[FX.php List] Break up a big form

[Bob Patin]

Well, I think his whole question was how to best break up a  
submission process into multiple forms. I do this when applications  
involve a lot of fields, because in the past I've had to spend far  
too much time with clients who said that they were receiving  
applications with too many errors on them.

So I always take big application systems, where the applicant has to  
make a lot of decisions (meals, conference choices, card payment,  
shuttles, etc.) and break them into multiple pages. My clients have  
been much happier with this approach.

I've noticed that a lot of large sites have gone to using multiple  
forms with only a few questions on each page, rather than one huge  
overwhelming form, which non-web savvy users always find very  
intimidating.

You could of course put ALL of it on one page, but for me that's just  
too much information and code in one page. I'd rather have separate  
HTML pages to work with, and because they're so tiny, the size is  
totally irrelevant.

Bob


On Jul 19, 2006, at 5:50 PM, Gjermund Gusland Thorsen wrote:

> Why not have all the communication with the database in one file?
>
> CreateRecord.php for example..
>
> ggt667
>
> On 7/20/06, Bob Patin <bob at patin.com> wrote:
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> OK. Here I go, breaking up a large form into several pages.
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> Form1.php calls CreateRecord.php through a submit button.
>>
>> CreateRecord creates the record...and now I need to call form2.php.
>>
>> (Previously, a review page was displayed, which handled the whole  
>> form).
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> That's where I'm perplexed.
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> Do I use an include(Form2.php) on the bottom of the  
>> CreateRecord.php page,
>> just after the FMNew function?
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> Or, do I open a Form2.php as a whole new page?  If so, I can't  
>> figure out
>> which function does that, versus simply including on existing page.
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> Sorry for basic question.
>>
>> No problem; everyone started in the same spot...
>>
>> I process the 1st form in the 2nd page, which is also the  
>> submission page,
>> part 2...
>>
>> So the PHP at the top creates the NEW record, then immediately  
>> uses those
>> same variables which I've captured from page 1, and plugs them  
>> into page 2,
>> if you want the applicant to see them. For example, if page 2  
>> should show
>> the stuff they entered into page 1, and then adds some more input  
>> fields,
>> this makes it really easy to do that.
>>
>> You can use IF statements to make it so that if there's an error,  
>> a line of
>> error text shows up, like this:
>>
>> if ($newResult['errorCode']==0){
>>
>> <<< here's the 2nd form's fields >>>
>>
>> }else{
>>
>> echo "There was an error, yada yada yada.";
>>
>> }
>>
>> Hope that helps,
>>
>> Bob Patin
>> Longterm Solutions
>> bob at longtermsolutions.com
>> 615-333-6858
>> http://www.longtermsolutions.com
>>
>>   CONTACT US VIA INSTANT MESSAGING:
>>      AIM or iChat: longterm1954
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>>
>>
>>
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