value = \"$moderately[flex]\">";
print "\n<input type = hidden name = \"old_most_flex\" value = \"$most[flex]\">";
print "\n<input type = hidden name = \"old_least_color\" value = \"$least[color]\">";
print "\n<input type = hidden name = \"old_moderately_color\" value = \"$moderately[color]\">";
print "\n<input type = hidden name = \"old_most_color\" value = \"$most[color]\">";

print"
\n<input type = hidden name = \"analyze1\" value = \"".$stage_months[analyze]."\">
<input type = hidden name = \"design1\" value = \"".$stage_months[design]."\">
<input type = hidden name = \"deploy1\" value = \"".$stage_months[deploy]."\">
<input type = hidden name = \"develop1\" value = \"".$stage_months[develop]."\">
<input type = hidden name = \"beta1\" value = \"".$stage_months[beta]."\">
<input type = hidden name = \"test1\" value = \"".$stage_months[test]."\">
<input type = hidden name = \"old_baseline\" value = \"$baseline\">";

Thanks,
dave

Anon

At the second row you forgot to escape character " for old_mngID there is backslash missing before first ".

Zdenek

Anon

You know, if you just start using single quotes for HTML and double quotes for PHP, you'll never run into that problem again. And you'll save on typing all those ugly backslashes. Just a suggestion from someone that got sick of these errors a long time ago. Now if I could just find a way to avoid typing all together.

😉

Aaron Zoller
www.AaronZoller.com

drr37

oops, actually that backslash is there in my code it just got lost in the cut and paste to phpbuilder. Any other solutions?

rrijnders

Make sure that none of the data you are outputting fot the VALUE fields has quotes in it. When the form displays, do a VIEW SOURCE and check. If there is, the browser will think that quote is the end of the value and throw everything after that off. If you comment them out one-by-one going backwards, you should be able to find the culprit when it all-of-a-sudden start working.

-- rich

Anon

Okay so how about this? Why not instead of passing the information back into the form in Hidden fields, why not just keep it in the database and extract it from there after they publish the new info. You could then compar the database's information to the new information and update accordingly. That is personally what I do. I try to avoid passing information to a form if it already exists elsewhere. It saves on transfering redundant information and it makes it more difficult for some hacker to screw up your process. It's fairly easy to view the source on the HTML and then modify the HIDDEN fields values and repost.

Of course this is just a recommendation so you can avoid solving the problem at hand. I really don't know why you would be experiencing what you describe. My other thought is to use regular single quotes like I had said. That'll help you see if it is just some little syntax issue, which it probably is. As far as I know, you are not exceeding any limits on the number of hidden fields allowed in a form. If worse comes to worse, comment all out and then uncomment one at a time, until you find the line that's screwy.

Sorry, I wish I could give a more specific solution.

Good Luck,

Aaron Zoller
www.AaronZoller.com