Transferring a Field Value to an HTML Form

astralweeks

I have a php Job Display screen, which takes them to an html form page if they click on "APPLY FOR THIS JOB". All the fields on the apply.html form will require user input (name , email address etc...), however, I want the Job Title [job_title] field to be populated with the value from the Job field from the php file. Is there a way to do this ?

Davy

Yes very possible.

The method in which we advise you about doing this varies on where the job title is stored exactly.

But one thing I know for sure is that the second page with the form has got to be .php as well to recieve that job title to be used.

Do you want the job title to be passed onto this form as a variable for passing onto the 'SUBMIT' routine you want to continue this form on with or do you want it to be a text box field to give the user the choice of changing the job title?

You shouldn't give them the choice of changing the job title like this so passing along a variable is most advised.

The easiest method I see right now:
The user sees a job description and decides to apply for job.
They click a form submit button with caption 'Apply!'.
The method=POST so that you can retrieve the job title for the form page.
The form page should be *.php to recieve the POST variable, $POST['job_title'] as just text (no option to edit this).
The form is displayed on page below the code

echo "<b>".$_POST['job_title']."</b><br>";

When the user clicks the 'Submit' button to apply the variable is passed along...

hang on...how is it passed along? I just realised it is more difficult then I assumed :xbones:

Unless you have a form object that allows you to send the variable along again, I see no easy of doing this quite yet.

I'll let you know as soon as poss the easy method of doing this.
Goes off to RTFM

LordShryku

Are you pulling all the job information from a database? Seems easy enough to just send a hidden variable in the form with the primary key to pull the information again on the second page...

Davy

How do you send along hidden variables with the form?

I know it isn't generally recommended and I'm sure there's and easier way but --

If your server allows global variables can you not call that $_POST['job_title'] variable if it's global onto this second page to be processed along with the detail-form's info?

One way fo doing it altho for future development's sake I would recommend having a line near the end fo this final page's script to empty this variable if another page wants to use this variable because it might just call the wrong value than expected.

One method suggested 🙂

astralweeks

Yes all the job information is in a database. I have 2 tables one for the applicants and one for the job listing. The Job Title field is in both tables. I want the job they are applying for to be passed on to the second table via the html form and then post it using a php script.

LordShryku: Are you saying that I can pass a variable to an html form without making it another php file ?

Thanx again...this site has been more helpful than the book I bought.

Davy

Ooh another method:

Put the $_POST['job_title'] variable into a text area tag and set this text area to be read-only so the user cannot edit it.

I would recommend formatting this text area to a more user friendly look. CSS would do this for you. In case you might already have or want to create in the future an addition to your global CSS (if you have one) ... I recommend strongly in creating a custom titled class with specific formats for these specially formatted text areas 😃

To set the variable into read-only text-area:

echo "<textarea readonly=true name=";
echo $_POST['job_title'];
echo ">";
echo $_POST['job_title'];
echo "</textarea>

This snip is complete untested. I have never used the readonly attribute and have taken this from W3C as found in above link.

Bearing in midn you need to apply your CSS formatting attribute to this textarea tag to make it look nice and un-textarea like.

Another slightly unorthodox method of doing things 😃

Hope you understand my lengthy posts

LordShryku

Just pass the information in hidden form fields.

<input type="hidden" name="job_title" value="<?php echo $job_title; ?>" />

Davy

Whoa that just destroyed my dodgy methods!

Hmm this could be useful takes note

DON'T FORGET THAT THE PAGE YOUR ON ABOUT NEEDS TO BE *.php !!!

If one is using PHp to a certain lengthy extend I think the best way fo doing things is to make every page *.php unless the server does not support index.php as first page (it should!)

Just in case it does not, for reference sake try this: Make a JavaScript auto redirect or even an 'Welcome' start page that links to the home.php

astralweeks

Appreciate the suggestions...I was able to diagnose it down to the fact that the field "job_title" was not being passed on because it was not set to be indexed, once I did that it worked fine. You probably know the reason why, but I discovered it with trial & error.

Thanks again.....