What are the best practices for handling form data over multiple pages in PHP?

When handling form data over multiple pages in PHP, it is best practice to use sessions to store the form data temporarily until the final submission. This allows the data to persist across different pages without the need to constantly pass it through hidden form fields or URL parameters. 

// Start the session
session_start();

// Check if form data has been submitted
if ($_SERVER["REQUEST_METHOD"] == "POST") {
    // Store form data in session variables
    $_SESSION['name'] = $_POST['name'];
    $_SESSION['email'] = $_POST['email'];
    $_SESSION['message'] = $_POST['message'];
    
    // Redirect to the next page
    header("Location: next_page.php");
    exit;
}

// On the next page, retrieve the form data from session variables
$name = $_SESSION['name'];
$email = $_SESSION['email'];
$message = $_SESSION['message'];

// Display the form data
echo "Name: $name<br>";
echo "Email: $email<br>";
echo "Message: $message<br>";

Keywords

sessions form validation POST method data sanitization CSRF protection

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