How to autofill text fields in form?

Question

I have two pages, on the first page, the user types in an ID. Using hook_form_alter, I then override the submit function and add my own functionality that will then grab information from a database about the id, such as their name and email.

It then directs the user to a second page with empty fields asking for name, email etc. My question is, what is the easiest way I auto-fill these fields with the data fetched previously?

thanks!

Answer 1

As mentioned by @abhiklpm using $_SESSION and '#default_value' from FAPI can do the trick.

Something like, after first form submission grab values you want to autofill and put them into current session simply by doing. Assuming 'first_name' and 'last_name' are form fields.

   $values['first_name'] = 'test';
   $values['last_name'] = 'test2';
   $_SESSION['module_name']['my_multistep_form'] = $values

Alter the second form to add '#default_value' property to form elements.

 $form['first_name']['#default_value'] = $_SESSION['module_name']['my_multistep_form']['first_name'];
 $form['last_name']['#default_value'] = $_SESSION['module_name']['my_multistep_form']['last_name'];

Remember to unset values from $_SESSION in second form submit handler, use

unset($_SESSION['module_name']); to unset the session.

You might want to have a look on ctools multistep forms as well http://internetdevels.com/blog/ctools-multistep-wizard-example .

Answer 2

You should check out https://drupal.stackexchange.com/a/54387/4387

function MYMODULE_some_form($form, &$form_state) {
  // If the form has been submitted, output something related to the submission
  if (!empty($form_state['values']['some_field'])) {
    // Get data from database and show second step fields.
    $form['user_name'] = array(
      '#type' => 'textfield',
      // ...
    );

  }
  else {
    // Otherwise build the normal form (first step).
    $form['user_id'] = array(
      '#type' => 'textfield',
      // ...
    );
  }

  return $form;
}

function MYMODULE_some_form_submit($form, &$form_state) {
  $form_state['rebuild'] = TRUE;
}