Sending Javascript variables.

Question

I have a page that allows a user to choose some things in a form and it will calculate the weight using javascript. It breaks it up into 5 variables that I need to send to another page. Originally I was just having it put the variable into a text box and then I was posting that text box. However I dont want to have 5 text boxes. So now I need to somehow send or post the five variables to another page. Here is my javascript function. I need to post weightBoxOne - weightBoxFive

js function

function getWeight(){
      var weightBoxOne;
      var weightBoxTwo;
      var totalWeight;
      var box = .5;
   var quantity = document.dhform.quantity.value;
   var cardSize = document.dhform.cardSize.value;
   if(cardSize == 0.0141){
    if(quantity <= 1000){
     weightBoxOne = (quantity * cardSize) + box;
     totalWeight = weightBoxOne;
    }else if(quantity > 1000 && quantity <= 2000){
     weightBoxOne = (1000 * cardSize) + box;
     weightBoxTwo = ((quantity - 1000) * cardSize) + box;
     totalWeight = weightBoxOne + weightBoxTwo;
    }else if(quantity > 2000 && quantity <= 3000){
     weightBoxOne = (1000 * cardSize) + box;
     weightBoxTwo = (1000 * cardSize) + box;
     weightBoxThree = ((quantity - 2000) * cardSize) + box;
     totalWeight = weightBoxOne + weightBoxTwo + weightBoxThree; 
    }else if(quantity > 3000 && quantity <= 4000){
     weightBoxOne = (1000 * cardSize) + box;
     weightBoxTwo = (1000 * cardSize) + box;
     weightBoxThree = (1000 * cardSize) + box;
     weightBoxFour = ((quantity - 3000) * cardSize) + box;
     totalWeight = weightBoxOne + weightBoxTwo + weightBoxThree + weightBoxFour;
    }else{
     weightBoxOne = (1000 * cardSize) + box;
     weightBoxTwo = (1000 * cardSize) + box;
     weightBoxThree = (1000 * cardSize) + box;
     weightBoxFour = (1000 * cardSize) + box;
     weightBoxFive = ((quantity - 4000) * cardSize) + box;
     totalWeight = weightBoxOne + weightBoxTwo + weightBoxThree + weightBoxFour + weightBoxFive;
    }
   }else if(cardSize == 0.00949){
    if(quantity <= 4000){
     weightBoxOne = (quantity * cardSize) + box;
     totalWeight = weightBoxOne;
    }else{
     weightBoxOne = (4000 * cardSize) + box;
     weightBoxTwo = ((quantity - 4000) * cardSize) + box;
     totalWeight = weightBoxOne + weightBoxTwo;
    }
   }
   document.rates.weight.value = totalWeight;
  }
  //-->

this is the form that was originally posting

<form action="getRates.php" name="rates" method="post" onSubmit="popupform(this, 'join')">
                          <table style="width: 216px">
                            <tr>
                              <td style="width: 115px; height: 49px;"><span class="style16">Weight</span><br/>
                                  <input type="text" id="weight" name="weight" size="10" maxlength="4"/>
                              </td>
                              <td align="right" style="width: 68px; height: 49px;" valign="top"><span class="style16">Zip Code</span><br/>
                                  <input type="text" id="zip" name="zip" size="10" maxlength="5"/>
                              </td>
                            </tr>
                            <tr>
                              <td style="width: 115px">
         <input name="submit" type="submit" value="Get Rate Costs" style="width: 138px" />

Answer 1

I've done a similar thing by passing the JavaScript variables into hidden fields and posting them in the form as usual.

Just add a few hidden fields to your form with tags like this:

<input type="hidden" id="hidden-field-1" value="">

Then you can adjust the value of the hidden field to match your JavaScript variable and pass the value on to the next page:

document.rates.hidden-field-1.value = totalWeight;

Just keep in mind that this form of JavaScript (which I took directly from your post) will only work reliably in Internet Explorer ... A better way would be to use:

document.forms['rates'].hidden-field-1.value = totalWeight;

Answer 2

Ignoring the fact that you could hack this to work with small numbers of variables, and assuming you control both the client Javascript and the receiving page on the server

1. Use an array instead of different variables when you should use an array
2. Serialize the array to a string using JSON
3. Post the string to your receiving page on the server in a form field (hidden or otherwise)
4. Deserialize the JSON string to an array
5. use it on the server