please help!!!

delstrange

Can anybody tell me why my variables are not passing from page to page? By looking at the code below, can you tell me what is wrong? From this code I have a couple of variables from a previous page that should be sent to this page that I then want to add more values and send them all to the next page. This all works fine if I don't have any error checking included. Once I added the error checking the vars are not being passed to the final page.

Here is the code:

<?php ob_start();
if (isset($_POST['submit2']))
{
if (!$_POST['cust_address'])
{
$x = FALSE;
$message[] = "You must enter your Address";
}else{
$x = TRUE;
}
if($_POST['cust_phone'])
{
$y = TRUE; 
}else{
$y = FALSE;
$message[] = "Phone # required";
}
}
if($x and $y)
{
header("Location: [url]http://www.whatnott.com/final.php[/url]");
exit;
}
ob_end_flush();?>
<?php 
    $cust_name = htmlentities ($_POST['cust_name']); 
    $cust_email = htmlentities ($_POST['cust_email']); 
?>

<HTML>
<HEAD>
<TITLE>Multi-page Form - Page Two</TITLE>
</HEAD>
<BODY>
<p>Please fill in the following information</p>

<?
if ($message) {//if there is any error message, print it to the screen
echo "<table width=550 align=\"left\" div align=\"center\"><br />
<font color=red><b>The following problems occurred:</b><br /></font><font color=red size=3>\n"; 

foreach ($message as $key => $value) { 
echo "$value <br />\n"; 
} 
} 
?>

<FORM METHOD="POST" ACTION="form2.php">
Address: <INPUT TYPE="text" SIZE="50" name="cust_address"><BR>
Phone: <INPUT TYPE="text" SIZE="20" name="cust_phone"><BR>
<INPUT TYPE="hidden" name="cust_name"
VALUE="<?php echo $cust_name; ?>">
<INPUT TYPE="hidden" name="cust_email"
VALUE="<?php echo $cust_email; ?>">
<INPUT TYPE="submit" name="submit2" value="Proceed">
</FORM>
</BODY>
</HTML>

tekky

if the values arent stored in a form tag of anysort, such as a hidden or input box, then they cant be carried over via the $_POST var... if you are sending vars from page1->page2->page3
page2 will need hidden values or visible form elements with the values from page1 set by the variables in order for page2 to be able to POST them to page3...

hope that explains it... as thats the best I can tell from what you posted...

delstrange

okay, I'll I did was took some code from a tutorial I found on passing variables from page to page. The tutorial does not include error checking. Everything works as it should without it. Here is an example with out the error checking for you to see what I'm talking about.

www.whatnott.com/test1.php

This next example I added error checking. Code is displayed as to what I added in my original post. I did not change anything other than added the error checks and header function.

www.whatnott.com/form1.php

Here you will see that the variables do not post. Why?

Thanks.

BuzzLY

Take a close look at your header:

header("Location: <a href="http://www.whatnott.com/final.php" target="_blank">http://www.whatnott.com/final.php</a>");

Wrong format. Plus, even if it were the right format, your double quotes was screwing things up. Change it to:

header("Location: http://www.whatnott.com/final.php");

See if that clears up your problem -- from a cursory inspection, your error checking routine should have nothing to do with this problem.

[edit]
ok, I'm going to assume that PHPB did that automatically, and you didn't. My suggestion would be to go into the code that DOESN'T work, and remark (//) out some of the lines you think may be offending. Start with the error checking, then move on to the header. I noticed you using the <? tags for the error checking, but not for anything else. Try sticking to <?php for everything.

delstrange

BuzzLY, the example you gave for the header information is actually the way I have it in my code. I don't know why but, when I pasted my code in here, it added the href and target stuff. That is not in my code. I have exactly the way you showed.

Thanks.

BuzzLY

I know... read my edit.

delstrange

Okay, I think I did what you said about the <?php for everthing.

I have attached a zip file of both examples, one with error checking (form1 and 2.php) and one without (test1 and 2.php). They both call the final.php page. Maybe you could view my code with it and test it out. I don't understand why it won't pass the values with the one that error checks.

Thanks.

tekky

Originally posted by delstrange
BuzzLY, the example you gave for the header information is actually the way I have it in my code. I don't know why but, when I pasted my code in here, it added the href and target stuff. That is not in my code. I have exactly the way you showed.

