Multi Page Forms

Hidden fields not carrying value

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7 Replies - 1230 Views - Last Post: 25 January 2010 - 08:42 PM Rate Topic: -----

#1 T-m.S  Icon User is offline

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Multi Page Forms

Posted 23 January 2010 - 11:45 PM

I am attempting to make a multi page form.

Using the post method.

The first form is processed by the second page.

the first form (excerpt only)

<form id="form1" name="form1" method="post" action="assessment_form_2.php">

 <input type="text" name="first_name" id="first_name" />


in the second form i have used

  <input type="hidden" name="first_name" value="<?php echo $_POST['first_name'];?>" />


The first page works and sends me on to the second form but when I check the source code the hidden field's value remains empty.

Is this not a valid way of transporting the information?

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Replies To: Multi Page Forms

#2 no2pencil  Icon User is offline

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Re: Multi Page Forms

Posted 23 January 2010 - 11:54 PM

Are you certain that there is data in the POST value?
<?php
if($_POST['first_name']!="") { 
  $fn=$_POST['first_name'];
} 
else {
  $fn="empty";
}
 ?>
<input type="hidden" name="first_name" value="<?php echo $fn; ?>" />

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#3 T-m.S  Icon User is offline

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Re: Multi Page Forms

Posted 24 January 2010 - 12:08 AM

View Postno2pencil, on 23 Jan, 2010 - 10:54 PM, said:

Are you certain that there is data in the POST value?
<?php
if($_POST['first_name']!="") { 
  $fn=$_POST['first_name'];
} 
else {
  $fn="empty";
}
 ?>
<input type="hidden" name="first_name" value="<?php echo $fn; ?>" />


Thank you for replying so quickly.

Yes there is definitely data entered.

I changed my code to your code.

When I viewed the source code there was one change:

instead of value="", I now have value="empty"

I'm at a bit of a loss as to why the information isn't being passed on.
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#4 no2pencil  Icon User is offline

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Re: Multi Page Forms

Posted 25 January 2010 - 10:57 AM

View PostT-m.S, on 24 Jan, 2010 - 01:08 AM, said:

I'm at a bit of a loss as to why the information isn't being passed on.

Without seeing the rest of your code, there really is no way we can trouble shoot it for you.
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#5 T-m.S  Icon User is offline

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Re: Multi Page Forms

Posted 25 January 2010 - 07:27 PM

View Postno2pencil, on 25 Jan, 2010 - 09:57 AM, said:

View PostT-m.S, on 24 Jan, 2010 - 01:08 AM, said:

I'm at a bit of a loss as to why the information isn't being passed on.

Without seeing the rest of your code, there really is no way we can trouble shoot it for you.


I pulled it right back to pure simplicity to test and now I have:

First form:

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
<head>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8" />
<title>Untitled Document</title>
</head>

<body>
<form name="form_1.php" action="form_2.php" method="post"/>
<input type="text" name="first_name" />
<input type="submit" value="submit" />
</form>
</body>
</html>


Second form:
<?php
$first_name = $_POST['first_name'];
?>
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
<head>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8" />
<title>Untitled Document</title>
</head>
<?php 
{ echo "$first_name";
}
?>
<form name="form_2" action="form_3.php" method="post"/>
<input type="hidden" value="<?php echo $_POST['first_name'];?>"/>
<input type="submit" value="submit"/>
</form>
<body>
</body>
</html>


Third form:
<?php
$first_name = $_POST['first_name'];
?>
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
<head>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8" />
<title>Untitled Document</title>
</head>

<body>
<?php { 
echo "$first_name";
}
?>
</body>
</html>


When I submit the first form it takes me to the second, it is able to print the $first_name so I know that data is entered and carried but when I check the source code the hidden field is empty. When I submit the second form it takes me to the third page which is blank.

I have obviously completely misunderstood the use of hidden fields but don't know where to start to fix the error.

Thanks for your help.
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#6 no2pencil  Icon User is offline

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Re: Multi Page Forms

Posted 25 January 2010 - 08:19 PM

When looking at the HTML that your php code creates... take a look at the hidden input. What do you see missing?

test<form name="form_2" action="form_3.php" method="post"/>
<input type="hidden" value="test"/>


Think about it... $_POST gets the variables value from the input field. How are the input fields unique? How does $_POST know which value it's getting from which field? That's right. By the name value. What is missing from your hidden filed? That's right... the name value.

here is a working example

form_2
<?php
$first_name = $_POST['first_name'];
?>
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-t
ransitional.dtd">
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
<head>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8" />
<title>Untitled Document</title>
</head>
<?php
{ echo "$first_name";
}
?>
<form name="form_2" action="form_3.php" method="post"/>
<input type="hidden" name="first_name" value="<?php echo $_POST['first_name'];?>"/>
<input type="submit" value="submit"/>
</form>
<body>
</body>
</html>


form_3
<?php
$first_name = $_POST['first_name'];
?>
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-t
ransitional.dtd">
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
<head>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8" />
<title>Untitled Document</title>
</head>

<body>
<?php {
if(!isset($_POST['first_name'])) {
  $first_name=$_POST['first_name'];
}
echo "$first_name";
}
?>
</body>
</html>

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#7 T-m.S  Icon User is offline

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Re: Multi Page Forms

Posted 25 January 2010 - 08:35 PM

Thank you, that was very easy to follow and understand - silly mistake really. I now have the value being passed to the third page which is all I need.

As a point of understanding though, I was under the impression that I would be able to see the value of a hidden field in the source code yet when i look at the source code for the second page of the form while the hidden field is there the value ="" -

Is this right?
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#8 no2pencil  Icon User is offline

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Re: Multi Page Forms

Posted 25 January 2010 - 08:42 PM

No, that's not correct.

You are giving the hidden value more magic than it deserves.

When you want a user to type in a field, you have an input type of text. Right? & how do you get that data to the form? You reference it by the input name. So why would a hidden field be all magical & automatic? It's not. You are simply taking an input text box, & changing text to hidden to indicate that it's still input, but the value is pre-set & hidden from the visible page. Don't give the hidden input box any more merit than it's suppose to have :)
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