How can I keep form values without using session? - coldfusion

Question

I have one form page with pagination. I want to keep the form values as the user goes to the previous or next page, using pagination. I know that it can be done using the session scope. However, here I don't want to use session scope. Does anyone have any ideas on how to do this without using session? Please let me know.
Here is my form page:
<cfoutput>
<form action="#buildUrl(action='survey.save_surveyresults',querystring='surveyId=#rc.surveyid#')#" method="post">
<input type="hidden" name="id" value="0">
<input type="hidden" name="surveyid" value="#rc.surveyId#">
<div class="container-fluid">
<div class="row">
<div class="control-group">
<label class="label-control" for="name">Name</label>
<div class="controls">
<input type="text" name="name" id="name" required="true" placeholder="enter your name" value="#rc.name#">
</div>
</div>
<div class="control-group">
<label class="label-control" for="email">Email</label>
<div class="controls">
<input type="text" name="email" id="email" required="true" placeholder="enter your Email" value="#rc.email#">
</div>
</div>
<cfloop query="rc.questions" startrow="#startrow#" maxrows="#perpage#">
<!--- because we have all questions and answers in query we can use switch instead calling template or view
for each question, so its simplify directory structures, questions directory is not necessary now --->
<h3>#CurrentRow#<cfif rc.questions.isrequired><strong>*</strong></cfif>. #rc.questions.question#<h3>
<cfswitch expression="#rc.questions.template#">
<fieldset>
<cfcase value="textbox">
<input type="text" class="input-xlarge" name="#template#_#questionid#" id="question_#questionid#">
</cfcase>
<cfcase value="multiplechoice">
<cfloop list="#answer#" delimiters="," index="i">
<div class="controls">
<label>
<input type="radio" name="#template#_#questionid#" id="question_#questionid#" value="#answerID#" >
<span class="lbl">#i#</span>
</label>
</div>
</cfloop>
</cfcase>
<cfcase value="multiplechoiceother">
<cfloop list="#answer#" delimiters="," index="i">
<div class="controls">
<label>
<input type="radio" name="#template#_#questionid#" id="question_#questionid#" value="#answerID#" >
<span class="lbl">#i#</span>
</label>
</div>
</cfloop>
<div class="control-group">
<label class="label-control" for="other">Other</label>
<div class="controls">
<input type="text" class="input-xlarge" name="#template#_#questionid#" id="question_#questionid#">
</div>
</div>
</cfcase>
</fieldset>
</cfswitch>
</cfloop>
<p></p><br />
<cfif startrow GT 1>
Previous
</cfif>
<cfif (startrow + perpage - 1) lt rc.questions.recordcount>
Next
<cfelse>
<button type="submit" name="submit" class="btn btn-success">Finish</button>
</cfif>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</form>
</cfoutput>

Answer 1

You could break the form up into different sections and have it all in one page. You can hide/show parts of the form using JavaScript based on which 'page' of the form they are one.
This makes going forward or backward in the form a snap since it is not submitted until they are done with the whole form and the values they entered will still be there.. and is pretty easy to handle with jQuery or other JavaScript libraries.

Answer 2

As Dan said - save submitted values in hidden fields.
One issue I see with your HTML is that Previous/Next pages are just links - not submit buttons. So make sure that when clicking those links users are submitting the form - not just going to a different url.

Answer 3

Here's a simple snippet of code that will embed all your form variables into hidden fields. You would place this code inside the form handler on the page you are submitting to. Note Lucas' answer as well. Your form may not be submitting correctly for reasons of badly formed..er...form.
<Cfloop collection="#form#" item="fItem">
<cfoutput>
<input type="hidden" name="#fItem#" value="#form[fItem]#"/>
</cfoutput>
</cfloop>
Again .. this would go _inside" of the form on the subsequent page. This is fairly common in multipart forms (shopping carts with multiple steps, profile entries etc).

Answer 4

Bear in mind that with the approaches above, you need to re-validate your form values on the server side every time you submit them (or at the very least before your final processing).
What you make up for in server memory, you may lose in terms of traffic and load times, depending on scale so I would advise that you proceed with caution. Increasing production traffic unnecessarily can result in financial impacts, and often server memory can be cheaper than extended increased traffic outlay; it comes down to your requirements and scale at the end of the day.
Shipping form variables around also increases your attack surface for malicious injection of form data, so while you may be concerned with session variables being altered on you (curious to hear more on this), you are already opening yourself up by shipping this data around as plain text. Do not rely on client-side validation for this (or any) data.