How do people handle multi page forms in phoenix?

Phoenix Forum Questions / Help
1

Hi all,

I’m currently implementing an onboarding process for new users which allows them to add data over multiple pages, which is only saved at the end. i.e. it’s equivalent to a multiple step/page form. Here are the characteristics of the solution I’m looking for:

  • nothing saved to the db until the last form page is submitted, and then everything is saved (I don’t want to handle temp/incomplete state)
  • separate pages for each step in the form (not hiding/showing with javascript as I’m keen to minimise client side JS)
  • use of standard validation from existing changesets i.e. data needs to be sent and returned from the server for each step completed

Is there a recommended way of doing this in phoenix? I can’t find any examples.

The best option I can think of right now is just using separate non-standard actions for each step. e.g.

:new_step_1, :create_step_1, :new_step_2, :create_step_2… :create

Does that make sense? :stuck_out_tongue:

Thanks!

1 Like
2

You can use the same route but use query parameters for the page information, or encode it into the session (in addition to encoding the current answers into the session). :slight_smile:

3

Perhaps you can do like @OvermindDL1 said with the params for each step (/register?step=1 and so on).

Regarding the data, maybe you can save that into a GenServer? So, when you finish step 1, start a GenServer that holds the state and keep adding to it. You can easily add a timeout to check after X amount of time to see if the state has changed recently and kill it if it’s stale.

4

Thanks @OvermindDL1 and @Linuus. Query params seems like the best way to go!

(The GenServer approach sounds interesting but I don’t have any experience with that and want to KISS.)