Creating a back button for php multi page session() form

[tora0515]

100% lost on this. I have a php script that creates a multi page form from a single page of script. All the examples I have found online use browser history -1 or brings back to some #*$!X.com/...html page. Neither of these will work, so any advise would be appreciated.

<?php

//Turn on sessions
session_start();

//Find what stage to use
if (($_SERVER['REQUEST_METHOD'] == 'GET') || (!isset($_POST['stage'])))
{
$stage = 1;

}
else
{
$stage = (int) $_POST['stage'];
}

// Save any submitted data
if ($stage > 1)
{
foreach ($_POST as $key => $value)
{
$_SESSION[$key] = $value;
}
}
if ($stage == 1)
{
?>
<form action='<?php echo $_SERVER['SCRIPT_NAME'] ?>' method='post'>

First Name:
<input type='text' name='first_name' />

<input type='hidden' name='stage' value='<?php echo $stage + 1 ?>' />
<input type='submit' name='submit' value='Next' />
</form>
<?php
}
else if ($stage == 2)
{
?>
<form action='<?php echo $_SERVER['SCRIPT_NAME'] ?>' method='post'>

Favorite Color:
<input type='text' name='color' />

<input type='hidden' name='stage' value='<?php echo $stage +1 ?>'/>
<input type='submit' value='Done'/>
</form>
<?php
}
else if ($stage == 3)
{
?>
Hello <?php echo $_SESSION['first_name'] ?>
Your favorite color is <?php echo $_SESSION['color'] ?>
<?php

}
?>

[tora0515]

UPDATE:

Thought to add another hidden input with a $stage - 1

<input type='hidden' name='stage' value='<?php echo $stage +1 ?>'/>
<input type='submit' value='Done'/>
<br />
<input type='hidden' name='stage' value='<?php echo $stage -1 ?> '/>
<input type='submit' value='Back'/>


But that is not working, just does what the last hidden value='' says to do.

[Orangutang]

Hi,

I'm not 100% sure if you could use this process but I thought it was worth a post. I did something like what I think your describing with this.

When the page is first loaded I counted the page load with a counter and write it to a flat file with:

$count_my_page = ("counter.txt");
$hits = file($count_my_page);
$hits[0] ++;
$fp = fopen($count_my_page , "w");
fputs($fp , "$hits[0]");
fclose($fp);

then echo the page hit of 1 into a hidden field in the form like:

<input type="hidden" class="input" name="rowval" value= <?php echo $hits[0]; ?> />

then pick up the posted count with:

$rowval = $_POST['rowval'];

Then you've got something to manipulate with for your if statements like:

if ($rowval >= 1) { etc etc

You can also manipulate in different ways for other uses with other counters like:

This would reset the counter for another use:

if ($rowval == 5) {
$resetcounter = ("counter.txt");
$reset = file($resetcounter);
$res = fopen($resetcounter , "w");
fputs($res , $reset=4);
fclose($res);
$rowval = 4;
}

Or if its another submit button you can use something like this:

if (isset($_POST['submit']) and ! empty ($_POST['submit'])){
strip_tags(mysql_real_escape_string($_POST['submit'], $mysql));
// this row count is counter number reset by 1 to match previous script run for submit above.
$rowval = $rowval -1;
// this counter resets the counter in counter.txt to match the submitted number.
$resetsubmit = ("counter.txt");
$resetsub = file($resetsubmit);
$ressub = fopen($resetsubmit , "w");
fputs($ressub , $resetsub = $rowval);
fclose($ressub);
}

You could of course change $rowval to $stage and you could probably do the above without writing to the flat file but its another value to use if needed.

Hope it helps or perhaps spark an idea.