[Resolved] Preserve Form data after a submit

[takalak]

Can anyone help me!!! I am a newbie!

I have a form with text input, after user enter data and submit, it will validate data against database. If there is an error, it will display error messages and display the same form again. My problem is how do you preserve the data on the form so that the user don't have to re-type the input data again!!

***file name is 'test.php':

echo "<form action='testsubmit.php' method='post'>";
echo "<INPUT name=FirstName type=text>";
echo "<INPUT name=LastName type=text>";
echo "<INPUT type=submit value=submit name=btnSubmit>";
echo "</form>";

***file name 'testsubmit.php':
if (strlen($LastName) < 0) {
echo "Minimum 1 characters for User Name. Please enter again!";
do_html_footer();
exit;
}

How do I go back to the previous page 'test.php' and at the same time, restore what user has entered?
What I am getting now is the data is lost when I go back to 'test.php' to re-enter data.

thanks a bunch!

[Pig]

Just make the values of the text fields be the values they submitted.

<input type=text name=first_name value='<?php echo($_POST['first_name']); ?>'>

[takalak]

I have tried adding value='$_POST[FirstName]' to the input text.
after pressing submit(takes me to 'testsubmit.php') and I get the error message. I press back button but all the data disappear.

***file name is 'test.php':

echo "<form action='testsubmit.php' method='post'>";
echo "<INPUT name=FirstName type=text value='$POST[FirstName]'>";
echo "<INPUT name=LastName type=text value='$POST[LastName]'>";
echo "<INPUT type=submit value=submit name=btnSubmit>";
echo "</form>";

***file name 'testsubmit.php':
if (strlen($LastName) < 0) {
echo "Minimum 1 characters for User Name. Please enter again!";
do_html_footer();
exit;
}

[Pig]

The simplest way would be to have the page submit to itself.

//clear out $msg
unset($msg);

//test to see if form has been submitted
if( !empty($_POST['submit']) )
{
     //process form here...
     if (strlen($_POST['LastName']) < 0) $msg .= "Minimum 1 characters for Last Name. Please enter again!"; 
}

//test too see if have success
if( !empty($_POST['submit'])  && empty($msg) )
{
     //form was submitted OK.  Continue process
}
else
{
     //either form has not been submitted, or it had errors.
     //display the form, and autofill if they have already submitted.
     echo("
          $msg<br>
          <form method=post action='" . $_SERVER['PHP_SELF'] . "'>
          <input type=LastName value='" . $_POST['LastName'] . "'>
          <input type=hidden name=submit value=1>
          <input type=submit>
     ");
}

[takalak]

I have got it to work!

Thanks a bunch!