Question

I ran into a little problem with my college project again 🙁

<input type="text" name="timrem" value="" />

This is a hidden field that I want the data from.

if(isset($_REQUEST['timrem']))
{
    $tim=$_REQUEST['timrem'];
}

This is the code used to get the value from timrem.
The variable timrem is used to initialize a countdown sequence on the page(implemented using javascript)

<span id="countdown-1" style="float:right"><?php echo $tim;?>

The value of the hidden field is dynamically changed via java script counter implemented.

sremtime=(parseInt(minRemain*60)) + (parseInt(secsRemain));
document.frmTest.timrem.value=sremtime;

this works fine when the page is submitted, ie, the time doesn’t restart from the next page. But when the page is refreshed, the timer is restarted to the value of the $tim when the timer first started.

Is it possible to somehow get the value of the hidden input on page refresh?

And also, please comment on the approach taken to preserve the time elapsed to the next page. This is a project on online examination.

Answer 1

If you need your variable to persist across refreshes, you cannot rely on information passed back from client to server. The only information you can rely on is the information passed with the very first request, and that obviously doesn’t include your time. The best solution I can think of is to store your timestamp in a session variable on the server:

session_start();
if(empty($_SESSION['timrem'])) $_SESSION['timrem'] = time(); // set this if it is the first time this page is loaded
$tim = time() - $_SESSION['timrem']; // $tim is now the number of seconds since the page was first loaded in this session

You do not need to pass the time back and forth between client and server to keep track of it, although your javascript will probably need it.