I need some help. Using URL params to pass input data from one form to the next isn't going to work.
Here's what I need to happen:
- Form_A is an Employee Self Evaluation that has several text and paragraph text fields. User submits Form_A
- Notification email goes to Supervisor. In the email is a link that somehow pulls the entry data elements from Form_A and populates the first section of Form_B which has the exact same fields as Form_A as Read Only for the Supervisor to review and then some more editable text and paragraph text fields to add their comments. Supervisor submits Form_B when complete.
- Notification email goes to HR. In the email is a link that somehow pulls the entry data elements from Form_B (which already includes all of Form_A 's data) and populates the first 2 sections of Form_C which has the exact same fields as Form_A & Form_B as Read Only for the HR to review and then some more editable text and paragraph text fields to add their comments and some Wage/Position change information. HR submits Form_C when complete.
- Notification email goes back to Supervisor. In the email is a link that somehow pulls the entry data elements from Form_C (which already includes all of Form_A, Form_B's data) and populates the first 3 sections of Form_D which has the exact same fields as Form_A, Form_B and Form_C as Read Only for the Supervisor & User to review and then some more editable text, paragraph text and signature fields. Supervisor submits Form_D.
- Completed package is then emailed to User, Supervisor and HR for records.
I had built these elaborate links using URL parameters to capture the actual field entries in the notification email but quickly learned that most modern web browsers limit the number of characters in a link to approximately 2000 characters. Who knew? So submitting a form with several paragraph text fields that could have thousands of characters in each field isn't going to allow me to pass these elements to the next step.
I guess what I need is some direction now. Is it possible to build a function in PHP or JS to accomplish this.
Basically the way I see it needing to work is
- Submission triggers notification email that builds a link to a script/function that will query the ap_form table for Form_A.
- SELECT the row of {entry_no}.
- GET the field element entries
- POST the element entries in the Read Only fields on Form_B
Am I going about this wrong? Does anyone have a better suggestion? Any hints on where to start?
