self submit form, fields are blank?

Leirra

I am new to PHP/MySQL, and google isn't being especially helpful with this.

I have a form that I am working on where the user can update information stored in a database. When the click "update" the form should reload with the new values in place. It loads properly the first time, displaying old information. It updates the information in the database. However, when the page reloads, the fields that were just updated are now all blank.

<?php

$query = "SELECT * FROM userList
		  WHERE status = 1 AND name = '$userName'";

$result = mysql_query($query);
$user = mysql_fetch_array ($result, MYSQL_ASSOC);


?>

<p class = "other"> Start with the basics: </p>
<fieldset class = "paged"> <legend>Basics</legend>
<form class = "centered"
	method = "post"
	action = "">
	<label for = "uName">Name:</label>
	<input class = "login"
		   type = "text"
		   size = "30"
		   name = "uName"
		   <?php
		   print "value = '".$user['name']."'>";
		   ?>
		   </input><br /> <br />



            <label for = "address">Address:</label>
	<input class= "login"
		   type = "text"
		   name = "address"
		   <?php
		   		print "value = '".$user['address']."'>";
		   ?>
		   </input><br /> <br />

              <input class= "ok"
	  		 type = "image"
	  		 src = "images/update.png"
			 value = "submit"
			 name = "submit"
			 alt = "submit">

           </input>

  </form>

<?php

$address = mysql_real_escape_string (filter_input(INPUT_POST,"address"));
$name = $user['name'];

$query = "UPDATE userList  

	   	 SET address = '$address',
WHERE name = '$name' AND status = 1";


mysql_query($query);


mysql_close ();	
?>

There is quite a bit more to the form (mostly more of the same), but this should illustrate the logic.

I want the user to be able to pull up the current information. The user should be able to update selected fields, click update, and have the page show the new information.

Instead, the information updates, but then loads blanks into the fields instead of the new data. If they go back to the beginning and reload the page, it shows the updated values. If they accidentally click update twice, it loads a blank into the address.

bradgrafelman

In your SQL query, where is the $userName variable ever defined?

Also, why are you executing the UPDATE SQL statement on every page load, rather than first checking to see if something was submitted?

paulnaj

What you are doing is this:

Pulling current info from database
Displaying current data
Updating the database (with new data?)

But the basic sequence of events should be:
1. if(POSTED data has been sent){
Validate data
Update the database
}
2. Pull current info from database
3. Display current data

Something like ... (sorry had to re-format your code to see what was going on)...

<?php
if(isset($_POST['uName']) && isset($_POST['address'])){
	// Data has been sent then update the db
	$query = '
	UPDATE `userList`
	SET `address` = "'.mysql_real_escape_string(filter_input(INPUT_POST,"address")).'"
	WHERE `name` = "'.mysql_real_escape_string(filter_input(INPUT_POST,"uName")).'"
	AND `status` = "1"
	';
	mysql_query($query);
}

// Now get the 'current' data (may have been just updated)
$query = '
SELECT * 
FROM `userList`
WHERE `status` = "1" 
AND `name` = "'.$userName.'"
';
$result = mysql_query($query);
$user = mysql_fetch_array ($result, MYSQL_ASSOC);
?>

<p class="other"> Start with the basics: </p>
<!-- THIS SHOULD ALL BE IN THE FORM fieldset class="paged"><legend>Basics</legend -->
<form class="centered" method="post" action="">
	<label for="uName">Name:</label>
	<input class="login" type="text" size="30" name="uName" value="<?php echo $user['name']; ?>" />
	<br />
	<br />
	<label for="address">Address:</label>
	<input class="login" type="text" name="address" value="<?php echo $user['address']; ?>" />
	<br />
	<br />
	<input class="ok" type="image" src="images/update.png" value="submit" name="submit" alt="submit" />
</form>

Hope that helps.

Leirra

bradgrafelman;10960064 wrote:
In your SQL query, where is the $userName variable ever defined?

It is a session variable defined elsewhere and known to be functioning correctly. Rather than post everything here, I trimmed that part away (along with several fields from the table that were just redundant and calls to data validation functions from another page) in the perhaps vain hope of making it easier on people looking this over trying to help me.

bradgrafelman;10960064 wrote:
Also, why are you executing the UPDATE SQL statement on every page load, rather than first checking to see if something was submitted?

Well, I tried having them split into two separate pages, and clicking update would send them to a page that would execute that query and bounce back to the original, but it gave the same results and would have been more difficult as an example. Having just started learning php, I couldn't think of any other way to do it. I really expected the two page solution to work and still do not understand why it failed, even if it wasn't the most efficient method.

Leirra

Thanks, Paulnaj

I will give it a try. Is there any way to do the "if isset" on the whole form or mus each input be checked individually?

paulnaj

Hi,

Is there any way to do the "if isset" on the whole form or mus each input be checked individually?

I was just trying to give you an idea of the order in which you should process the page. In general, it will depend on the requirements of the db. In this case you are inserting an address (so need to check that exists) and you are using the name to update the correct row in the db, so you need to ensure that exists too.

In general you will need to carefully decide which pieces of info are required and which are optional.

PS. isset($var) will return TRUE even $var is empty string. If you need that the $var exists and it's not the empty string use !empty($var). So,

<?php
$var1 = 'Non-empty string';
echo isset($var1); // prints TRUE (or 1)
echo !empty($var1); // prints TRUE

$var2 = ''; //Empty string
echo isset($var2); // prints TRUE
echo !empty($var1); // prints FALSE (or 0)

// $var3 = ''; // Un-declared var
echo isset($var3); // prints FALSE
echo !empty($var1); // prints FALSE
?>

Leirra

Well that has got it working as I wanted. Thank you very much for your help.

As for required fields and data validation, I understand how to make that work like I want. It is just a lot of typing - tedious, but not challenging. I didn't want to weigh down this post with all of that.

Your help with introducing isset to the system made all the difference. Thanks a million for that.