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E
EwokStud
Known Participant
November 9, 2011
Question

Multi-page Form (from another forum)

  • November 9, 2011
  • 3 replies
  • 2993 views

I may have been in the wrong forum, so I copied my issue here.  No arrogance intended.  Please forgive me for not knowing which forum to use.

I have a multi-page form, which is basic.  The form's first page is to post a new person's fist and last name.  The second page is for the person's current address.  Of course, there's more objects/database fields than this, but I need page 1 to go to page 2 smoothly, and without much pause.  Page 2 is the exact same person as page 1.  The ID for the person is created on page 1, somehow.

How do I get the 2nd page form to know it's the same person on page 1?  Do I use call_number =form.ID or ID=ID or what?  Does the form on each page have be the same name?  Does the ACTION have to be the name of the next page in the form (page2), or the name of the page which submits the data?

PAGE 1 "The Name"

<CFQUERY DATASOURCE="people" NAME="nw">

     SELECT *

     FROM people_table;

</CFQUERY>

<HTML>

<HEAD>

<TITLE>Add an Entry.</TITLE>

</HEAD>

<BODY>

<TABLE>

     <TR>

          <TD>

<FORM

     ACTION="p_in.cfm"

     METHOD="post"

     NAME="formNewPersonPage1">

<INPUT

     TYPE="hidden"

     NAME="peopleID">

<INPUT

     TYPE="hidden"

     NAME="entry_date_time"

     VALUE="now()">

Your First Name:

<INPUT

     TYPE="text"

     NAME="people_nm_f"

     SIZE="30"

     id="First name">

<P>

Your Last Name:

<INPUT

     TYPE="text"

     NAME="gb_entry_nm_l"

     SIZE="30"

     id="Last name">

<BR>

<P>

Checkbox if Male:

<INPUT

     TYPE="checkbox"

   NAME="people_nm_male_x">

          </TD>

     </TR>

</TABLE>

</FORM>

</BODY>

</HTML>

____________________________________________________

PAGE 2 "The Current Address"

<CFQUERY DATASOURCE="people" NAME="nw">
      SELECT *
      FROM people_table
      WHERE formNewPersonPage1.peopleID=ID;
</CFQUERY>
<HTML>
<HEAD>
<TITLE>Add an Entry Page 2</TITLE>
</HEAD>
<BODY>
<TABLE>
      <TR>
           <TD>
               <FORM
                    ACTION="p_in.cfm"
                    METHOD="post"
                    NAME="formNewPersonPage2">
Your Street #:
     <INPUT
          TYPE="text"
          NAME="peopleStreetNbr"
          SIZE="30">

Your City:
     <INPUT
          TYPE="text"
          NAME="peopleCity"
          SIZE="30">
  <BR>
Your State:
<P>
     <INPUT
          TYPE="text"
          NAME="peopleState"
          SIZE="30">
<P>
          </TD>
     </TR>
</TABLE>
</FORM>
</BODY>
</HTML>

This topic has been closed for replies.

3 replies

M
Michael_G__Workman
Participating Frequently
November 28, 2011

With the web application you are trying to create with ColdFusion. You can have your form action go to the next file, that will work, or you can use a self-posting form that cflocates to the next page in the process. I have included a sample self posting form code in this reply, self posting forms are useful in that you dont let the user go to the next page if there is a mistake in thier form data.

<!--- first you want to have default values for your form parameters, important --->

<cfparam name="FORM.FirstName" default="">

<cfparam name="FORM.LastName" default="">

<cfparam name="FORM.Submit"      default="">

<!--- a flag value to track if there is an error in the form data --->

<cfset ValidationError = false>

<!--- process the form submital, do server side validation as well --->

<cfif FORM.Submit eq "Continue">

  

   <!--- server side validate the form elements --->

    <cfif (FORM.FirstName neq "") and (FORM.LastName neq "")>

     

     <!--- insert new person into database --->

      <CFQUERY DATASOURCE="people" NAME="nw">

         INSERT INTO people_table (firstname, lastname)

         VALUES ( '#FORM.FirstName#','#FORM.LastName#')

     </CFQUERY>

     <!--- go to the next page of the process --->

    <cflocation url="p_in.cfm" addtoken="no">

    <cfelse>

       <cfset ValidationError = true>

    </cfif>

</cfif>

<!--- alert user if there is an error --->

<cfif ValidationError>

    There was an error with the form data in the form<br>

</cfif>

<!--- form goes here, when you do not specifiy a form action, the form becomes self-posting --->

<cfoutput>

<form method="post">

First Name: <input type="text" name="FirstName" maxlength="50" value="#FORM.FirstName#"><br>

Last Name: <input type="text" name="LastName" maxlength="50" value="#FORM.LastName#"><br>

<input type="submit" name="Submit" value="Continue"> <!-- give submit button a name, so we can reference it in the CF FORM scope --->

</form>

</cfoutput>

Michael G. Workman

mworkman@usbid.com

http://www.usbid.com

http://ic.locate-ic.com

BKBK
Community Expert
BKBKCommunity Expert
Community Expert
November 16, 2011

The first page, let's call it id.cfm, enables the user to enter his name. You say the user is new, so there's no point in doing select queries at this point. A useful generator of IDs is createUUID().

