Save/restore form data after locale change - php

I have a database app written in PHP (jQuery/JS on the front end) that has bilingual labels/text. Currently one can only change one's language on a maintenance page (form submission, then PHP updates a session variable with their new language choice), but the users would like me to add a language pulldown that would appear in the corner of all pages. When the page contains a form, I don't want users to lose their partially entered data if they happen to change the language, so I need to save/restore the form data somehow. Is there an easy way to do that? I know I can use jQuery to serialize the form, but then what? Send that added onto the URL and pick it up in PHP? Then what? Write some routine to loop through the form fields and handle them properly (inputs, selects, radio boxes, etc. are all different)? It seems like there should be an easier way. I don't mind restricting myself to HTML5-supported solutions or adding jQuery plugins.

How about localStorage?
If user has filled any input fields, save them to localStorage and delete the data after user submits the form.

My suggestion is to:
Submit the Language and any wanted user data when changing language to the server using $.ajax or $.post

Related

Ajax - multi-lingual pages with forms

I am trying to understand if the following scenario is possible:
a .PHP page that has a form and inputs for the user to submit information
The page itself offers several different languages for the user to view it in
The user can change languages but the form and the inputs retain their values (if the user has added information) - so the page cannot be re-loaded (as it would lose the information)
I think this might be achieved using an Ajax solution but I'd appreciate any thoughts or advice.
You actually want to change the page, so reload might still be the best choice. Otherwise you need to change every string on the page with javascript, which can get tedious.
You can do the reload without loosing the data. Just add the language information to the form and send another parameter to avoid the actual action that would normally happen when you send the form on the php side. Render the page in the new language and insert the transmitted data in the form.

best design practice in PHP for navigating from one form to another

I have an application in which I display a form so a user can search for client records based on last name. After entering search parameters, the record or records (there could be multiple clients with the same last name) are displayed. I then want the user to be able to select a client record, possibly with a radio button, and hit one of two buttons: Display details, or Create Reservation. The Display Details button should cause a new display with details of the selected record. The Create Reservation button should cause a new form, with its own handling, to be displayed.
Now, I know I can set things up according to this login
<?php
if (display button was pressed)
{
php code to retrieve more data and display details
}
else if (create reservation button was pressed)
{
php code to generate and display the reservation form, with appropriate handling
}
?>
display the original form with the search results
The problem is, I end up with really ugly, hard to read code because the php code to generate and display the reservation form is lengthy, and needs its own validation, database interaction, and form handling. The code, to my Java-oriented eye, looks ugly and non-modular. Plus, the code for handling the reservation form is icky, with lots of flag setting to determine if we are in form entry mode or form handling mode. I would like a much cleaner way to do this. So my question is, what is the best practice for handling the situation where there are multiple buttons and the action associated with each button is complex?
I could call a function, obviously, but I still end up with the ugly flags determining which state the script is in (are we displaying the reservation form or handling it?). I could create another php file and include it, but the ugliness persists. Or, I could use header, and pass the client record id in a session variable to the new php script. But that would mean a second, unnecessary retrieve from the database to get the client information again.
All the code examples I see on the web show very simple processing after a form button is pressed. What is the best way to do complex processing and displaying a second form based on a button press?
Have you considered using a framework like Laravel for your site. It would seem to me that you must be doing this "manually". With the complexities you described, having a system with routes and "build-in" functionality (like Eloquent ORM) might serve to simplify things for you.
I would go for using ajax and a rich jQuery plugin (or some other framework) to do what you want.
Basically you will handle lists and the functionality that you mentioned with the php reading data and jQuery scripts to dysplay it. And the information that you have to show would be through ajax. Or when you want to edit.
Here is a cleaner example of what you need:
http://jqueryui.com/dialog/#modal-form

auto-populate another form using a link, it is possible?

