How to process multiple forms using one php script - php

Question

I have multiple forms and I have one php script that I want to use to process these forms but when I click on submit for any of the forms...the script is processed by the number of forms with the submit button named 'submitForm' in this case, the alert will show 3 times instead of once! What am I not doing right?
NB. I hope this makes much sense?
html code
<form action="" name="form1" method="post">
<input type="text" value="" />
<input type="text" value="" />
<input type="text" value="" />
<input type="text" value="" />
<input type="Submit" value="Submit Form" name="submitForm" />
</form>
<form action="" name="form2" method="post">
<input type="text" value="" />
<input type="text" value="" />
<input type="text" value="" />
<input type="text" value="" />
<input type="Submit" value="Submit Form" name="submitForm" />
</form>
<form action="" name="form3" method="post">
<input type="text" value="" />
<input type="text" value="" />
<input type="text" value="" />
<input type="text" value="" />
<input type="Submit" value="Submit Form" name="submitForm" />
</form>
php script
<?php
if (isset($_POST['submitForm'])) {
echo('<script>alert("Form Submitted")</script>');
}
?>

Answer 1

when I click on submit for any particular form, it submits all the forms.
this is not true.
Once your forms have proper formatting, your browser will submit only current one.
(and PHP has nothing to do here)
however, whole page will be reloaded, if you mean that. That is okay - when you submit a form, a page is intended to reload. If you need another behavior, you have to explain your wishes.
Also note that none of your text fields being sent to the server as they have no names.
I guess the question I should be asking is, how do I pass a particular form to php instead of writing multiple php scripts to handle each form!!!
well, it seems you want to ask how to distinguish these forms.
add a hidden field into each
<input type="hidden" name="step" value="1" />
and then in PHP
if ($_POST['step'] == 1) {
//first form
}
if ($_POST['step'] == 2) {
//second
}

Answer 2

This submits one form of many to php. Copy, paste, test, and study.
<?php
if (isset($_POST['submitForm'])) {
print_r($_POST);
}
?>
<form action="" name="form1" method="post">
<input type="text" value="" name="A" />
<input type="text" value="" name="B" />
<input type="text" value="" name="C" />
<input type="text" value="" name="D" />
<input type="Submit" value="Submit Form" name="submitForm" />
</form>
<form action="" name="form2" method="post">
<input type="text" value="" name="A" />
<input type="text" value="" name="B" />
<input type="text" value="" name="C" />
<input type="text" value="" name="D" />
<input type="Submit" value="Submit Form" name="submitForm" />
</form>
<form action="" name="form3" method="post">
<input type="text" value="" name="A" />
<input type="text" value="" name="B" />
<input type="text" value="" name="C" />
<input type="text" value="" name="D" />
<input type="Submit" value="Submit Form" name="submitForm" />
</form>
Using a,b,c,d for the first form, e,f,g,h for the second form and i,j,k,l for the third form and submitting the second form yields the following output:
Array
(
[A] => e
[B] => f
[C] => g
[D] => h
[submitForm] => Submit Form
)

Answer 3

#Jay
Actually its not hard.
Once you supply form names, your work is done. the DOM does the rest.
write one php block to do your functions (create/update/retrieve/delete)
Whichever button is clicked, by default it submits only the elements enclosed together with it.
if(!empty($_POST)){
if(isset($_POST['submit'])){
print "<pre>";
var_dump($_POST); // write your code here as you would
print "<pre>";
}
}
try this with your form above.

Answer 4

I know this is an old post but here's how I solve this very problem.
All you need to do is make sure the submit buttons in each form have different names. Eg:
<form action="" name="form1" method="post">
<input type="text" value="" />
<input type="text" value="" />
<input type="text" value="" />
<input type="text" value="" />
<input type="Submit" value="Submit Form" name="submitForm1" />
</form>
<form action="" name="form2" method="post">
<input type="text" value="" />
<input type="text" value="" />
<input type="text" value="" />
<input type="text" value="" />
<input type="Submit" value="Submit Form" name="submitForm2" />
</form>
<form action="" name="form3" method="post">
<input type="text" value="" />
<input type="text" value="" />
<input type="text" value="" />
<input type="text" value="" />
<input type="Submit" value="Submit Form" name="submitForm3" />
</form>
Then, you simply check which form's submit button was pressed.
<?php
if (isset($_POST['submitForm1'])) {
echo('<script>alert("Form 1 Submitted")</script>');
} elseif (isset($_POST['submitForm2'])) {
echo('<script>alert("Form 2 Submitted")</script>');
} elseif (isset($_POST['submitForm3'])) {
echo('<script>alert("Form 3 Submitted")</script>');
}
?>

Answer 5

If you need dynamic forms, you may try below code. While statement can be changed to fetch data from DB and use foreach instead. Hope you know this.
Here, I used while($n<10) for 10 dynamic forms.
You can also use tag as below if you need separate form names.
<form action="" name="form<?=$n?>" method="post">
This will create separate form names such as form1, form2, etc but not necessary here.
<?php
if (isset($_POST['submitForm'])) {
echo '<pre>';
print_r($_POST);
echo '</pre>';
}
$n=0;
while($n<10) {
$n++;
?>
<form action="" name="form1" method="post">
<input type="text" value="" name="A" />
<input type="text" value="" name="B" />
<input type="text" value="" name="C" />
<input type="text" value="" name="D" />
<input type="Submit" value="Submit Form" name="submitForm" />
</form>
<?php
}
?>
Sample page with output when I click row 5..