Multipage form

Think about it step by step in terms of requests and responses, and you'll see the challenge with multipage forms:

• Step 1. REQUEST: A site visitor requests the page.
• Step 2. RESPONSE: The server sends back page 1 of the form blank.
• Step 3. REQUEST: The visitor fills out the form and submits the data for page 1 with another request.
• Step 4. RESPONSE: The server receives the data with the request and sends back page 2 of the form blank.

When server responds back to the browser loads page 2, the server then loses all memory of the request in step 3!

There are a few ways to handle this.

• The server could send an email in Step 4.
• The server could write the values from the form fields to a database in Step 4.
• The server in Step 4 could send the browser back the values from the fields it received in Step 3.

The easiest way would probably be that third option:

• Step 4 (revised): RESPONSE: The server receives the data with the request and sends back page 2 of the form blank and hidden fields with all the values from page 1.
• Step 5: REQUEST: The visitor fills out the form and submits the data for page 2 and the hidden values from page 1 with another request.
• Step 6: RESPONSE: The server sends the email with all the values from both pages and redirects to a Thank You page.

The one problem with this approach is that you won't receive any data until page 2 is completed. Depending on the context, that may be what you want.

Does that make sense?

Yes absolutely! thanks! But how do I input the values of the first page on the second page? <input type="hidden" name="first_name" value="....">

what should i put in the value position?

How about with checkboxes and other input methods?

Roy

When you receive the first form submission, you'll have the values in the $_POST array:

• $_POST["name"]
• $_POST["address"]
• and so on

When you generate the form, you'll need to use those in the fomr

<?php

// controller code
$page_one_name = $_POST["name"];
$page_one_name = $_POST["address"];

?>
...
<form>

    <!-- page two fields -->

    <input name="name" value="<?php echo htmlspecialchars($page_one_name); ?>">
    <input name="address" value="<?php echo htmlspecialchars($page_one_address); ?>">

</form>

Does that help?

Thnx! getting close now!

Somehow it doesnt display the text from the formfields i have. so users can enter a text.. this text is somehow not displayed?

Checkbox items work perfectly!

Also..

I have the total price of the selection displayed as <span id="totaalprijs" name="sumprice"> on the first page of the form. How can i display this one on the second page?

Roy

You'll have to include some code or something for me to figure out what might be wrong.

When you receive the page 1 form submission, are you receiving the total price? You may have to add that as a hidden field on the page 1 form so that you can pass it to the server so the server can send it back to page 2.

this is the code for the end of the form in page1:

        <div id="totalprice">
            <hr class="total">
            <p class="totalprice">Totaal: <h7>&euro;<span id="totaalprijs" name="sumprice">20</span></span></h7><br>/maand</p><br>
            <a href="index.php" id="cancelorder" onclick="if (!confirm('Weet u zeker dat u uw bestelling wilt annuleren?')) return false;">Annuleren</a>
            <input type="submit" name="continue" id="submit" value="Ik ben er klaar voor, let's go!"></a><br>
            <input type="hidden" name="sumprice" value="">
        </div>
    </form>

These are the hidden fields for page2:

            <form name="myForm" action="payment.php" onSubmit="return validateForm();" method="post">
                <input type="hidden" name="domainreg" value="<?php echo htmlspecialchars($domainreg); ?>">
                <input type="hidden" name="cars" value="<?php echo htmlspecialchars($cars); ?>">
                <input type="hidden" name="domainnew" value="<?php echo htmlspecialchars($domainnew); ?>">
                <input type="hidden" name="domainmove" value="<?php echo htmlspecialchars($domainmove); ?>">                    
                <input type="hidden" name="domainname" value="<?php echo htmlspecialchars($domainname); ?>">
                <input type="hidden" name="hosting" value="<?php echo htmlspecialchars($hosting); ?>">                  
                <input type="hidden" name="exchange" value="<?php echo htmlspecialchars($exchange); ?>">                    
                <input type="hidden" name="domainnameexchange" value="<?php echo htmlspecialchars($domainnameexchange); ?>">                    
                <input type="hidden" name="antivirus" value="<?php echo htmlspecialchars($antivirus); ?>">
                <input type="hidden" name="backup" value="<?php echo htmlspecialchars($backup); ?>">        
                <input type="hidden" name="office" value="<?php echo htmlspecialchars($office); ?>">        
                <input type="hidden" name="desktop" value="<?php echo htmlspecialchars($desktop); ?>">                          
                <input type="hidden" name="sugar" value="<?php echo htmlspecialchars($sugar); ?>">      
                <input type="hidden" name="noma" value="<?php echo htmlspecialchars($noma); ?>">        
                <input type="hidden" name="sumprice" value="<?php echo htmlspecialchars($sumprice); ?>">    

Hope this helps

Roy

<input type="hidden" name="sumprice" value="<?php echo htmlspecialchars($sumprice); ?>">)

is not displaying the total price: <span id="totaalprijs" name="sumprice"> (the output of this code = sumprice)

Also:
<input type="hidden" name="exchange" value="<?php echo htmlspecialchars($exchange); ?>">)

should output some text. The field that comes with this item is a textfield. Somehow, the text entered here is not displayed.

Roy

can you see the code? somehow it is not showing after submitting.

First of all, regarding the input fields ... you have a number of text fields like this:

<input type="text" size="20">

Without a name, there's no way for the server to access the value:

<input type="text" size="20" name="something">

Does that help?

Second of all, regarding $sumprice ... You have this hidden field:

<input type="hidden" name="sumprice" value="">

That's the value that gets sent to the server. It looks like page1 will always send a blank value right now. Whatever code you have written that populates the span (is that JavaScript that does that?), it will need to populate the value in this hidden input field.

Does that help?

I guess i cant simply copy that line right? So include that line in value?

Change your hidden input field from this ...

<input type="hidden" name="sumprice" value="">

... to this ...

<input type="hidden" name="sumprice" value="" id="sumprice">

Then add this in a new line 376:

document.getElementById('sumprice').value = total;

The first change adds an id to the hidden input field of sumprice. The JavaScript code finds an element with an id of sumprice and loads the total into its value.

Does that help?

just looking at this discussion makes my head hurt! lol :P