Sticky form won't show POST data after showing MySQL data on page load!

[dac]

I am quietly going insane on this project. I've never worked on a project like this one before. All my previous sticky forms were for data entry, not editing. I don't know how to display the form with data from the database, allow the user to update it, and then display the form again with POST data. I can get the data out of the database and get the user updates back into the database, but how do I get the filled-out form back to the user again! The form displays again but all the input fields are blank.

Somehow I have to name the sticky fields with variable names that are identical for the data coming out of the database and for the POST data, and I can't figure out how to do that. Quiz scores come from mysql. Activities come from mysql and are updated by the user. `activities` and `quizzes` are MySQL tables.

I cut this back to just the relevant parts of the code. I omitted insert & update queries because they're working but left fetch because there's probably something in the way I'm naming variables. I'm hazy on how all these foreach loops work. For instance, I wasn't sure how to grab them later as post variables. Because I think that if I could rename the post variables as simple variables, the first time around I could rename the fetch results as simple variables, and then put the simple variables in the form fields....It sounds so simple but nothing I've tried works! Or if I could put the posts into the $act array that was holding the fetch results....Any advice on the simplest way to straighten out this mess and get it working would be most appreciated!

I'm limited to php 4.3 and mysql 4.0 right now but will soon be upgrading this app to php 5 and mysql 5, so it has to run on both versions of both programs.


[PHP]<?php
if (array_key_exists('_submit_check', $_POST)) //ON SUBMIT
{
include ('./includes/init_session.php');

//Process Activities Post data
$one_1_1 = $_POST['one_1_1'];

// update and insert records

}
else //ON INITIAL PAGE LOAD
{
//prepare query
$quiz_query = "
SELECT quiz1, quiz2, quiz3, quiz4, quiz5, quiz6,
quiz7, quiz8_1, quiz8_3, quiz9, quiz10
FROM quiz_scores
WHERE userid='$userid'
";

//query quiz_scores table in database
$quiz_results = mysql_query($quiz_query);

//fetch quiz scores from results
$quiz_results_array = mysql_fetch_assoc($quiz_results);

//initialize variables
$quiz['key'] = 'value'; //initialize array
$quiz_total = 0;
$quiz_count = 0;
foreach($quiz_results_array as $quiz_nbr => $score)
{
$quiz[$quiz_nbr] = $score;
}

$act_select_query = "SELECT * FROM activities
WHERE userid = '$userid'";
$act_select_results = mysql_query($act_select_query);
$act_results_array = mysql_fetch_assoc($act_select_results);
$act['key'] = 'value'; //initialize array
foreach($act_results_array as $field => $value)
{
$act[$field] = $value;
}
}
?>
<form name="form1" method="post"
action="<?php echo $_SERVER['PHP_SELF']; ?>">

<input name="one_1_1" type="checkbox" value="checked"
<?php if ($act['one_1_1'] == "checked") echo 'checked="$checked"'; ?>
/>

<?php if ($quiz[quiz1]) echo $quiz[quiz1]; ?>
</form>
[/PHP]

[ronverdonk]

You have stripped so much code that is is not possible to determine what and where it goes wrong.
E.g. you don't show the complete form that is to be submitted which makes it hard to say what is passed in the POST array. Also you do not show the echoes of the POSTed values in these <input> fields.

Btw: if you want to extract values from an associative array into variables with the same name as the keys of that array, have a look at the php EXTRACT command

Ronald :cool:

[dac]

I left out the rest of the form because there are over 100 activity inputs and 11 quizzes. All however have the same coding as these samples. The form pulls data from two other tables as well, so I put just the part that's not working.

This sample coding pulls the values from the database for the first display of the form. That works--until the user makes updates and, with this coding, I can't get the post values to show unless When I put Post values here instead, then the original display of the form is blank because it's not displaying values from the database.

Thanks for the reference to EXTRACT, ronverdonc. I've been trying to figure out a way to display values from database and post array in the same form on different viewings, and it sounds like EXTRACT_OVERWRITE could replace the array from the database with values from the post array, so I can use the same coding in the form each time around. And it would be a lot cleaner and simpler!