From your description, the action of the first form should be the address page. Let's then call it address.cfm. There you begin by saving the information supplied. It is also good practice to confirm the details the user entered.

However, this is an oversimplified picture to get you started. It is advisable to always validate user input before saving it in the database.

id.cfm

<HTML>

<HEAD>

<TITLE>Add an Entry.</TITLE>

</HEAD>

<BODY>

<TABLE>

     <TR>

          <TD>

<FORM

     ACTION="address.cfm"

     METHOD="post"

     NAME="formNewPersonPage1">

<cfoutput>

<INPUT

     TYPE="hidden"

     NAME="peopleID">

     VALUE="#createUUID()#"

</cfoutput>

Your First Name:

<INPUT

     TYPE="text"

     NAME="people_nm_f"

     SIZE="30"

     id="First_name">

<P>

Your Last Name:

<INPUT

     TYPE="text"

     NAME="gb_entry_nm_l"

     SIZE="30"

     id="Last_name">

<BR>

<P>

Checkbox if Male:

<INPUT

     TYPE="checkbox"

   NAME="people_nm_male_x">

<P><P>

<INPUT

   TYPE="submit"

   NAME="sbmt"

   VALUE="Add your address">

          </TD>

     </TR>

</TABLE>

</FORM>

</BODY>

</HTML>

address.cfm

<CFQUERY DATASOURCE="people" NAME="nw">

      INSERT INTO people_table (firstName, lastName, id, entry_date_time)

      VALUES(<cfqueryparam 

                value="#form.people_nm_f#" 

                cfsqltype="CF_SQL_VARCHAR">,

             <cfqueryparam 

                value="#form.people_nm_l#" 

                cfsqltype="CF_SQL_VARCHAR">,

         <cfqueryparam 

                value="#form.peopleID#" 

                cfsqltype="CF_SQL_VARCHAR">,

             <cfqueryparam 

                value="#now()#" 

                cfsqltype="CF_SQL_timestamp">)

</CFQUERY>

<HTML>

<HEAD>

<TITLE>Add an Entry Page 2</TITLE>

</HEAD>

<BODY>

<TABLE>

      <TR>

           <TD>

               <FORM

                    ACTION="p_in.cfm"

                    METHOD="post"

                    NAME="formNewPersonPage2">

Your first name:

<cfoutput>

     <INPUT

          TYPE="text"

          NAME="first_name"

          VALUE="#form.people_nm_f#">

<p>

Your last name:

     <INPUT

          TYPE="text"

          NAME="last_name"

          VALUE="#form.people_nm_l#">

</cfoutput>

  <p>

Your Street #:

     <INPUT

          TYPE="text"

          NAME="peopleStreetNbr"

          SIZE="30">

Your City:

     <INPUT

          TYPE="text"

          NAME="peopleCity"

          SIZE="30">

  <BR>

Your State:

<P>

     <INPUT

          TYPE="text"

          NAME="peopleState"

          SIZE="30">

<P>

          </TD>

     </TR>

</TABLE>

</FORM>

</BODY>

</HTML>

E
EwokStudAuthor
Known Participant
November 26, 2011

BKBK,

Thank you for your response.  I've yet to try your suggestion; my computer was at the shop, and then it was the flu....

The people's names etc. which will be added, are not users' names.  They are family names, addresses, phones, education, career, etc.  This is a geneaology program online.  The user are those who enter the family information (a couple folks).

Nonetheless, I will try your suggestions - with enthusiasm - in a day or two.  I just wanted you to know I have reviewed yoru response, and am anxious to try it.

BTW, I was unsure if using SQL to INSERT, or CFINSERT would be better.  I see that you used a CFPARAM for each field.  I thought, that the WHERE clause and ORDER BY clause were the only areas to do that....  Please elboarate on this conspet for me a little!

I also noticed that you used cfsqltype="CF_SQL_VARCHAR" for the peopleID field (which is actually a AutoNumber, Long Integer in MS Access)  Can you use cfsqltype="CF_SQL_VARCHAR" for a number, as well as text?

Sincerely,

EwokStud

D
Dan_Bracuk
Inspiring
November 26, 2011

Use cfqueryparam for all variables, no matter where in the sql command they may be (unless there is some reason you can't).

Use the paramater type that matches the datatype in your db.

D
Dan_Bracuk
Inspiring
November 9, 2011

You already have a hidden form field for the information.  Give it a value.

E
EwokStudAuthor
Known Participant
November 9, 2011

Do you mean, in the 1st page or 2nd page?  Does the form name on each page need to be exactly the same?  Do I need a hidden ID field and value on the 2nd and 3rd pages?

<FORM

     ACTION="p_in.cfm"

     METHOD="post"

     NAME="formNewPersonPage1">

<INPUT

     TYPE="hidden"

     NAME="peopleID"

     VALUE=#peopleID#>

<INPUT

     TYPE="hidden"

     NAME="entry_date_time"

     VALUE="now()">

D
Dan_Bracuk
Inspiring
November 9, 2011

The form names don't have to be the same.  In fact, the form doesn't even have to have a name.

You need a form field and value for everything you want to submit.  The type of form field and the value depends on your specific requirements.  If you want to quickly see what is being passed, put this at the top of the page to which the form is submitted.

<cfdump var="#form#">

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