I am helping to make a website in PHP which is an ERP purpose website. We made mockups of a form to collect user details which is split into 4 screens facebook style where the end user keeps clicking next after filling in each partial form. Finally they get the preview and confirmation receipt is generated.
How should I go about this in the backend, I am sure that after the preview I will write the values to the Mysql db and generate a receipt. My question is how do I go about storing the values before the preview?
you can use php sessions to store the variables in a session and then at the end store them all in the database.
http://php.net/manual/en/features.sessions.php
You cannot really answer your question in isolation. It really depends on how your user is going to use the system, whether the information they enter should be persistent, and even whether you know who the user is?
Assuming you know who the user is, and you want to keep failed sessions, my suggestion would be to store the partial responses in a database so you can always access them later.
You can then populate or re-populate the form as you wish. You should also have a "start again" button in this scenario.
More information would help give a better answer.
You can just have one form per screen/page and send these values as parameters to the next page via post or get - it's the most simple way
It is also possible to keep all the form markup on single page and divide form into steps using formToWizard jquery plugin.
http://www.jankoatwarpspeed.com/post/2009/09/28/webform-wizard-jquery.aspx
This way user has all data available when users clicks and back and forth during the steps and you can just have single submit button.
Related
I'm looking for a way to create a page with items on it where each item has a button which can be clicked to "like" or "choose" the item. The website would then remember the choices and input them to a form on another page. Is there anyway of doing this?
At first glance if we are talking about a registered user, i would create fields in the database for the user's input and store its value everytime he makes a selection. Then its only a matter of putting those values wherever you want.
You have several choices. If it is persistent data, I'd suggest a database like MySQL. If you don't have access to that, then Google for "flat file database" and you'll find some great ideas.
If the data is persistent, but not a big deal if it gets deleted or spoofed, you can use cookies.
If the data is fleeting (it goes away at the end of the visit), then use sessions.
The best way to do is storing each result in a SESSION and reusing it in other form.
I am working on Reservation System
I have a Form that Enters Information about a Voucher
The Voucher can have one Group
and that one group can have many passengers
Now what i want to do is that Take all the information about a Voucher in the same form and add everything related to that voucher in database once Everything is entered by the user.
how am i planning to do it:
I have placed an Anchor tag that says "Add more Passengers" and onclick() function will be called that will reset those fields and then ajax will go to an php page and save those values somewhere temporarily that temporary place/variable should be Global or super Global cause i have to access them all when i have to finally add everything to the database at once
but the problem is where do i store those values that were previously entered by the user
I really hope i have made my question clear, any help would be great and really thanks in advance
Store the data in the Session. See http://php.net/manual/en/features.sessions.php
I'd recommend saving the data incrementally into the DB each step of the way. This way your session remains light. The session is really meant for data that must be stored there for easy access on all pages.
The only downside to this is that if the user gets 3/4 of the way through the forms/pages, and quits, you have a row with incomplete information. I'd argue that this is a good thing to keep, and then you can prompt them to "finish what they started" later when they log back in!
So you see, there is no need to temporarily save anything. Just REALLY save it in the DB, exactly where it should go. On your next pages, your form can UPDATE MySQL instead of INSERTing.
This is inside a PHP website form.
An example is like:
First page:
-Username:
-Password
Second page:
-Email
-[Checkbox]
Thirdpage:
-Contact Details
-Address
Fourth page:
Review all of the above forms in hard copy but with a back and forward command so that the user does not loose any information when switching between these pages.
Please post.
You could use cookies and do your own sessions with MySQL too. I like doing it like that because the data is easier to access if necessary.
Or you can pass the previous variables to the next page though hidden form elements.. but that can get messy.
You Have to use session. I like Zend_Session.
If you want users to be able to come back later and complete the form (assuming you have some kind of login system, or a way to recognize users), you could still save the data into a database. Make another table, temp_submissions. Keep data in it until the user completes the form and commits the data they send. Once committed, clear the data out of the temp_submissions folder and insert it into the "permanent" table. It may not be practical in this case, or total overkill, but it's an alternative to sessions and cookies.
Hey guys, I have a form with 3 fields 1 input, 1 select and 1 textarea. Is there a way to store the information as they type?
The reason why I need this is because if you are not logged in the submit button will take you to a fancybox with another login form or a signup one. So of course if the user logs in the page is refreshing and they loose the text they inputed.
Thanks.
You can totally use YUI's Storage module, it'll hold everything in 1) HTML5 memory, 2) SWf memory 3) Google Gears memory 4) ysql or something, so I read.
I've tested HTML5 mem and Swfstore, both ace.
Edit: Here's an excellent YUI Storage example, it counts every 5 keystrokes, perhaps you'd call the same save method when focus leaves the form handles you're working with.
AJAX could do this, though you are probably better off passing the contents of the inputs in POST and retrieving them if the page is reloaded as a postback from the login page.
There is no trivial solution to this problem. The simplest way to overcome would be asking login screen before asking for user input.
YUI storage module answer is a great option. Otherwise, you're going to have to change the behaviour of the authentication logic which automatically redirects you to the login page. You would have to store the posted values in some temporary server-side location, and re-post those values after the user logs in.
Another option would be to authenticate the user via a dynamic HTML login form and Ajax before actually submitting the form. Either way it changes the authentication logic of your application a lot.
Actually, I think the root of the problem is that you're presenting the user with a form which requires authentication to use before they are authenticated. I think you should either force the user to authenticate before presenting them with the form, or don't require authentication for posting the form (which probably isn't a good idea).
The most straight forward and simplest way that first comes to mind:
Store the information in a cookie - first thing when they hit submit so you have what they typed at any time, logged in - out - hour later, maybe even next time they visit etc.
If you can't use a cookie, maybe save it to the database in a temp table of some sort, relative to a specific session or anonymous user....
as you mention i think you can use simple SESSION variables for all your fields OR you can use AJAX.where you can popup one light-box at the same page and then login and process further you want.
Thanks.
I have a classifieds website where users may insert ads.
There is a insert-ad section (PHP based).
In the insert section, firstly users enter specified data and fill in all fields of the form, then they click the "Preview Ad" and the ad is previewed.
The preview page is another php page which puts all the form fields from the first 'put ad' page into hidden fields.
Then if the user is happy with the preview, he or she may click the "OK" and the ad is inserted.
Now, this method of putting form data into hidden fields before acutally inserting the ad seems 'too much'. What do you think, should I use sessions?
I am looking for stability, not performance in this case!
Thanks and if you need more input, just let me know!
The sessions may flow from one browser window to another, i.e. this way you will force the user to use a single browser window at a time (cannot design multiple ads at once).
In this case, you should stick to POST variables and not use session data.
i also agree with Tatu - if something is working now, no need to rewrite it. but if you are just starting on this: sessions are more flexible (also eliminates "Page Has Expired" errors because you can redirect, and can detect duplicate submits).
dealing with multiple windows and tabs is easy: store the form data with a unique id ($id = uniqid('', true)) and pass the id through the form. this makes it easy to add steps and is more secure - the post data can't be tampered with making validation simpler.
you can have an ajax control that previews the ad, so you wouldn't be submitting the form until it's complete, but that's up to your design.
It it isn't broken, dont fix it.
That seems fine to me. If you were to put the data into a session, then you could arguably avoid the overhead of sending it back down to the browser, but on the other hand, you'd need to deal with the possibility of multiple tabs having different ad submissions within the same session. Not particularly difficult either, but a bit more work.