Thank you!
dac

[dac]

Extract did the trick! Thanks so much!

[dac]

Even though my code isn't the most elegant, I thought I'd share it here in case anybody else is struggling with how to use a sticky form when the same fields are populated from the database the first time and by post data later. EXTRACT was used to turn MySQL field names into variables with their associated values. Cool! Thanks ronverdonk!

Quiz scores came strictly from the database (once) and couldn't be changed by students so I used sessions to display them (securely) every time the form was displayed to save server time.

Activities came from the database but were updated by the user so they had to map both ways--from the database the first time and by post data thereafter.

Because there are eleven quiz scores and over 100 activities, I show just one variable/field in the quiz_scores table and one in the activities table.

The form uses simple variables that match the field names in the database and the sessions variables.

[PHP]<?php

/* CHECK IF FORM IS SUBMITTED */
if (array_key_exists('_submit_check', $_POST))
{
/*******************************************
* PROCESS ACTIVITIES
******************************************/
//Process Activities Post data
$one_1_1 = $_POST['one_1_1'];

// update activities table
$act_update_query1 = "
UPDATE activities
SET one_1_1 = '$one_1_1'
WHERE userid = '$userid'
";
$act_update_results1 = mysql_query($act_update_query1);
mysql_free_result($act_update_results1);

/*******************************************
* QUIZ SCORES COME JUST ONCE FROM DATABASE
* MAKE SESSION DATA INTO SIMPLE VARIABLES
******************************************/
$avg_score = $_SESSION['avg_score'];
$quiz01 = $_SESSION['quiz01'];
}

else //ON INITIAL DISPLAY OF FORM ON PAGE LOAD
{
/*******************************************
* FETCH QUIZ SCORES FROM DATABASE
******************************************/
// grab quiz scores from database
$quiz_query = "
SELECT
quiz01, quiz02, quiz03, quiz04, quiz05,
quiz06, quiz07, quiz08_1, quiz08_3,
quiz09, quiz10 FROM quiz_scores
WHERE userid='$userid'
";

//query quiz_scores table in database
$quiz_results = mysql_query($quiz_query);

//fetch quiz scores from results
$quiz_results_array = mysql_fetch_assoc($quiz_results);

//turn data into simple variables using field names
extract($quiz_results_array);

//initialize variables
$quiz_total = 0;
$quiz_count = 0;

//total quiz scores and create session variables
if ($quiz01) //one example to show syntax
{
$quiz_total = $quiz_total + $quiz01;
$quiz_count = $quiz_count + 1;
$_SESSION['quiz01'] = $quiz01;
}

//calculate average quiz score
$avg_score = ($quiz_total / $quiz_count);
$avg_score = round($avg_score,1);
$_SESSION['avg_score'] = $avg_score;

mysql_free_result($quiz_results);


/*******************************************
* FETCH ACTIVITIES FROM DATABASE
******************************************/
$act_select_query = "
SELECT * FROM activities WHERE userid = '$userid'";
$act_select_results = mysql_query($act_select_query);

//fetch activities row from results
$act_results_array = mysql_fetch_assoc($act_select_results);

//turn data into simple variables using field names
extract($act_results_array);

mysql_free_result($act_select_results);
}
/*******************************************
* SHOW THE FORM NO MATTER WHETHER
* DATA COMES FROM USER OR DATABASE
* SIMPLE VARIABLES COME FROM DB OR SESSIONS
******************************************/
?>
<html>
<head>
<title>Progress Report</title>
</head>
<body>
<p>Ave. Quiz Score: <?php echo $avg_score; ?></p>

<form name="form1" method="post"
action="<?php echo $_SERVER['PHP_SELF']; ?>">


<input
name="one_1_1"
type="checkbox"
id="one_1_1"
value="checked"
<?php if ($one_1_1 == "checked")
echo 'checked="$checked"'; ?>
/>

<p><?php if ($quiz01) echo $quiz01; ?></p>

</form>
</body>
</html>
[/PHP]