Two forms with multiple submit buttons in single PHP file - php

Question

I am trying to write a dynamic form using PHP. I'd like to have a single webpage that contains two forms:
The upper form allows to search for an element in the mysql database, e.g., for a name
The lower form shows the data that is associated with this name in the database
If I press on the "Search" button of the upper form, then the the lower form is shown and the text fields are filled with data from the database that belong to this name. If I change the user name to some other value and press again "Search", then the data that is associated with the new record is shown and so on.
The lower form also has a button "Update" which allows to transfer changes made to the text boxes (in the lower part) to the database.
Now, I have the following problem: In my script I set initially the value of name (from the upper form) to "". When I then press the "Search" button, then the lower part of the form is shown and the corresponding data is shown in the lower part. When I then press the "Update" button, then the text field associated with name is set to the empty string. This is because in my script I set initially name to the "". I'd like that in this case the data entered in the upper form is not changed, i.e., it stays the same.
I guess, I am missing something here. There is probably an easy solution for this and I am doing something fundamentally wrong. It'd be great if you could help me.
That's what I tried... I deleted lots of details, but I guess that can give you an idea what I am trying to do. Notice that the whole code is in the file update.php.
<?php
function search_bus($mysql, $name)
{
// do some stuff here...
}
function update_bus($mysql, $b_id)
{
// do some stuff here...
}
// some global variables
$b_id = 0;
$username = ""; // username of business
// get b_id that corresponds to username
if (isset($_REQUEST['search']))
{
$b_id =0; // business id
if (isset($_POST['user']))
{
$username = $_POST['user'];
$b_id = search_bus($mysql, $username);
}
}
elseif(isset($_REQUEST['update']))
{
update_bus($mysql, $b_id);
}
?>
<h2>Search:</h2>
<form name="search_bus" method="post" action="<?php echo $_SERVER['PHP_SELF'];?>">
Username: <input type="text" name="user" value="<?= htmlentities($username) ?>"/>
<input type="submit" value="Suchen" name="search"/>
</form>
<?php
if($b_id != 0)
{
?>
<h2>Data:</h2>
<form name="business_design" method="post" action="<?php echo $_SERVER['PHP_SELF'];?>">
<-- some form follows here -->
<?php
}
?>

Answer 1

I think what you're missing is to create a HTML Hidden field to keep the value of Name variable.
<input type="hidden" name="name" value="<?php print $nameVar ?>" />
Add this input to both forms so you can keep the value no matter what button the user clicks.
Hope this helps.
Adding code to verify the
<h2>Search:</h2>
<form name="search_bus" method="post"
action="<?php echo $_SERVER['PHP_SELF'];?>">
Username: <input type="text" name="user" value="<?= htmlentities($username) ?>"/>
<input type="hidden" name="b_id" value="<?php print $b_id?>" />
<input type="submit" value="Suchen" name="search"/>
</form>
<?php if($b_id != 0) { ?>
<h2>Data:</h2>
<form name="business_design" method="post" action="<?php echo $_SERVER['PHP_SELF'];>">
<input type="hidden" name="b_id" value="<?php print $b_id?>" />
<-- some form follows here -->
<?php } ?>
Dont initialize $b_id if it already comes into the http request.
if (!isset($_POST['b_id']))
{
$b_id = 0;
}
else
{
$b_id = $_POST['b_id'];
}
This way you can alway remember the last selected value of b_id.
Hope this can help you.