Using a variable across the pages in PHP [duplicate] - php

Question

My website involves a user submitting data over several pages of forms. I can pass data submitted on one page straight to the next page, but how do I go about sending it to pages after that? Here's a very simplified version of what I'm doing.
Page 1:
<?php
echo "<form action='page2.php' method='post'>
Please enter your name: <input type='text' name='Name'/>
<input type='submit' value='Submit'/></form>";
?>
Page 2:
<?php
$name=$_POST["Name"];
echo "Hello $name!<br/>
<form action='page3.php' method='post'>
Please enter your request: <input type='text' name='Req'/>
<input type='submit' value='Submit'/></form>";
?>
Page 3:
<?php
echo "Thank you for your request, $name!";
?>
The final page is supposed to display the user's name, but obviously it won't work because I haven't passed that variable to the page. I can't have all data submitted on the same page for complicated reasons so I need to have everything split up. So how can I get this variable and others to carry over?

Answer 1

Use sessions:
session_start(); on every page
$_SESSION['name'] = $_POST['name'];
then on page3 you can echo $_SESSION['name']

Answer 2

You could store the data in a cookie on the user's client, which is abstracted into the concept of a session. See PHP session management.

Answer 3

if you don't want cookies or sessions:
use a hidden input field in second page and initialize the variable by posting it like:
page2----
$name=$_POST['name']; /// from page one
<form method="post" action="page3.php">
<input type="text" name="req">
<input type="hidden" name="holdname" value="<? echo "$name"?>">
////////you can start by making the field visible and see if it holds the value
</form>
page3----
$name=$_POST['holdname']; ////post the form in page 2
$req=$_POST['req']; ///// and the other field
echo "$name, Your name was successfully passed through 3 pages";

Answer 4

As mentioned by others, saving the data in SESSION is probably your best bet.
Alternatly you could add the data to a hidden field, to post it along:
page2:
<input type="hidden" name="username" value="<?php echo $name;?>"/>
page3
echo "hello $_POST['username'};

Answer 5

You can create sessions, and use posts. You could also use $_GET to get variables from the URL.
Remember, if you aren't using prepared statements, make sure you escape all user input...

Answer 6

Use SESSION variable or hidden input field

Answer 7

This is my workaround of this problem: instead of manually typing in hidden input fields, I just go foreach over $_POST:
foreach ($_POST as $key => $value) {
echo '<input type="hidden" name="' . $key . '" value="' . $value . '" />';
}
Hope this helps those with lots of fields in $_POST :)