Passing variables with page redirect

Question

I have a cfform. After it is filled out and submitted, the
action page generates a random reference_no and puts the data into
a database. I then do a cflocation url and pass the reference_no to
another page. This page takes the reference_no and does a cfquery
again to get all the information just entered and displays it on
the form. A javascript popup/alert message then tells the user the
form was submitted with the reference_no and to print the form. I
was advised to do it this way so that the form cannot be
resubmitted again. Everything works fine the way I have it.
Now here is what I would like to do. After the form is
displayed with the popup, I would like to pause 3-5 seconds and
then redirect that page to another page that is identical (minus
the javascript popup message) with the cfdoucment tag because I
want them to print the form in pdf format. The problem I am having
is when I do another cflocation url at the end of the display page
and pass the referendce_no, to go to the pdf page, it works but it
never stops at the display page to display the javascript popup
message. So I tried to use the meta tag refresh rediredct set at 3
seconds and pass the reference_no. The display page with the
javascript message works then the page is redirected but the
reference_no is never passed and the pdf form comes up but without
anything to display. I guess you cannot pass variables in a meta
tag since that is not cf ?
How can I go from the page with the javascript popup to the
page with cfdocuement pdf format ?
Thanks

Answer 1

You would have to craft the url of the popup page to pass the
reference_no. I'm going to assume that you're using the "Post"
method on your form, which means you have to pass the reference_no
form value as a url/GET value.
<cflocation
url="somesite.com/popup.cfm?reference_no="#form.reference_no#">
and then on the popup.cfm page, consume the url.reference_no
again as part of the url in the meta refresh
<cfoutput>
<meta http-equiv="refresh"
content="10;url=http://somesite..com/pdfDisplay.cfm?reference_no=#url.reference_no#"
/>
</cfoutput>
If you're just trying to prevent double submission, you could
just lock the
form from double submission clientside. In the method below,
it actually hides the form. There are other options such as
displaying an inline IFRAME which would simulate a popup and would
remain until the page was refreshed from the form submission. I
would also consider this old school. You might want to check out
other options as far as Web 2.0 using AJAX and frameworks such as
JQuery.
<script language="javascript">
function formSubmit(){
if (document.myForm.isSubmitted.value != "no"){
return false;
}else{
document.myForm.isSubmitted.value = "yes";
document.getElementById('submitdiv').style.display =
"block";
document.getElementById('formdiv').style.display = "none";
document.myForm.submit();
</script>
<div id="submitdiv" style="display:none">
Your Form has been submitted.
</div>
<div id="formdiv" style="display:block">
<form method="post" name="myForm" id="myForm"
action="HandleSubmission.cfm">
<input type="text" name="isSubmitted" value="no">
<input type="button" name="manSubmit" value="submit"
onclick="formSubmit();">
</form>
</div>