How to retain values in form fields?

[fouwaaz]

Hi guys,

How can I retain the information that has been entered within <input> tags in a form so that the user does not need to re-enter this information when re-submitted?

I have to invoke many automated resubmissions to make a set of dynamic dropdown menus work -- but this erases what the user has entered in other form fields!

Looking forward to a helpful response.

Regards

[vaaaska]

Warm up your validation skills first and then grab their information via $_POST. This is rudimentary, but it will give you the idea...

In your form fields set the value like this...

function showValue($name) // $name is the field name
{
  if (issset($_POST[$name]) return $_POST[$name];
}

Obviously, if you are retrieving data from a database as well, you'll want to contend with that as well...

[hwttdz]

I think that works for most input types for dropdown forms I have the combination of two different pieces of code.

<SELECT NAME="status" SIZE="1">
    <OPTION <?php s($v,1)?>VALUE="1">ACTIVE</OPTION>
    <OPTION <?php s($v,2)?>VALUE="2">BROKEN</OPTION>
    <OPTION <?php s($v,3)?>VALUE="3">PLANNED</OPTION>
    <OPTION <?php s($v,4)?>VALUE="4">REMOVE</OPTION>
</SELECT>

function s($v,$i)
{
if($v[status]==$i)
{echo("SELECTED ");
}
}

So what it does is output default into the html if that value is selected, and if that value is not selected it does nothing. And in a dropdown if you put selected into one of the options it defaults to that option.