Multiple submit buttons php different actions

Question

I have a website started where I want to have 2 separate submit buttons, one of which will take data entered and do some calculations to it to display on the same screen. I've got this successfully working with:

<form id="form1" name="form1" method="post" onsubmit="" onreset="" action="programname.php">
<input type="submit" name="calc" value="Find Angle">

and then I use:

if (!isset($_POST['submit'])){
Do actions, display calculations}

Now I want a second submit button that still grabs the data they entered but then goes to a different address. Is there an elegant way to do this?

Answer 1

You could add an onclick method to the new submit button that will change the action of the form and then submit it.

<script type="text/javascript">
  function submitForm(action) {
    var form = document.getElementById('form1');
    form.action = action;
    form.submit();
  }
</script>

...

<form id="form1">
  <!-- ... -->
  <input type="button" onclick="submitForm('page1.php')" value="submit 1" />
  <input type="button" onclick="submitForm('page2.php')" value="submit 2" />
</form>

Answer 2

You can change the form action by using formaction="page1.php" in button property .

<form id="form1" name="form1" method="post" onsubmit="" onreset="" action="programname.php">
    <input type="submit" name="calc" value="Find Angle">

    <input type="button" type="submit" formaction="page1.php">Action 0</button>
    <input type="button" type="submit" formaction="page2.php">Action 1</button>
</form>

Note: The formaction attribute of the button tag is not supported in Internet Explorer 9 and earlier versions.

Answer 3

The best way to deal with multiple submit button is using switch case in action script

<form action="demo_form.php" method="get">

    Choose your favorite subject:

    <button name="subject" type="submit" value="html">HTML</button>
    <button name="subject" type="submit" value="css">CSS</button>
    <button name="subject" type="submit" value="javascript">Java Script</button>
    <button name="subject" type="submit" value="jquery">jQuery</button>

</form>

Action / Server Side script:

demo_form.php

<?php

switch($_REQUEST['subject']) {

    case 'html': //action for html here
                break;

    case 'css': //action for css here
                break;

    case 'javascript': //action for javascript here
                        break;

    case 'jquery': //action for jquery here
                    break;
}

?>

Ref: W3Schools

Answer 4

Another approach is that You can create and Use some session variable to achieve it easily.

E.g. $_SESSION['validate'].

HTML and PHP Code for buttons

<button type="submit" id="first_submit" style="<?php echo isset($_SESSION['validate'])?'display:none':'';?>">first submit</button>
<button type="submit" id="second_submit" style="<?php echo isset($_SESSION['validate'])?'':'display:none';?>">second submit</button>

jquery and ajax Script

<script>
    $(document).ready(function(){

        $("#form").on('submit', function(e){
            e.preventDefault();
            $.ajax({
                type: 'POST',
                url: 'handler-file.php',
                data:  new FormData(this),
                dataType: "json",
                enctype: 'multipart/form-data',
                contentType: false,
                cache: false,
                processData:false,
                error:function(error){
                    //your required code or alert
                    alert(error.responseText);
                },
                success: function(response){
                    if(response.status=='1')
                    {
                        //your required code or alert
                        $('#first_submit').hide();
                        $('#second_submit').show();
                    }
                    else if(response.status=='2')
                    {
                        //your required code or alert
                        $('#first_submit').show();
                        $('#second_submit').hide();
                    }
                    else
                    {
                        //your required code or alert
                    }
                }
            });
        });

    });
    </script>

Handler PHP File

<?php
session_start();

$result['status']='0';
$result['error']='';

if(!isset($_SESSION['validate']))
{
    if(!isset($_FILES['file'])) 
    {
        $result['error'].='[Er-02 file missing!]';
    }
    else
    {
        //your other code
        $_SESSION['validate'] = true;
        $result['status']='1';
    }
}
else if($_SESSION['validate']==true)
{
    if(!isset($_FILES['file'])) 
    {
        $result['error'].='[Er-03 Validation file missing!]';
    }
    else
    {
        //your other code
        unset($_SESSION['validate']);
        $result['status']='2';
    }
}
else
{
    $result['error'].='[Er-01 Invalid source!]';
}
echo json_encode($result); 

?>

It may not be the optimal or efficient solution. My level of experience is not too much, so I came up with this solution what served my purpose best after all the solutions available but with their limitations. This was not anywhere so thought to write it here.

Note: You may notice it includes some other parts like response, success and error handling between presentation, script and backend file.

Hope it helps!