passing values from form to form

notsleepy

elo, as the title suggests i'm trying to pass values from form to form,
example - the user clicks on a picture - a string is compiled and the form opens a second php file and places the string into a text box (can be anything that displays the string but the string must be displayed). - on the second form the user enters some details into a text box, example their name and then presses a submit button - a third form processes the information.

i've copied the code lines i have below (it was all nested inside tables which i've removed this - i hope i haven't wiped any of the critical stuff though!).

first php file, (example pictures with hyperlinks)

<html>
<head>
..blah..blah..
<head>
<body>
..blah..blah..

<a title="click here to enter the picture name into text box on secondfile!" onmouseover="javascript:pic(2)"> <href="http://www.mydomain.co.uk/secondfile.php" >
<img  src="http://www.mydomain.co.uk/imagefile.gif" border="0" width="29" height="20"></a>


..blah..blah..

<script type="text/javascript">
function pic1(){
$picname="pic1" ;}
function pic2(){
$picname="pic2" ;}
function pic(num){
$picname="pic".num ;}
</script>

<input type="hidden" value="firstphp" name="fromphpfile1">
<input type="hidden" value="<?=$picname?>" name="thispic">

</body>
</html>

secondfile.php - file, (example - contains input text boxes and submit button)

<html>
<form action="http://www.mydomain.co.uk/processuserchoice.php" method="post" name="ChoiceandDetailsForm" id="ChoiceandDetailsForm">
<input name="usersname" type="text" size="35">
<input name="userschoice" type="text" value="<?= $_POST['thispic'] ?>" size="35">
<input type="submit" VALUE="Submit">
<script type="text/javascript">
document.ChoiceandDetailsForm.usersname.focus();
</script>
</html>

processuserchoice.php - the third php file (example - the emailer!)

<?
echo $_POST['usersname']." has chosen ".$_POST['userschoice'];
?>

i suspect that i am not 'posting' from the first file - but i've tried messing by swapping the

<href="http://www.mydomain.co.uk/secondfile.php" >

with

<form action="http://www.mydomain.co.uk/secondfile.php" method="post" name="userschoice" id="userschoice">

but that did not work either!

any clues would be very much appreciated, cheers

rincewind456

Take a look at [man]session_start/man and Sessions in general, that is what you will need to use to do what you want.

notsleepy

thanks rincewind456
oh boy, php is not as simple as Visual Basic is it, i mean in VB, you declare the variables public or global even const - set the values and the values are there until you exit or reset.
i didn't really want to start using cookies or sessions (i hate cookies myself and use cookiewall for instance), been messing with sessions for a few hours now and still not got a value to pass from on form to another let alone using mouseover to set it and dumping into a text box!!!!
i guess i'm gonna be flaffing about with this for ages still - nothings simple ey! anyway, cheers for the pointer - shame there isn't a simpler way ie post get etc.
i've even thought write to a file (that's easy) but then two people might be online doing the same task - therefore things could go wonky!

Piranha

notsleepy wrote:
oh boy, php is not as simple as Visual Basic is it, i mean in VB, you declare the variables public or global even const - set the values and the values are there until you exit or reset.

In this case PHP is the same as VB. In PHP and VB you declare the variables, set the values and they are kept until you exit the program. The big difference is that PHP is finished and exit when all the code is transferred and the webpage is transferred but VB is still running. Because of that it seems like you have to declare the variables many times, and it can be quite confusing until you understand that it really is a new program. The easiest way to think is that every time you click a link a new PHP program starts.

There is a simple way (but not recommended) to solve your problem. You can transfer the variables by adding hidden fields to your form with the value that was recieved before. Like this:

// Page 1
<form method="post" action="form2">
    <input name="form1" type="text" />
    <input type="submit" />
</form>

// Page 2
<form method="post" action="form3">
    <input type="hidden" name="form1" value="<?php echo $_POST['form1'] ?>
    <input type="text" name="form2" />
    <input type="submit" />
</form>

// Page 3
<?php
    $form1 = $_POST['form1'];
    $form2 = $_POST['form2'];
?>

If you can get sessions to work that is much better since you are quite vunrable by doing it this way. But if you really need to do it like this then it is working.