Storing Form Data as a Session Variable

Question

So I was wondering if it would be possible to store data coming in from a form as a session variable.

Heres what I have so far, but I don't know what to put for the Form Action.

Thanks for looking!

<strong>Test Form</strong>
<form action="" method"post">
    <input type="text" name="picturenum"/>
    <input type="submit" name="Submit" value="Submit!" />
</form>

<? 
    if (isset($_POST['Submit'])) { 
        $_session['picturenum'] = $_POST['picturenum'];
    } 
?> 

<strong><? echo $_session['picturenum'];?></strong>

Answer 1

To use session variables it's necessary to start the session by using the session_start function, this will allowed you to store your data in the global variable $_SESSION in a persistent way.

so your code will finally looks like this :

<strong>Test Form</strong>
<form action="" method"post">
<input type="text" name="picturenum"/>
<input type="submit" name="Submit" value="Submit!" />
</form>

<?php 

 // starting the session
 session_start();


 if (isset($_POST['Submit'])) { 
 $_SESSION['picturenum'] = $_POST['picturenum'];
 } 
?> 

<strong><?php echo $_SESSION['picturenum'];?></strong>

to make it easy to use and to avoid forgetting it again, you can create a session_file.php which will be include in all your codes and will start the session for you

session_start.php

 <?php
   session_start();
 ?> 

and then include it wherever you like :

<strong>Test Form</strong>
<form action="" method"post">
<input type="text" name="picturenum"/>
<input type="submit" name="Submit" value="Submit!" />
</form>

<?php 

 // including the session file
 require_once("session_start.php");


 if (isset($_POST['Submit'])) { 
 $_SESSION['picturenum'] = $_POST['picturenum'];
 } 
?> 

that's is the more portable and easy way to maintain in the future.

other remarks

• if you are using Apache version 2 or more, be carefull instead of
  <?
  to open php's tags, use <?php, otherwise your code will not be interpreted

• variables names in php are case-sensitives instead of write $_session, write $_SESSION in capital letters

good work !

Answer 2

That's perfectly fine and will work. But to use sessions you have to put session_start(); on the first line of the php code. So basically

<?php
session_start();

//rest of stuff

?>

Answer 3

You can solve this problem using this code:

if(!empty($_GET['variable from which you get'])) 
{
$_SESSION['something']= $_GET['variable from which you get'];
}

So you get the variable from a GET form, you will store in the $_SESSION['whatever'] variable just once when $_GET['variable from which you get']is set and if it is empty $_SESSION['something'] will store the old parameter

Answer 4

Yes this is possible. kizzie is correct with the session_start(); having to go first.

another observation I made is that you need to filter your form data using:

strip_tags($value);

and/or

stripslashes($value);