Form Data Is Getting Lost

Anon

Hello all,

I am using PHP4 with sessions and I am submitting my form via the GET method.

For some reason when I use the back button, all of my form no longer has data populated in it.

Is there any way to keep my form populated so users don't have to re-enter all of their search criteria when they use the back button?

PS. I switched to using the GET method instead of POST to avoid the "Page Expired" browser warning.

Thanks,

Rich

Anon

Did you forget your form tags?

Anon

The form tags are all complete. Would this have something to do with the sessions and the fact the form page itself is a php page?

Anon

When you use the back button it's up to the browser to remember what was in each field. Sounds like IE does notr rember this for you. This is not a PHP problem.

If you want to avoid empty fields you will have to provide your own, PHP based, backbutton that can relay the form info to the form-script.

Anon

Why is there any need for them to have the back button? Make the form submit to itself and only redisplay it if they need to search again or add some other detail. This saves them clicking effort as well.

Ryan

Anon

Hi Rich,

I had the exact same problem and the only way to come around this is to use cookies to store local data instead of sessions. Sessions are great for tracking entire login-sessions but for me the cookies worked great for storing a username for example.

babak

Hi
I agree with Ryan.

but you can also do somthing like this:

And this will wotk if you remember to do register your variable with session_register('name'); after the form is submitted.

I do it, and it works fine for me.

Good luck
//babak

Anon

I think the session storing will work, but you must also remember to session_unregister() the variable, or the form will be worthless after the first submit. For security, GET/POST cannot change a registered varible.

I think the best way to do this is to session_register the variable after the form is submitted. Then, display the form again with the variables instered and session_unregister the vars again before so the form will post new values.

I was hoping to find a way to make the server globally store all the form post info or just not "expire" the page. If anyone knows how to do this on Apache, please let me know.