[Resolved] Session variables not registering?

new7media

I am putting together a pretty simple quiz. It starts with a form where you enter your name and email, and then moves into questions which span 5 screens, 5 questions per screen. All we want this app to do is show people their name and score at the end of the quiz, and send their email to us for our e-mail list stored in-house.

I have a file, start.php. This is a simple html form that collects the name (name=testtaker) and email (name=testemail) data. This data is submitted to a file labelled questions.php.

questions.php is where i start up sessions:

session_start();
header("Cache-control: private"); 
if (!$_SESSION['testtaker']) {
	$_SESSION['testtaker'] = $testtaker;
}
if (!$_SESSION['testemail']) {
	$_SESSION['testemail'] = $testemail;
}

So far, so good. I echo the session variables to the screen to make sure they are there, and they are.

Next questions.php calls up (include_once) the first form with 5 questions. The form action is questions.php and when I submit, the idea is to just process their answers -- yes/no questions where each yes is worth one point. This is where things go south and I lose my previously created session data.

questions.php basically just goes like this:

(1) start up the session and register the user info if not already there.

(2) display quiz screen one, and process score data upon submit -- score data is stored in a hidden field which i simply add up after each screen.

(3) call up quiz screen two and process score data upon submit.

(4) and on through screen five which is then processed on a "final.php" screen where the score is captured and registered as a session variable -- $_SESSION['score'].

That's where my other problem happens. The score variable just simply doesn't register.

Lastly, I want to echo $SESSION['score'], $SESSION['testtaker'], and $_SESSION['testemail'] to the screen and/or use in a mail message generated in the results.php page. But since these are lost, or never registered, I end up with nothing.

All of my php pages start with session_start(). I didn't use variable names that can be confused with global variables - I don't think. I don't get why I'm losing my session info, esp since I'm doing hardly anything with it. Is there something I'm missing? Appreciate your help!

halojoy

session_start();
  header("Cache-control: private");
// try make sure $testtaker is set according to your form method
// same goes for $email or whatever your form submits
// <form action='somepage.php' method='POST'>

// form method GET This is default, if no method is set
$testtaker = $_GET['testtaker'];

// form method POST
$testtaker = $_POST['testtaker'];

   if (!$_SESSION['testtaker']) {
      $_SESSION['testtaker'] = $testtaker;
  }
  if (!$_SESSION['testemail']) {
      $_SESSION['testemail'] = $testemail;
  }

new7media

Thanks - I've added that line in using the POST method, but I still am losing my session data. They get registered, and I can echo them back to the screen when I move to step two which is to display the first of five forms. Once I hit submit on form_one, that's when I lose my variables. Even though I'm still in questions.php and both variables were registered previously. Any other suggestions - much appreciated.

halojoy

that is the nature of this code
submit and new values comes into your script
if you go back to form

and any page where you want to read SESSION variables
need to be started with
session_start()

I am afriad, you have (like so many) NOt provided enough of
your totalsetup of php pages
and how they interact

certainly, if we knew more, we could easily tell you where to change
and get it to work perfectly

so more info, please

... I swear to God, I will tell the truth, the WHOLE truth ....
and nothing but the truth
:p 🙂 :p

new7media

Great - here's what I have. This is a scaled back version - eg., no error checking in place for skipping a question. This gets right to the heart of it.

start.php

<form action="questions.php" method="POST">
<P>Name: <input type="text" name="testtaker">
<P>Email: <input type="text" name="testemail">
<P><input type=submit name=submit value=submit>
</form>

questions.php

session_start();
header("Cache-control: private"); 
$testtaker = $_POST['testtaker']; 
$testemail = $_POST['testemail']; 
if (!$_SESSION['testtaker']) {
	$_SESSION['testtaker'] = $testtaker;
}
if (!$_SESSION['testemail']) {
	$_SESSION['testemail'] = $testemail;
}

// display the session variables just as a check
echo "name ". $_SESSION["testtaker"];
echo "<br>";
echo "email ". $_SESSION["testemail"];
echo "<br>";

if ($form_1) {

$answers = array($form1_question1, $form1_question2, $form1_question3, $form1_question4, $form1_question5);

$screen1 = array_sum($answers);

$score = $screen1;

// Put up the next quiz screen and put $score into a hidden field for processing later

include_once ("form_2.php");

