Basic ? about forms... how to...

[artdoesart]

Thanks for looking...

 

i am making a form with basic information there is some "req" fields so there will be like a javascript or a php function in place to do this. i am leaning towards the javascript pop-up deal, however my ? is this.

 

i want to create a form but there are many questions... some of the fields are required, but when someone submits the form but doesnt do all the required fields and they get that pop-up saying "you need to fill out this" i do not want the form to erase so they have to start all over again...

 

any help on this matter would be nice thanks.

[soycharliente]

I would suggest using PHP. Not all users have JS enabled and you will be sure that the PHP method will work for all users.

 

Your basic format would be like:

<?php

// test to see that the form is submitted
if (isset($_POST['submit']) && $_POST['submit'] == "submit")
{

// grab all the posted values here
$name = $_POST['name'];
$address= $_POST['address'];
$phone= $_POST['phone'];

// test each value to make sure it's not empty
// or that it's formatted correctly according to what you want.
// you have a couple options here.
// you can have multiple error variables that are specific to each input
// or 1 general error array or variable.
$errors .= (empty($name)) ? "<br />What's your name?" : "";
$errors .= (empty($address)) ? "<br />What's your address?" : "";
$errors .= (empty($phone)) ? "<br />What's your phone?" : "";

if (!$errors) // if the variable $errors doesn't have anything
{
	// process the form and maybe redirect to a thank you page
}
// if you don't process the form, we have errors, so we want to reshow the form
}
?>
<p>All fields are required.</p>
<?php
// this only happens if the form posted AND they messed up
// otherwise the form just posts as normal
if ($errors)
{
echo "<p>There are some errors: $errors</p>";
}
?>

<form action="page.php" method="post">
<input type="text" name="name" value="<?php echo $name; ?>" />
<input type="text" name="email" value="<?php echo $email; ?>" />
<input type="text" name="phone" value="<?php echo $phone; ?>" />

<input type="submit" name="submit" value="submit"
</form>
<?php
// the echo statements inside the value attribute
// are so that the original value is reposted if the form hit errors.
// the first time the page loads, those variable won't have any
// values in them so it won't matter because they will echo nothing
?>

 

There are a few more steps, especially with grabbing the data from the $_POST array, to make sure it's escaped for sending you an email or for updating the database. Search for how to make your $_POST data safe for inserting into a database. If the data isn't escaped and you hit an error, you might have slashes start appearing in your data once it's reposted because of errors. You don't want that.