I'm Just working on a simple form in PHP but i have a problem, i have many fields in my form and one of these is a file input type, if there are no issues with the file uploaded but an error occurred on another field, How can I ( in the refreshed page) maintain the file previously uploaded?
Edit: We understood what you want, but this is not possible, filling the file-input again automatically after validation. The user has to select his files again, this is how browsers works, for security matters.
Well, since you know what you're doing, you dont really need a script, you really need some help/ideas on how to approach what you want. What I would do is:
- Save the path of the uploaded file in session user data variable, like $_SESSION['uploaded_file'], and retrieve it after error.
- Use AJAX, different form, to upload the file before user hit submit.
Obs: If the user gives up on completing the form even though he uploaded a file, his files will be on your server, 'stealing' some useful space. So I don't know if this is a really good approach, but a good one, would be using different forms, disassembling the upload action from the form's informations.
Real example: If user is filling out a form to be a member of your website/forum/whatever, just let him upload the profile picture later, only when his account is really active. You could be saving some trouble.
Another one: If the user just wants to change profile picture, also make the uploading action to have no influence (and vice-versa) with his profile informations and etc. This is a trouble-saver, and a better approaching solution.
But, if you're like uploading a photo to a gallery and setting description and etc for the picture, then you could be using of a more elaborated validation, using javascript/ajax to check if fields are being filled correctly before submiting data.
On your upload code first save the values into SESSION like:
$_SESSION[name] = $_POST[name];
then print it into your INPUTS like:
<input type="text" name="name" value="<?=$_SESSION[name]?>">
Don't forget to use session_start().
Or look for javascript alternatives
Related
so basically I have a multistep form with X steps.
In the first step, I offer a file upload form to the user.
This just behaves like a normal HTML file uploader:
User selects file
File Box, shows pathname
If the user clicks on "next" the file should not be uploaded.
If the user reaches the last step of the form, the files he/she has choosen in step-1 should be uploaded now.
I have no idea if this is actually possible. There are also a couple of problems
The value from input type="file" gives something like C:\fakepath\filename.ext
Saving the above in a session for later upload does not make sense.
How can I get the uploader to work in the last step?
Yes, this is actually possible, and saving data between pages make sense, otherwise, how could you remember what he sets in the file input?
If it is a simple HTML page, I assume your are using PHP. Register files in a temporary variable or session, put it in a hidden input in the HTML code if you don't use session.
At the last step, set your files and upload it.
Good luck.
My client wants to have a 3 page form. The first page allows the user to enter data including a uploaded file. the second page confirms this data. and the third page submits the data to the database and directories.
Via post, I can keep saving the data to a hidden input fields, thats no problem. My problem is the uploaded file. how do I hold that document from page to page ? I am using Cakephp but any advice would help, thanks
You can always just create the illustion that the form is utilising three different pages. Use AJAX to accept and validate/request the user confirm their submitted data. If in this view they accept it initiate a POST to submit all that data.
You really don't need three physically different files to achieve this but you can still let it appear in three stages to keep your client happy.
You just upload the file to temp directory and keep the value in hidden variables just like other form data . If form successfully submitted then the image copy to desired location other wise delete the image
You can easily fake these 3 pages using CSS. Or even 2, as "third page" is actually a server script which has nothing to do with pages in the browser.
Just make your form, then put an event on the submit button which changes divs to whatever "confirmation page" he wants. and then actually send the form using a button on this page.
that's all
An uploaded file is always held temporarily. The server env var should tell you where it is. In Ruby's rack it is stored in the params var. So I guess there is a similar params var in php which has a hash with all the necessary information.
Since the file would be uploaded on the first step, one option is to put the file's location in a hidden input field along with the rest of the data (either there, or put it in the session). With CakePHP, if your file field looks somewhat like that:
<input type="file" name="data[User][image]" id="UserImage" />
Then you will be able to capture the location through
$location = $this->data['User']['image']['tmp_name'];
Which will correspond to something like /var/tmp/xxxxxx
On the last page, if the user confirms all the data, you just use move_uploaded_file() to put the file wherever you want on the server.
move_uploaded_file($location, '/new/location');
I have a page with a form on it that the user visits to fill in some info before he signs up for a profile. Underneath the form is a preview of what the profile will look like. I have some javascript so that as the user types into the boxes in the form, the corresponding bit of their profile fills with whatever they're typing. IE they type into the 'title' form input and it will appear in the id="title" div below.
In that form I also have a field so the user can upload a photograph. When the user chooses the pic he wants to upload and closes the dialog, I'd like a resized (so that it fits my max height/width requirements) image to also appear in the preview bit below the form. All this would happen before the profile form had been submitted.
Whats the best way to go about this? I've done a fair bit of googling and while there's plenty of plugings they all seem to either do something far too complicated or miss something out. Can anyone please tell me the best way to handle this?
Thanks :)
If it makes any difference I'm using cakephp.
Side question - is there a way to make sure that when the choose file dialog opens, there is only the option to select image file types. IE all the .doc .xlt etc aren't there?
As to your first question, you'll have to upload the file. So you'd upload the image and store it in a temporary location that you can still stream back in an IMG element. When the user saves the form, you can then discard the temp image. You'll probably also need some sort of cron/scheduled task that cleans them up if folks never save the information and just leave.
As to your second question, nope. You can check it on the client after they have selected a file, but then I strongly recommend checking it again on the server.
I'm using Valum's AJAX uploader, which is quite nice. I have a form that lets you fill out some info and optionally attach files.
I have a hidden input on the form that has a randomly generated "token" (5 character alnum). The uploads are sent to a tmp folder and the info about those files (name, dir, token) are kept in a uploads_tmp table in a database.
Then, when the user successfully submits the form, those files are moved to a more permanent location and the rows from the uploads_tmp are moved to the uploads table.
If the user submits and there are errors with the form, my script knows there are uploads from a previous attempt via the token. So there's no need to re-upload files.
Is this the right way of doing it or am I going about it all wrong? I'm using PHP (CodeIgniter to be exact).
There isn't any one correct way of doing something like this. Your method seems like a good intuitive one, but really it's down to whatever works for you and your situation.
So I have this form that needs to be filled out by the user. In the form, there is a place to upload an image. Currently, the upload takes place when the user hits "Submit" at the end of the form, however, that causes an up to 30 second delay (due to image size).
What I'm wondering is if there is a way to start that upload while the user is still filling out the form, rather than selecting the image, finishing the form, then uploading it. (This way it really cuts down on the time needed, per form)
The form itself already has a dozen other things it's doing to submit the information to the database and such, so i've been looking into using javascript with an onchange event to get into the javascript, and perhaps from there moving back into php to perform the upload, all while not reloading the page.
Any ideas or suggestions?
There really aren't many ways, the most common one is to use an iframe. Something along the lines of: http://valums.com/ajax-upload/
This has worked very well for me:
jQUploader