Dear Folks, Thanks Tedd for the reply. Do you have a simple example to ilustrate your great idea. Thanks. On Sat, May 23, 2009 at 3:47 PM, tedd <tedd.sperling@xxxxxxxxx> wrote: > At 2:20 PM +0200 5/23/09, Moses wrote: > >> Hi Folks, >> >> I would like to know whether you can connect two pages via >> an intermediary page. For example if you have main.php, which is a form >> whose action is directed to function.php. Function.php process the >> information from main.php then displays the result. This can take >> roughly 6 seconds or more. Is it possible to create an intermediary page >> which alerts the user that the his/her request is being processed in few >> seconds, >> then ultimately redirects to function.php (display results). >> >> Any idea shall be appreciated. >> >> Thanks. >> >> Moses >> > > Moses: > > Two things: > > 1. Anytime the user has to wait, provide a notice of what's happening, such > as wait gif to let them know something is happening. Here are some examples: > > http://webbytedd.com/bb/wait/ > > 2. Why two scripts? Why not just create a single script? > > I often have a single script that simply submits forms to itself and > evaluates the contents. If the contents pass inspection, then the script > moves on to the next step. If not, then the script shows the user where the > problem is and ask for the user to fill the form out correctly. > > I often couple this with javascript to provide more immediate interaction > with the user, such as checking proper email format, password and > password-confirmation being equal, input required fields, and other > client-side stuff. This helps with preparing the data before submission. But > I ultimately check and validate all incoming data server-side before doing > anything important with it. > > There's no rule that says everything must be done in separate > pages/scripts. > > Consider this, use a $step variable and set the initial value to 0. Drop > the user into the first form and use a <input type='hidden' name='step' > value='1'> within that form. > > When the user clicks submit, then $step = $_POST['step'] will equal 1 and > process the data submitted via a switch or if statement. If everything is > Okay, then continue to the next part. If not, then set $step=0 and start > over again. > > Some of my forms have up to ten steps and that's the way I do it. > > Cheers, > > tedd > > -- > ------- > http://sperling.com http://ancientstones.com http://earthstones.com >
