Trouble with Sessions

[ppowell]

I have a form that will be preserving form data prior to processing the form data. Upon clicking a certain submit button you will go to another PHP script that will contain the following code:

if (strcmp(strtolower($POST['submit']), 'apply') != 0) { // GO BACK TO grad_application with $SESSION
session_start();
if (sizeof($POST) > 0) $SESSION['post'] = $POST;
if (sizeof($GET) > 0) $SESSION['get'] = $GET;
header("Location: [url]http://[/url]$SERVER_NAME${devpath}grad_application.php?" . Session_Name() . '=' . Session_Id());
}

Upon redirection back to the original PHP form script I will include an "HTML" file (its extension is HTML but it's actually PHP) that should prepopulate the form fields with the data from $_SESSION. At the top of my page I have:

session_start();

However, while I see the PHPSESSID in my query string I do not see any of my form elements populated. This is how I am parsing $_SESSION in the "HTML" file:

/----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Unclear as to how $POST and $GET vars are set, so as a backup, save them here in macros.inc
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------/
foreach ($_POST as $key => $val) {
if (!isset(${$key})) ${$key} = $val;
}

foreach ($_GET as $key => $val) {
if (!isset(${$key})) ${$key} = $val;
}

if (preg_match('/grad_application.php/i', $REQUEST_URI) && isset($SESSION['post'])) {
foreach ($SESSION['post'] as $key => $val) {
$blah .= "key = $key and val = $val<P>\n";
if (!isset(${$key})) ${$key} = $val;
}
}

if (preg_match('/grad_application.php/i', $REQUEST_URI) && isset($SESSION['get'])) {
foreach ($SESSION['get'] as $key => $val) {
if (!isset(${$key})) ${$key} = $val;
}
}

//---END OF FORM VAR DYNAMIC SETTING BLOCK------------------------------------------------------

This was all based on php.net information on sessions at: http://us4.php.net/manual/en/function.session-start.php

and at
http://us4.php.net/manual/en/printwn/language.variables.predefined.php

I've never had any success with sessions to be honest. Maybe I'm approaching this whole thing wrong. Bottom line is that I want to produce a form that has a button that will produce more form elements upon click while retaining everything you typed so far.

Phil

[dustbuster]

Originally posted by ppowell
Bottom line is that I want to produce a form that has a button that will produce more form elements upon click while retaining everything you typed so far.

What you want to do can be done like this (I think 🙂)

<?
//formit.php
session_start();//start the session

//if they have gotten to the point where they process the form
if (isset($_POST['Process'])){
  foreach ($_POST as $key => $val){
    $_SESSION[$key]=$val;//set up the session
  }
  header ("Location: process_form.php");//take them to the processing
}

//if they are just filling in the form
print <<< END
Please fill in the form with your information:<br>
<form action="formit.php" enctype="multipart/form-data">
Full Name:<br>
<input type="text" name="full_name" value="$_POST[full_name]"><br>
END;

//if they have pushed the next button
if (isset($_POST['Next'])){
  print <<< END
  Age:<br>
  <input type="text" name="age" value=""><br>
 <input type="Submit" name="Process" value="Process">
  END;
}

//They haven't pushed the next button or even seen the Process button
else{
print <<< END
<input type="Submit" name="Next" value="Next">
END;
}

echo "</form>";

<?
//process_form.php
session_start();
foreach ($_SESSION as $key => $val){
  echo $key.": ".$val."<br>";
}
?>

HTH

[ppowell]

Thanx.. actually the problem was due to the fact that the "HTML" file (which is really PHP) where the form is displayed and should be populated by the parsed vars from $_SESSION - turns out that "HTML" file is called via include inside a class method..

All I had to do was pass $_SESSION as a global var inside the class method and all was fine..

However.. now I have another wacky problem:

$SESSION['post'][$key] could either be scalar (like if $key == 'fname' or 'address1' or 'zip', but there are cases in the form where $key == 'jobTitle[0]' and thus evaluates $SESSION['post'][$key] as an array. (I proved this by doing is_array($SESSION['post'][$key]) and it comes out as 1 sometimes.) How then, fundamentally, do I set up $key to be that array that is $SESSION['post'][$key]?

Thanx
Phil

[dustbuster]

$_SESSION['post'][$key]['jobTitle']

Try using this function to help you see what is in your $_SESSION

function print_array($thearray){
 foreach ($thearray as $key => $value){
	if (is_array($value)){
		echo $key.": ";
		print_array($value);
	}
	else
		echo $key.": ".$value."<br>";
 }
}

[ppowell]

Got it, but it was bizarre. Turns out in yet another script I had to reconfigure how I was parsing the dynamically set array.

<input... value="<?= ${$jobField}[$k] ?>">

Configuration error on my part.

Phil

[dustbuster]

Great! Have a good one