PHP Form Validation for a newbie!

[ridster]

ok this is probably very basic but i can't get my head around it...

i am making my first ecommerce website. The checkout system comprises of 4 different steps, a lot like amazon.com

step 1: user enters email clicks new registration or enters email and password and clicks existing customer...

step 2: new user enters delivery details...and so on...

I just dont know where i should be validation this code...

on step one...if i make form action to go to step 2 how does it redisplay the page if there is an error and if its successful how does it go to step 2?

I'm just not getting it...if i do the validation on step 2 then how do i redisplay step 1?
and if i submit the form to itself on step 1 how do i then jump to another page?

sorry for confusing all you guys 🙂

Thanks in advance

[veridicus]

I like to do my validation at every step. I typically submit the form to itself. On the server side I validate things like email and redisplay the same form if anything is invalid with a message somewhere explaining what's wrong. Once the form is submitted and passes validation I display the next step's HTML or redirect to the URL of the next step.

[ridster]

yeah thanks i just about figured that out now...that you resubmit it to itself and then either show the next set of html or use page redirect...thanks! 🙂