What are some best practices for maintaining form field values, including file uploads, after form submission errors in PHP?

When a form submission results in errors, it is important to maintain the values entered by the user in the form fields so they do not have to re-enter everything. This can be achieved by storing the form field values in session variables and then populating the form fields with these values after a submission error. 

// Start the session
session_start();

// Check if the form has been submitted
if ($_SERVER["REQUEST_METHOD"] == "POST") {
    // Store form field values in session variables
    $_SESSION['name'] = $_POST['name'];
    $_SESSION['email'] = $_POST['email'];
    // Add more form fields as needed

    // Handle form submission and validation
    // If there are errors, redirect back to the form
    // Populate form fields with session values
} else {
    // Clear session variables if the form has not been submitted
    $_SESSION['name'] = '';
    $_SESSION['email'] = '';
    // Add more form fields as needed
}

// Populate form fields with session values
<input type="text" name="name" value="<?php echo isset($_SESSION['name']) ? $_SESSION['name'] : ''; ?>">
<input type="email" name="email" value="<?php echo isset($_SESSION['email']) ? $_SESSION['email'] : ''; ?>">
// Add more form fields as needed

Keywords

form field values file uploads form submission errors PHP functions error handling

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