Writing my first page with a form that submits to a php script (sorry if terminolgy is wrong), the php error checks and puts an error message at the top if there is a problem with the submitted data but it always clears the form, how can i get the form to stay the same if theres an error?
HTML/PHP Form help (n00b)
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I would create the form and set the value of the form fields to themselves. If that doesn't make much sense, this is what I mean:
Points to note here is that:
* You pick up the same name in the Post array that you give the input element
* You use the @ suppress error command, because when you first load the page 'txt_example' won't exist in the $_POST array since you won't have submitted the form yet.
That should work.
Code:
<form method='post' action='somescript.php'>
<input name='txt_example' value=" <?php @echo($_POST['txt_example']); ?>">
</form>Points to note here is that:
* You pick up the same name in the Post array that you give the input element
* You use the @ suppress error command, because when you first load the page 'txt_example' won't exist in the $_POST array since you won't have submitted the form yet.
That should work.
Mmm yes it will. What are you planning to do after the form has been submitted though? Leave the form there for another entry to be submitted?
What I would normally do with a form is:
> present the form to the user, setting the form action to be the same page, but with a parameter entered into the querystring to notify the page that it should process form input.
> After submission, the form gets processed and the data is used for whatever it's being used for
> Redirect the user somewhere else if everything went ok. If not, continue on and present the form again.
If you just want to present the form again even on a successful submission then there's probably someway of unsetting the $_POST array which will make all the fields blank in my example code above. If not, you could store the $_POST elements into an intermediate array and unset those before the form is presented.
What I would normally do with a form is:
> present the form to the user, setting the form action to be the same page, but with a parameter entered into the querystring to notify the page that it should process form input.
> After submission, the form gets processed and the data is used for whatever it's being used for
> Redirect the user somewhere else if everything went ok. If not, continue on and present the form again.
If you just want to present the form again even on a successful submission then there's probably someway of unsetting the $_POST array which will make all the fields blank in my example code above. If not, you could store the $_POST elements into an intermediate array and unset those before the form is presented.
I'd probably go a bit more elaborate than that, to avoid using error suppression and also to cleanse data. Probably use some Javascript too.
edit: untested..
add a whitelist if() to the foreach loop to ensure the values echoed are only those in the form.
edit: untested..
Code:
<html>
<head>
<title>Test</title>
</head>
<body>
<script language="JavaScript">
var values = new Array();
<?php
foreach ($_POST as $key => $val) {
echo "\t\t\t\t\t\tvalues[\"$key\"] = '" . htmlentities($val) . "',\n";
}
?>
function fillValue (obj)
{
if (arrayKeyExists(obj.name, values)) {
obj.value = values[obj.name];
}
return false;
}
</script>
<form action="" method="post">
<input type="text" name="text1" onLoad="fillValue(this)" />
<input type="text" name="text2" onLoad="fillValue(this)" />
<input type="submit" />
</form>
</body>
</html>add a whitelist if() to the foreach loop to ensure the values echoed are only those in the form.
Last edited:
Perhaps a bit over elaborate for me, but it's a means to the same end, really.