A little advice on an advanced form please?

[ryann]

I'm looking to create an online form, that I'd class as being pretty advanced. Here are my requirements:

• The customer fills in fields in 'steps' - for instance the first page asks them for their contact details, then they click 'Next' and it asks them some more questions
• There are approximately 5 steps
• At the end of the form the user is shown what they have inputted as well as our terms and conditions and a signature box with today's date printed on it
• On this page, they then must press either Print or Request
• The Print button prints the form (preferrably without showing the two aforementioned buttons)
• The Request button e-mails what they have inputted to a specified address, instead of printing it

Would anyone have any advice on whether I should use PHP/CGI/etc? I'm not sure where to start!

Also, ideally I would like to not store the customer's details on a server.

[Hades]

I suggest learning the basics about working with forms in a server side technology such as php, asp, or whatever is available on your server. Link to some tutorials for PHP.

Once you know what can you do with the forms, learn about creating and sending emails with those languages.

Also, ideally I would like to not store the customer's details on a server.

You will have to save the information somewhere between steps to prevent it from getting lost, so you should look into either server side sessions, or javascript cookies.

[kuzmanin]

you can use css "media" type to manipulate show/hide buttons when print the page.
about the form, just add information from previous pages in hidden fields and on your last form show all of the info to the user

[ryann]

Originally Posted by kuzmanin

you can use css "media" type to manipulate show/hide buttons when print the page.

I'll look into that.

Originally Posted by kuzmanin

about the form, just add information from previous pages in hidden fields and on your last form show all of the info to the user

How do you mean?

Originally Posted by Hades

You will have to save the information somewhere between steps to prevent it from getting lost, so you should look into either server side sessions, or javascript cookies.

I believe I once used a HTML form that showed the user's input by basically reloading the page somehow. I don't really know how it worked or what language it was in, but I'm guessing it was JavaScript.

Anyway, thank you both for your help, and I'll keep my eyes peeled on this thread if anyone else has any advice for me.