} elseif ($form_2) {

$answers = array($form2_question1, $form2_question2, $form2_question3, $form2_question4, $form2_question5);

$screen2 = array_sum($answers);

$score = $score + $screen2;

// Put up the next quiz screen and put $score into a hidden field for processing later
	include_once ("form_3.php");

} elseif ($form_3) {

$answers = array($form3_question1, $form3_question2, $form3_question3, $form3_question4, $form3_question5);

$screen3 = array_sum($answers);

$score = $score + $screen3;

// Put up the next quiz screen and put $score into a hidden field for processing later
	include_once ("form_4.php");

} elseif ($form_4) {

$answers = array($form4_question1, $form4_question2, $form4_question3, $form4_question4, $form4_question5, $form4_question6, $form4_question7);

$screen4 = array_sum($answers);

$score = $score + $screen4;

// Put up the last quiz screen and put $score into a hidden field for processing later
	include_once ("form_5.php");

} elseif ($form_5) {

$answers = array($form5_question1, $form5_question2, $form5_question3, $form5_question4, $form5_question5);

$screen5 = array_sum($answers);

$score = $score + $screen5;

echo ("<a href=result.php?score=$score>Get your results</a>");


} else {
	include_once ("form_1.php");
}

results.php

session_start();
header("Cache-control: private"); 
$_SESSION['score'] = $score;


echo ("<p>".$_SESSION['testtaker'].": Your score is: <b>".$_SESSION['score']."</b>");

$todays_date = date("m-d-Y");
if ($_SESSION['testemail']) {
	if (!$_SESSION['testtaker']) {
		$_SESSION['testtaker'] = 'Not supplied';
	}
	//send to participant
mail ("".$_SESSION['testemail']."", "Your Quiz Score", "Thank you for taking our quiz. Your score: ".$_SESSION['score']."", "FROM: info@quiz-r-us.net");

mail ("info@quiz-r-us.net", "Add to email list", "This person took the quiz (date: $todays_date):
Name: ".$_SESSION["testname"]."
Email: ".$_SESSION["testemail"]."
Score: ".$_SESSION["score"]."", 
"FROM: ".$_SESSION["testemail"]."");
	}

All of this works as intended - except for the loss of session variables. Again - any help, much appreciated!

kburger

What does, say, form_4.php look like? I know you say $score is put into a hidden field on the form, but it would be helpful to actually see what one of those forms looks like.

halojoy

nice to get such a good picture of what you got, so far
now only to get parts to interact ( work together ) correctly

Start.php
I guess is the start of form, of any input.
SESSION variables are empty.
always are when somebody start Browser.
We make start.php the main controller page, for step 1

Try this in start.php
1. test if submit-ted data from form ( else is first loop and fields are empty )
2. if submit AND correct, set SESSION variables and go somewhere else, maybe step 2
3. if not submit, Display <form>

<?php
// here put in: if ( isset ($_POST[ 'submit' ] ) )
----
// POST submit was clicked
// start session!
// test POST data is correct
// if correct, put POSTed data into SESSIONdata and goto step 2
// otherwise, give an error [b]$message[/b]: fill in all fields
----
// else 
// ( no POST submit )
// Welcome! Fill in form data, please.
----
?>
<!-- HTMLform -->
<form action="start.php" method="POST"> 
<P><input type="text" name="testtaker"> Name
<P><input type="text" name="testemail"> Email
<P><input type=submit name=submit value=Submit> 
</form>

finally, my friend new7media
I have posted Examples of maybe 5-10 different FORMS pages last week.
this is such a common question,
You should do good by Search for all my posts 😉

or for

Topics with word Form

To Everybody,
in upper right corner, we have Forum Search
maybe we should give help, how to use such a vBulletin Board search?
it can be very hard to do - for a beginner
😃

new7media

I have worked and reworked my approach to getting this all working way too many times. Finally it dawned on me to try the thing on a different server. I moved all of my files onto three other PHP/MySQL capable accounts and, of course, everything worked flawlessly. So clearly this is an issue with the web server set-up. Not sure what the issue is... But I'm at least glad to know that something I thought was pretty straightforward, and that I programmed pretty straightforward does actually work pretty straightforward. Thanks to everyone for your help! If I figure out what setting is off, i'll post back.