Forms?

[Dylan86]

Hi, I am fairly new to PHP and I am trying to make a 3 part form for my webdesign/hosting/domain registration place.

You start off at step1 signup and you enter info such as name, email, address, phone number and so on.. You then select whether you need web design, hosting, or maintenance. Then you press "continue" and it will take you to part 2... now I want part 2 to be dependant on what they selected in part one for the "Services" ... for example, they select web design, it will go to a second form about web design.. after they've filled that one out i want them to be able to press "continue" and view all the information that they have entered BEFORE they press submit.. I want them to be able it to be listed like:
"Name: [the name they entered]}
Email: [the email they entered]

is this info correct? if so press submit, blah blah blah.. you get the idea"
(i basically know how to do that... just by echoing the variables... but i want to know how to be able to list ONLY the stuff that they entered, (some things are optional, such as [phone]. If i make a list like this:
<?php
echo "Phone number: $phone";
?>
then if they didnt enter the phone number it will say "Phone: "... is there any way that i can just get it to completely take the phone out of the list if they didnt put it in?

All this while, I want the info that they have entered in the other signup pages to be passed through the pages somehow...

Do you guys understand what I mean? I made it pretty confusing.. but then again, I am pretty confused myself. I'm not sure how I would do this... I know how to make a form that sends to email... but i dont know how to make it so that it determins which page to go to, depending on the option they selected... and i also dont know how to make the data from the first page pass through to the next 2 pages. And.. i dont know how to make it display only the things which the person has entered.

Any help? Please?!

Thanks in advance.

Dylan

[autumn]

learn this carefully, you will use it a lot 🙂

if($phone){ echo $phone; }
if($name){ echo $name; }
if($age){ echo $age; }

That's saying if $phone is available, do this... so if the variable is there it will echo it, if not it won't do anything. Similarily you could do it this way but the above is a lot cleaner:

if($phone != ""){ echo $phone; }

that's saying if $phone is not empty do this....

A

[autumn]

I should've added this seeing you're a newbie 🙂

if($phone){ echo $phone; }else{ echo "hey you forgot to enter your phone number!"; }

A

[Dylan86]

thanks 🙂. i was planing on having it check for the required variables before it allows you to go to the next stage

if ($name == "") {
echo "You forgot to enter a name";
exit;
}

but im wondering... how do i get it to go to certain places depending on what they selected?
and how do i keep the information from their previouse page?

[matto]

hi!

• relocation depending on selection:
  take this form ...

  <form action=script.php method=post>
  where do you want wo go?
  <select size=1 name=selection>
  <option value=1>xyz</option>
  <option value=2>abc</option>
  (...)
  </select>
  <input type=submit>
  </form>

and in script.php, do:

if($selection == '1')
{
  header("Location: pagexyz.php");
  exit;
}
elseif($selection == '2')
{
  header("Location: pageabc.php");
  exit;
}
...

• remember what they selected:
  I recommend the use of sessions.
  read into http://www.php.net/manual/en/ref.session.php

the point is:
use sessions to store user input while he fills out forms
finally, process all the data at once (e.g.: write to database)

another option would be using a database from the start.
example:
you have a "user" table which can hold name and hobbies for each user.

1st form asks for user's name
-> create database record for user, leave hobbies empty
2nd form asks for user's hobbies
-> update user's record with hobbies

this would be the principle.

hth!

[Dylan86]

Hey thanks for the help
I see that this is way harder then i would thought it would be (with the session and all)

I tried to do the code that you said... this is what i got back:

Warning: Cannot add header information - headers already sent by (output started at /fd/10/web/form.php:4) in /fd/10/web/form.php on line 7

(I tried putting it in the header and the body.. if that makes a difference).

Also, I dont know any Databasing right now... and this project needs to be done in like 2 or 3 days. I will eventually learn about databases, but is there a way that i could just not do databases?

I could just mail it to myself using

<?php
mail($Email, $Subject, $Message);
?>

What would be the easiest way right now for me?

Also for form validation.. i know the general stuff... but theres stuff like options where you can choose "yes" or "no"
and if they pick yes, then they can enter other information ... can i make that it checks the "if yes" fields, if they've pressed the yes field... you know??? if that doesnt make any sense then just ignore it... i need the other information more importantly... form validation isnt as important to me... I can always filter through submissions myself.

[Chris_Evans]

You need to make sure that any information that goes out in the header files is above the html code. 🙂