[RESOLVED] Hidden Form Field

[michaelk46]

I have a variable $form and I want to display it on the screen but also pass it back to the same script to be used in the next step.

I am having an issue with passing a variable back to a php script. I am trying to use a hidden form field, but all I get is it prints the info to the screen and does not pass it back.

I know it is happening because of the echo statement. My question is... How would I change it so it does not show the the info on the screen the but just passes it back?

<form action="maintain.php" method="POST">
<input type="hidden" id="hide" name="hide" value="<?php echo ($form); ?>" />
<input type="submit" name='formsub' value="New Record" />
<input type="submit" name='formsub' value="Search Records" />
</form>

<?php echo ($form); ?>

[cainy1982]

I am still pretty new to this but I had a similar problem.

You need to use the POST command to get the data posted and clean it if you are processing it in a query.

for example

$reply_id = mysqli_real_escape_string ($dbc, trim($_POST['rid']));
	$topic_id = mysqli_real_escape_string ($dbc, trim($_POST['tid']));

Is processing data from my form below

<!-- Create the form:-->
	<form action="forum_delete_reply.php" method="post">
	<h3>Reply: <?php echo $rows['reply']; ?></h3>
	<p>Are you sure you want to delete this reply?<br />
	<input type="radio" name="sure" value="Yes" /> Yes 
	<input type="radio" name="sure" value="No" checked="checked" /> No</p>
	<p><input type="submit" name="submit" value="Submit" /></p>
	<input type="hidden" name="submitted" value="TRUE" />
	<input type="hidden" name="tid" value="<?php echo $topic_id ; ?>" />
	<input type="hidden" name="rid" value="<?php echo $reply_id ; ?>" />
	</form>

[michaelk46]

I appreciate your post, but I don't think I was clear enough with the problem.

When my script runs, I get the data that is stored in the $form variable outputted to the screen twice. Once when I don't want it to ( the echo statement in the hidden field) and once when I do want it to (the second echo statement).

Also the variable is never passed back to the script to be used the next step, when I use the POST command to try to get the value of the hidden field... I get this error

Notice: Undefined index: hide in C:\wamp\www\test\maintain.php on line 127

[bradgrafelman]

cainy1982;10958403 wrote:

You need to use the GET command to get the data posted and clean it if you are processing it in a query.

What "GET" command are you talking about? Are you referring to the "GET" form method (which is still confusing, considering you're POST'ing information in the example you gave...).

michaelk46 wrote:

all I get is it prints the info to the screen and does not pass it back.

Does the information contain any double quotes? Since you don't properly sanitize the data for safe HTML output (e.g. by using [man]htmlentities/man), then it's quite possible that your HTML syntax becomes broken.

Also, on the "maintain.php" page, what happens if you do something like this:

print_r($_POST);

?

michaelk46 wrote:

How would I change it so it does not show the the info on the screen the but just passes it back?

Er... isn't it obvious? Don't echo() the data where you don't want to. :p

[michaelk46]

Does the information contain any double quotes? Since you don't properly sanitize the data for safe HTML output (e.g. by using [man wrote:

htmlentities/man), then it's quite possible that your HTML syntax becomes broken.

No double quotes..

Also, on the "maintain.php" page, what happens if you do something like this: [code=php wrote:

print_r($_POST);[/code] ?

here is the string that it generates...

Array ( [id] => 1 [first] => Robert[second] => Smith [city] => HuHe [state] => Ohio [zipcode] => 00001 [emailadd] => [e-mail] [reason] => saying hi [comments] => w74e865r7t86=98jpiomk;l [formsub] => Save )

Nothing about the hidden form field..

Er... isn't it obvious? Don't echo() the data where you don't want to. [/QUOTE wrote:

Yes I know... I need to know how to place the information that is in the $form variable into the hidden form field so I can pass it back. Unless there is a better way that you know of to accomplish that...

[bradgrafelman]

In the form you showed above, there was no other data other than the hidden form field, yet there is a lot of other data in the output you provided above. Note that data from one <form> isn't submitted along with any other <form>'s on the page - only the data contained within the <form> tags of whichever submit button you press will get sent.

michaelk46 wrote:

Unless there is a better way that you know of to accomplish that...

It does indeed seem rather pointless to output hidden data in HTML just to send it back to yourself later; in such a situation, I would much rather use a [man]session[/man] or a [man]cookie[/man].

[michaelk46]

Yes I apologize for the error... I was working on a different issue at the same time and got confused a little.

I ended up having to rework the how the data is displayed due to the second issue which made the other issue a non issue.

I really appreciate all your help and apologize for wasting your time on this.