[thelist] Hidden Fields

[Jason Morehead]

>I have often seen references to hidden fields & I'm ashamed to admit I
>haven't got a clue what they are about or their uses. Could someone possibly
>point me in the direction of any good tutorials about them please. And
>thanks for the answer about the "pl" extension.

hidden fields are just like any other field in a form, except they 
are "hidden" from view.  if you view the source, you can see them and 
the values they hold, but they don't show up anywhere on the page. 
they're great for passing data across pages, because as long as they 
are declared in the form, the data they hold isn't lost.

for example, you could have a 2-page form.  the first page asks for 
basic bio info (name, address, etc.).  when the user proceeds to the 
second page of the form, the information from the first page are 
stored in hidden fields on the second page.  when the user completes 
the second page and clicks the submit button, the data in the hidden 
fields and the data in the "visible" fields gets processed by the 
form at the same time.

that's a really simplified description of them, but they've been a 
Godsend on several occasions for me.

jason
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