使用会话创建多页PHP表单

Question

I need to create a pretty extensive form with PHP/MySQL with a lot of conditional logic that ultimately ends with submission to the MySQL database. So basically the user makes their first choice with a radio button (has to be because they are "choosing" pictures) and then gets taken to the next "page" of the form based on that submission. That submission ALSO has to be stored in a session or cookie because at the end of the form I will gather all of their input and populate a row in the database. What should my approach be? Right now I'm writing forms that store the POST data in a SESSION and then populate the database row at the end, but as soon as I introduce conditional logic from page to page, the sessions break and don't get sent. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Answer 1

The advantage of saving all data to a single update at the end of the wizard is simplicity. The advantage of writing to the DB after each step is that the user can come back and finish the wizard at a later date - you're not tied to the current user session.

If you're inclined to go with the "insert at the end" approach I'd recommend bpeterson76's idea of using JS to show / hide sections on a singler phisical form - just make sure you've got control of the user's back button, otherwise the user could loose all of their answers.