Question

I am trying to create a multi steps form where user will fill the form on page1.php and by submitting can go to page2.php to the next ‘form’. What would be the easiest way?

Here is my code:

<?php
if ($_SERVER['REQUEST_METHOD'] == 'POST') {
?>

<form id="pdf" method="post">
New project name:<input type="text" name="pr_name" placeholder="new project name..."><br/>
New project end date:<input id="datepicker" type="text" name="pr_end" placeholder="yyyy-mm-dd..."><br/>

<textarea class="ckeditor" name="pagecontent"  id="pagecontent"></textarea>

<?php    
if ($_POST["pr_name"]!="")
{

  // data collection
  $prname = $_POST["pr_name"];
  $prend = $_POST["pr_end"];
  $prmenu = "pdf";
  $prcontent = $_POST["pagecontent"];

  //SQL INSERT with error checking for test 
  $stmt = $pdo->prepare("INSERT INTO projects (prname, enddate, sel, content) VALUES(?,?,?,?)");

  if (!$stmt) echo "\nPDO::errorInfo():\n";

  $stmt->execute(array($prname,$prend, $prmenu, $prcontent));
 }
// somehow I need to check this
if (data inserted ok) {
  header("Location: pr-pdf2.php");
 }
}

$sbmt_caption = "continue ->";
?>

<input id="submitButton" name="submit_name" type="submit" value="<?php echo $sbmt_caption?>"/>
</form>

I have changed following Marc advise, but I don’t know how to check if the SQL INSERT was OK.
Could give someone give me some hint on this?

thanks in advance

Andras

the solution as I could not answer to my question (timed out:):

Here is my final code, can be a little bit simple but it works and there are possibilities to check and upgrade later. Thanks to everyone especially Marc.

<form id="pdf" method="post" action="pr-pdf1.php">
New project name:<input type="text" name="pr_name" placeholder="new project name..."><br/>
Email subject:<input type="text" name="pr_subject" placeholder="must be filled..."><br/>
New project end date:<input id="datepicker" type="text" name="pr_end" placeholder="yyyy-mm-dd..."><br/>

<textarea class="ckeditor" name="pagecontent"  id="pagecontent"></textarea>

<?php
include_once "ckeditor/ckeditor.php";
$CKEditor = new CKEditor();
$CKEditor->basePath = 'ckeditor/';
// Set global configuration (will be used by all instances of CKEditor).
$CKEditor->config['width'] = 600;   
// Change default textarea attributes
$CKEditor->textareaAttributes = array(“cols” => 80, “rows” => 10);
$CKEditor->replace("pagecontent");


if ($_SERVER['REQUEST_METHOD'] == 'POST')
 {
  // data collection
  $prname = $_POST["pr_name"];
  $prsubject = $_POST["pr_subject"];
  $prend = $_POST["pr_end"];
  $prmenu = "pdf";
  $prcontent = $_POST["pagecontent"];

  //SQL INSERT with error checking for test 
  $stmt = $pdo->prepare("INSERT INTO projects (prname, subject, enddate, sel, content) VALUES(?,?,?,?,?)");
  // error checking
  if (!$stmt) echo "\nPDO::errorInfo():\n";
  // SQL command check...
  if ($stmt->execute(array($prname, $prsubject, $prend, $prmenu, $prcontent))){
   header("Location: pr-pdf2.php");
     }
      else{
       echo"Try again because of the SQL INSERT failing...";
      };
   }

$sbmt_caption = "continue ->";
?>

<input id="submitButton" name="submit_name" type="submit" value="<?php echo $sbmt_caption?>"/>
</form>

Answer 1

A basic structure like this will do it:

form1.php:

<?php

if ($_SERVER['REQUEST_METHOD'] == 'POST') {
   ... process form data here ...
   if (form data ok) {
       ... insert into database ...
   }
   if (data inserted ok) {
      header("Location: form2.php");
   }
}
?>

... display page #1 form here ...

And then the same basic structure for each subsequent page. Always submit the form back to the page it came from, and redirect to the next page if everything’s ok.