[Resolved] Validate return string length

lobster

OK.. I am stuck. I have a large form that I use for submitting new data as well as updating existing... it knows based on what I tell it to do.

Problem: On changing of the data... I send everythign to another PHP script that will validate, then update data, images etc etc..

When the user fails the validation... I have to send them back to the form not with what was filled in by the db but what was there last (user changes and all) I currently load a file with variables that I add to the header(location:URL?$header_data) url in order to get it back to the form...

ie. $header_data = "&formfield1=$formfield1"
$header_data .= "&formfield2=$formfield2"

There are about 50 f these though and I the last bit which are text fields are quite lengthy. I think it is truncating the data because there is too much to pass back to the form through the URL..

Does this make sense? Any idea how I can fix this?

andrewtn

Maybe you could store all the information in the session and write the page to pull the data from the session if the array exists. I've done this in the past when I had a long signup process on a webpage that went through mulitple screens. Instead of passing the variables from one screen to the next I just stored them all in the session.

If the server is already setup for sessions all you should have to do is add the session start to the top of each page.

session_start();

Then do something like this to get items from the session if they go back to the first page.

if ( array_key_exists ( "first_name", $_SESSION ) ) {
$firstname = $_SESSION['firstname'];
}

To add items to the session after they fill out the screen you would do something like this:

$_SESSION['firstname'] = $firstname;

You should have them fill out the form and post to the second page, then store it in the session before you validate.

You can also print out everything stored in the session by doing the following:

print_r($_SESSION);

Maybe this will help you.

lobster

I was afraid I was going to have to go there 😉 I am not that familiar with sessions (except for the login one) ... but you gave great instructions... will giv e it a try and will mark resolved if it works.

and will post if I have more questions 😉

thanks!

lobster

Can file uploads be kept in a session? or are they pretty much S.O.L. if they screw up? They would have to rebrowse their images.

BTW - The rest worked like a charm!

andrewtn

I can't tell you for sure. I am not an expert but I did have some experience with using the session that I hoped would be of help to you. I belive that you should be able to use the session to store this information but I don't know for sure. I have very little experience with file upload but I may offer some ideas at least.

So if I understand right, they fill out information and post the form. Then you do the validation on their input. And take them back to the page if something in the validation failed. When they post the form the file or files are uploaded to a temp directory on the server.

You should be able to get information about the file(s) that you use to then move the file(s) to the perminet directory. I would think you should be able to store the array of information about the temp files in the session for later use but I'm not sure exactly how you should do it.

Everything about the file is stored in $_FILES which you can access.

If the input name was called file_upload then it would all be stored under file_upload
$_FILES["file_upload"]

For instance you can extract the name of the file from $_FILES["file_upload"] which you probably already do if you are currently uploading files.

$strFileName = trim($_FILES["file_upload"]["name"]);

You should be able to store $_FILES["file_upload"] in the session for later use to save the file in the correct directory with they pass all validation.

$FILES['file_upload']['name']
The original name of the file on the client machine.
$FILES['file_upload']['type']
The mime type of the file, if the browser provided this information. An example would be "image/gif".
$FILES['file_upload']['size']
The size, in bytes, of the uploaded file.
$FILES['file_upload']['tmp_name']
The temporary filename of the file in which the uploaded file was stored on the server.
$_FILES['file_upload']['error']
The error code associated with this file upload. ['error'] was added in PHP 4.2.0.

I don't think $FILES contains the original path of the file on the clients machine so I don't know how you could populate the field with the users file path if you send them back to the form. If you check for file_upload in $GET or $_POST. The original client directory path may be found there. If so you might be able to use it to populate the value of the file input fields on the first page... I don't know if this is possible.

But you do have the file that was uploaded to the temp directory. Maybe you could display to the user the list of files that have been uploaded and then let them override one if needed. Or maybe there is some way to populate the field for them so they can upload it again.

I don't think I solved your problem fully but maybe this will help you in some way to get to a solution.

lobster

Thanks that helps... but I decided that since this was updating existing data, I could go ahead and move the image updating before the validation since the other form fields are the only ones with validation issues... so that takes care of my having to deal with that... I just go ahead and process that part.

Thanks again for all of your help!!!