I'm trying to make an app on Android that send an URI that auto-populate the "RFC Emisor" and "RFC Receptor" of this web page:
https://verificacfdi.facturaelectronica.sat.gob.mx, if I'm correct those two inputs have the id of:
ctl00_MainContent_TxtRfcEmisor
ctl00_MainContent_TxtRfcReceptor
I already tried this but it didn't work:
https://verificacfdi.facturaelectronica.sat.gob.mx/&ctl00_MainContent_TxtRfcEmisor=123456789&ctl00_MainContent_TxtRfcReceptor=123456789
there is a way to achieve what I want?
The short answer is no. The browser won't automatically detect the URL parameter and pre-populate any form fields. A back-end PHP / ASP.NET page can read the value from the request and generate the HTML fields with the specified values. Alternatively, the page could use JavaScript to set the field values when the document finishes loading.
But all of this depends on changes to the target web page. If you do not have the ability to modify that page, I'm afraid there's very little you could do.
You might be able to duplicate the form on your own page, and send the form data to the target—effectively bypassing the form on the other page and 'faking' your own, but if the target system does some kind of validation to prevent posting forms across domain names, this probably won't work either. You may have create the form and process it yourself, replicating the entire form interaction programmatically when a user submits a form to your server. In any case, none of these options are particularly graceful.

view data from html form before submitting

i am really stuck here i have been trying and i am posting here hope some one will help me.
i have a html form where i enter my data and before submitting i need to view my data in the html form and if i need changes change it rt there and submit .
i am able to enter data and how do i display the data without submitting.
To preview your form data before posting you have two options basically: the first is to preview it by using JavaScript to dynamically open a new window and then show your data formatted as you want, the second is to post your data to your server and return a new page containing the data you posted but not yet being integrate to your database, this is a kind of confirmation page, whatever is the option there should be a confirmation button to accept or reject the submission and integration of the data in your database.
The second option requires you to create a new page on the server side for confirmation (preview), having all the power of your web server language.
In general, you have a Preview button and a Save (or Post) one.
The Preview button submits the data which is processed by the server-side script (interpreting markup language, or filtering HTML or other stuff) and converted to HTML, then sent back to the user along with the text field with the raw data.
Then the Save/Post button does the same, but saves the data to the database, and similarly output the HTML, without the text field.
A quite generic answer to a quite generic question...
The question that comes to my mind is how this preview would look different from the data entry page. I mean, if the user is supposed to enter, say, name, address, and favorite color, presumably that data is visible on the screen as they type it. What would a preview do? If you're talking about some sort of validation, like color must be on your list of approved colors or some such, then you have two basic choices: You could do the vaildation with JavaScript before sending to the server, or you could send to the server and let it do validation. I would point out that if you do client-side validation, you really should still validate on the server, esecially if there are security or hacking issues. You have no assurance that the data stream sent to your server really came from the page that you sent to the user. The user could create his own page to send data to your server.
The only other thing I can think of is a formatting preview, like here on Stack Overflow where what you type in may include codes that control format. In that case you might want to use Javascript to give immediate feedback, again, like is done here.
perhaps you can have two buttons one as a preview and one as submit so when u preview it sends the form value in a different page and displays it in a format you want.
The submit button will just do the submitting etc. what u plan to do .
hope that helps

Multi page ordering form php or ajax

I'm looking to create a multi page ordering form the first page would contain some dropdown and text fields, the second page would contain more text fields, the third page would be an order summery with paypal payment option.
I'm just wondering what the best way to create this order form is. I've used sessions in the past but never with users entering in text and picking items from drop downs, does anyone have any resources for doing this? Or does anyone know of a jquery or other ajax example or plugin I might be able to use and modify.
any insight would be a big help.
thanks
The simplest technique might be to use hidden form fields to carry fields from previous screens through to the final screen.
Just make sure you validate all the values when the final screen is submitted to make sure that the user hasn't twiddled the data.
You don't need to do pagination at all if you don't won't to. Just use css to show/hide the "pages". It doesn't sound like you have to save the "state" at any point.
But if you want to do multiple pages, use a session or a cookie to track the user. Then save the data to a database a mark it as incomplete. On the final page, retrieve it all and show it on the page. The server can't tell if a request is ajax or not, so it doesn't matter what you use for submission.

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