Return user to last page with form still filled out

Yrogerg

How do you return as user to the previous page and still have their textfields, textboxes still filled with what they had before so they don't have to retype everything for one error???

yelvington

Since you have the data in hand -- presumably you're processing an incomplete form -- regenerate the form with the data filled out.

<input name="foo" value="<?=$_POST[foo]?>"?

Your users won't thank you for it, but they should. :-)

kerodeon

to expand on what yelvington said, after a user has been sent to a different page from the action on a form, set a link like

<a href="formpage.php?input1='$_POST[foo]'&input2='$_POST[foo2]'">Go Back</a>

then you can just set display the form with the data already entered by:

<input name="foo" value="<?php echo $_POST[input1] ?> "><br>
<input name="foo2" value="<?php echo $_POST[input2] ?> ">

I like having every detail explained 🙂

laserlight

A note:
You should check with isset() or empty() before using the variable.
You might want to use htmlspecialchars() on the data.
If magic_quotes_gpc is on, you might want to use stripslashes() first.

e.g.

<input name="foo" value="<?php
if (!empty($_POST['foo']))
	echo htmlspecialchars(stripslashes($_POST['foo']));
?>

Yrogerg

many thanks for the response, but is there a way to get the data back to the previous page without attaching it to the url (i.e. page.php?firstname=Bill&lastname=Thompson etc.)??

I've tried dynamically generating a <form> tag with hidden variables but I can't think of a way to automatically submit it.

Maybe it's not possible?

zapa

I did something just like this...
onlything is i am not sure if it works with anything but IE6 (is my browser)

when i use window.history.back JS it will take me back to the previuous page and leave the changes made in text field alone.

this will go back one page in history of browser.

echo 'bad password <a href="javascript:history.back();">Go Back</a>;

laserlight

hmm... what do you mean by "previous page"?

Our assumption was that you have say, form.php
User submits the form on form.php, and form.php processes the form.
If data submitted is invalid, then form.php displays the form again, with an error message, and the form filled up with the values the user entered previously.

Basically, the form page is submitting to itself.

keith73

Originally posted by zapa
I did something just like this...
onlything is i am not sure if it works with anything but IE6 (is my browser)

when i use window.history.back JS it will take me back to the previuous page and leave the changes made in text field alone.

this will go back one page in history of browser.
echo 'bad password <a href="javascript:history.back();">Go Back</a>;
[/B]

doesn't matter if you use that. if the form page has a no-cache in the meta tags or headers, or your browser's cache is full, the fields will not be filled in when you go back.

regenerating the form is the best way to do this.

keith

zapa

laserlight, Ohh ok misread, i was thinking the from was not submited.