how to use Native sessions and MySQL to join information - php

Question

I have never used sessions before and I am trying to figure out the best way to handle this. I basically am trying to do:
1 step selecting a service
2 step selecting a time
3 step review and book
I can get it to work with no problems using mysql. What I would usually do is save the information into the database after each step and by the time I get to the review part I would have all the information saved and was OK.
However I don't think this is the best way to approach this and might cause problems down the road (what if they stopped at step 2 blah blah)
I decided to try the Laravel 4 sessions and it was super easy to save the session and move on to the next step. However, when I get to the final step I need to join mysql tables to fully show the information about their booking. Can I use the session information to join the information? Can I use the Sessions Database to save this information? Or use different tables?
My controller that POST after reviewing the information:
public function getReview() {
//sets id of user
$user = User::find(Auth::user()->id);
//gets the time and date that they booked from #getSchedule
$scheduler = Session::get('schedule');
//formats time to put in db
$date = strtotime($scheduler['date']);
//same thing as the line above
$dateFormat = date('Y-m-d',$date);
//model to save the schedule
$schedule = new Schedule();
$schedule->userID = $user->id;
$schedule->date = $dateFormat;
$schedule->block = $scheduler['timeslot'];
$schedule->status = "1";
$schedule->save();
//gets the services the user picked from #getServices
$service = Session::get('service');
//saves the services as individual rows in db table
foreach($service as $services)
{
if(!empty($services)) {
$service = new Service();
$service->userID = $user->id;
$service->services = $services;
$service->save();
}
}
return Redirect::to('dashboard');
}
This is the GET review page (where I am having the issues with all the JOINS)
public function showReview() {
$user = User::find(Auth::user()->id);
//show the information and confirm that they want all this crap...if they do..save it and return them to their dashboard
$time = DB::table('bk_schedule')
->leftJoin('bk_timeslot', 'bk_schedule.block', '=', 'bk_timeslot.id')
->where('bk_schedule.id', Auth::user()->id)->first();
$date = strtotime($time->date);
$dateFormat = date('D: F d, Y',$date);
$service = Session::get('service');
$serviceSummary = DB::table('bk_service')
->leftJoin('pr_service', 'pr_service.id', '=', 'bk_service.services')
->where('bk_service.userID', Auth::user()->id)
->get();
$total = DB::table('bk_service')
->leftJoin('pr_service', 'pr_service.id', '=', 'bk_service.services')
->where('bk_service.userID', Auth::user()->id)
->sum('pr_service.price');
return View::make('book.review', array('pageTitle' => 'Booking Appointment Review and Finalize', 'service' => $service, 'date' => $dateFormat,
'time' => $time, 'email' => $user->email, 'serviceSummary' => $serviceSummary, 'total' => $total));
}
Is it possible to save the information at the GET and delete it if they don't submit to POST? Could I maybe use my session data to and use the MySQL queries I have?

Answer 1

You don't understand what the session is, with you approach users will not be able to fill several forms (open in several tabs) simultaneously.
So, general way to do this is:
First page shows just HTML code with some fields
User selects them and POST data back to server
Server validates data and open ANOTHER HTML page with new fields AND adds several "hidden" field with values selected in step 1 (of course server can present page1 with error messages)
Users posts this form, server can open THIRD form where new visible fields and ALL previous fields are stored in hidden inputs
Finally user posts form to last page, where you have all data from all previous pages.
Just to notice: another approach is to store "temporary" data in session, for this you will need to obtain some generated ID on 2nd step and pass it through pages as described before