Add a form field to your existing web form

1. A web form that needs an extra field
   
2. Dreamweaver CS3 or later

Optional:

1. A working eCart site with credit card payments
   
2. eCart installed and activated in Dreamweaver

In this step, we're going to add a Company Name field under the customer First and Last name fields. Again, since forms are so subjective, and you could be using a completely different form than we are, or you could be using even a different eCart configuration than we are, these fields may be totally different. Keep that in mind when we mention specific fields.

1. Open your checkout.php page
   
2. In Design view, click on the Email Address row under billing info
   
3. Click Insert > Table Objects > Insert Row Above
   
4. Click in the second column of the newly created row
   This will be directly above the other form fields
   
5. Click Insert > Form > Text Field
   
6. Enter company as the id
   
7. Enter Company as the Label
   
8. Verify the Style is set to Attach label using "for" attribute
   
9. Click OK
   
10. Highlight the entire label
    
11. Click on the label
    
12. Without letting go of the mouse button, drag the label into the column with the field labels
    
13. In Code view, find the newly inserted text field
    
14. Enter value="" at the end of the input tag
    

    <input type="text" name="company" id="company" value="">

    
    
15. Save all the things!

Next on the chopping block%u2026 or the opposite of a chopping block really since we're adding instead of taking away%u2026 how about; "the nega-chopping block"?

Next on the nega-chopping block, we're going to add a snazzy session variable to store the value of the Company field, so we can later store it in our eCart order info.

1. Click Window > Bindings to ensure the Bindings floater is visible
   
2. Click the Add ( ) Binding button
   
3. Click Session Variable
   
4. Enter eCartCheckoutForm_company as the Name
   
5. Click OK

Now we're going to take that fancy little session variable we created, and use it to store the company value

1. Open the confirm.php page
   
2. In Design view, click your cursor right after the last hidden element on the page
   This will be right before the Modify Information button
   
3. Click Insert > Form > Hidden Field
   
4. In the Property Inspector for the newly added hidden field, change the name to be company
   
5. Enter the following code into the Value field
   

   <?php echo (isset($_SESSION['eCartCheckoutForm_company'])?$_SESSION['eCartCheckoutForm_company']:""); ?>

   
   
6. Click Window > Server Behaviors to ensure the Server Behaviors floater is visible
   
7. Click the Add ( ) Server Behavior button
   
8. Click eCart > General > Set Session Value
   
9. For the Trigger, select any form post
   
10. For the Session name, select the eCartCheckoutForm_company session we created earlier
    
11. For the value, click the dynamic lightning bolt
    
12. Expand the checkout form (ecart_checkout_form)
    
13. Select the company field
    
14. Click OK to select the field
    
15. Click OK again to apply the Server Behavior
    
16. Save everything!!

Just for fun, let's show the company name value in the Billling Information section of the confirm page

1. In Design view, under billing info, find the first and last name php snippets
   
2. Add a line break (shift enter) after the first and last name php snippets
   
3. Open the bindings panel
   
4. Expand the checkout form (ecart_checkout_form)
   
5. Select the company field
   
6. Drag and drop the company field to the new line created after the first and last names
   
7. Save it all, homie!

We're getting close, I can taste it! It tastes garlicy, with a hint of lime%u2026

The next step is going to be adding the company the user entered into the order in the database

Now that you can add an awesome form field and stuff, you can try adding the field value to your email receipts, or just spam their company with emails telling everyone what your client bought (don't really do that last one). The sky is the limit! %u2026 Unless you're an astronaut...

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