Thanks.

because you didnt uncheck "automatically parse urls" 😉

BuzzLY

Ok, delstrange. I see what's wrong.

In test1/test2, your forms' actions post to the next page. That is the proper method. In your form1/form2 pages, you are posting back to the same page. That's not bad, except for the fact that your code then redirects the user (using the [man]header()[/man] function) to the next page. That is working as advertised. The problem is that posted variables are not carried over when you do a redirect. So, form2.php loads, but the name and email address are not carried over.

I'm not sure where you got this code, but I cannot for the life of me see what they were trying to do with header(). I would simply get rid of these lines:

if($x and $y)
{
header("Location: http://www.whatnott.com/final.php");
exit;
}

Then, change your form1 page's action to load form2.php. Do the same thing on form2, but make it's action load final.php.

Hope that clears things up for you.

delstrange

But if I get rid of the header function and call the next page as the form action rather than calling itself, it won't perform the error checking right?

Thanks.

BuzzLY

That is true... but error checking really won't do you much good if the values aren't passed on, right?

My suggestion if you want to pass variables from form to form until you get to the final page is to use sessions. They can store your variables as they are entered, and you can do error checking all you want. This has the added benefit of allowing you to fill in the fields that DID have correct data, so your users don't have to reenter them.

Another option is to use Javascript, but then you have to worry about users disabling it, or using a browser that doesn't work. Blech.

If you want some good error handling examples, check out hotscripts.com's Error Handling section. There's some good stuff there.

delstrange

I've never worked with sessions. Any good places to learn about them or can you give me an idea as to how they work? I'm still pretty new to all of this php stuff.

Thanks.

delstrange

okay, I just don't know what to do to get this thing to work. I don't really understand the whole session thing. This is part of what I'm trying to do with them

Form2.php

<?php
if (isset($_POST['submit2']))
{
	if (!$_POST['cust_address'])
	{
		$x = FALSE;
		$message[] = "You must enter your Address";
	}else{
		$x = TRUE;
	}
	if($_POST['cust_phone'])
	{
		$y = TRUE; 
	}else{
		$y = FALSE;
		$message[] = "Phone # required";
	}
}
?>
<?php
if ($x and $y){
header("Location: [url]http://www.whatnott.com/final.php[/url]");
exit;
}
?>
<?php
session_start();
session_register("cust_address");
session_register("cust_phone");
?>

<HTML>
<HEAD>
<TITLE>Multi-page Form - Page Two</TITLE>
</HEAD>
<BODY>
<p>Please fill in the following information</p>

<?php
if ($message) {//if there is any error message, print it to the screen
echo "<table width=550 align=\"left\" div align=\"center\"><br /><font color=red><b>The following problems occurred:</b><br /></font><font color=red size=3>\n"; 
foreach ($message as $key => $value) { 
echo "$value <br />\n"; 
} 
} 
?>

<FORM METHOD="POST" ACTION="form2.php">
Address: <INPUT TYPE="text" SIZE="50" name="cust_address" value="<?php echo $_POST['cust_address']; ?>"><BR>
Phone: <INPUT TYPE="text" SIZE="20" name="cust_phone" value="<?php echo $_POST['cust_phone']; ?>"><BR>
<INPUT TYPE="submit" name="submit2" value="Proceed">
</FORM>
</BODY>
</HTML>

final.php

<?php
session_start();
?>

<HTML>
<HEAD>
<TITLE>Multi-page Form - Final</TITLE>
</HEAD>
<BODY>
<p>You filled in:</p>
Name: <?php print $SESSION['cust_name']; ?><BR>
Email: <?php print $SESSION['cust_email']; ?><BR>
Address: <?php print $SESSION['cust_address'];; ?><BR>
Phone: <?php print $SESSION['cust_phone'];; ?><BR>
</BODY>
</HTML>

What all do I have wrong? I'm sure it is alot. On the final.php page I also tried using <?php echo $POST['cust_name'] ?>; and <?php echo $SESSION['cust_name'] ?>;

Of course when I tried using <?php echo $SESSION['cust_name'] ?>; I had this on the form2.php page: $SESSION['cust_name'] = $_POST['cust_name'];

Nothing has worked.