Trying to get a form to do two seperate things

VooDooRT

I have a shopping cart form, that when submitted, it takes you to PayPal to process payment. I also want the form to add the fields to a database on the same submit. Any easy ways around this?

barand

Have your script update the database then transfer to paypal.

VooDooRT

The refresh to PayPal won't work, I don't think. It it a form submit to PayPal.

Here is the code to go to PayPal.

<form action="https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr" method="post" onSubmit="return CheckForm(this)">
<input type="hidden" name="cmd" value="_xclick">
<input type="hidden" name="business" value="<?echo "$paypalemail"?>">
<input type="hidden" name="return" value="<?echo "$returnurl"?>">
<input type="hidden" name="cancel_return" value="<?echo "$cancelurl"?>"> 
<input type="hidden" name="image_url" value="<?echo "$ssllogo"?>">
<input type="hidden" name="cn" value="Additional comments">

juschillinnow

what I did with my shopping cart is submit the info to the database, and at the same time show a page for the user to confirm the information, then have them click a button to enter their information via paypal.

I know it's another step but it works.

leatherback

The kast suggestion ONLY works when the user DOES confirm. otherwise you end up with entries in your database, while there has not been aa submissiong to paypall..

VooDooRT

Yeah, that's what I ended up doing.

VooDooRT

Originally posted by leatherback
..

The kast suggestion ONLY works when the user DOES confirm. otherwise you end up with entries in your database, while there has not been aa submissiong to paypall..

j

Yeah, but I guess I Can live with that...it sucks though.

Ideas for helping that?

DeltaRho2K

I know this sounds kinda whacky, but what about using a hidden frameset? In other words, have one frame load the page that runs your code to enter the info into the DB, and the other frame that houses the PayPal page...

I have never tried this because I am not sure if you can pass variables across frames, but hey, you never know...

Another whacky idea is to create a midterm page that enters the info into the DB, and parses the entered info back to the user (show something like: "This is the info you provided, click on the submit button to proceed to the PayPal checkout."

Instead of relying on their PayPal confirmation (which is something you can't control) force them to go that one step while on your own site first, before moving them to another.

One last whacky idea is to do a popunder and have your DB insert code on the popunder... You could write the code so the popunder disappears after the insert code is run and verified to have been put into the DB.

juschillinnow

I think the only way to do a popunder would be to use javascript and have a php file on the popup. I don't think javascript likes php very much and might throw erros when you try to use a .php extension on the file

DeltaRho2K

It doesn't necessarily have to be a popunder... It could just be a popup in general... I have popups running on an IIS server (one with an asp page and one with a php page with no problems with either...) I haven't looked at popunders specifically, but I can't see why there would be any problem.

The only trick with popups/unders is this: What if the user uses some sort of popup killer?

Like I said earlier, I know they are whacky ideas. Just trying to help ;-)

paulpage

Not 100% sure this is possible but here goes.

Program the form so that it has two modes, one for updating your database and the other for submitting your data to Paypal.
Set an variable called mode, and have an if formula decide which version it runs. When someone loads the form for the first time, this should default to updating your database.
When they select submit, have it update your database and then return to the form in the other mode, you can pass all the details that were submited to the database back to the form. If possible then have the form automatically submit itself without the user needing to click itself (some form of javascript perhaps?). If all the fields are hidden (since the user has already entered the details), you can just display a screen saying "Processing" or the like while the computer does it's work.