How to pass a variable from one app to another?

[meerkat]

As you are finding out, there are lots of ways to pass information. You just need to pick the one that works best for you.
For me, I have some really complex programs with lots of data that is updated into the DB with each program. Therefore I basically only need to know who the user is, and maybe a few other things.

What that in mind, I tried your programs and your programs work with a couple of changes I made.
I placed the programs in a Run Basic project called "ad" and published it..
I placed prog1.bas in the ad project and saved it as ad.bas so that you can run ad directly...

Here are your programs with only a couple of minor changes. I tested them and they worked
ad.bas referred to as prog1.bas
' Uncomment this css if you wanna hide the return button
'CSSClass ".hide", "{visibility: hidden; height:0px; bprder:none}"

' program1
  print
  print "Enter User Name: ";
  textbox #username, ""
  print
  print "Enter Password:  ";
  passwordbox #password, ""

  print
  print
  link #doAction, "Continue", [doAction]

  #username setfocus()
  wait
' returns here from prog2

[main]
print "------------------------------------------------------------------------"
print "Hello from prog 1"
print "-----------------"
userName$ = word$(UserInfo$,1,"|")
passWord$ = word$(UserInfo$,2,"|")
pass$ = word$(UserInfo$,3,"|")
print "Returned from prog2:";userName$;chr$(9);passWord$;chr$(9);"-- pass -->";pass$
' do something
wait


[doAction]
  userName$ = #username contents$()
  passWord$ = #password contents$()

  sessionID$ = "my_md5_hash"

'open sessionID$; ".txt" for output as #txt
  '#txt "userName="; userName$
  '#txt "passWord="; passWord$
  'close #txt

  'html "</br></br><a href='?app=program2&sid="; sessionID$; "' target='_blank'>Next</a>"

' ----------------------------
' Do prog 2
' -----------------------------
[doProg2]
prog$ = "prog2.bas"
runProgData$ = "Anything you want to pass to program 2"
goto [doRun]
' -------------------------------------------
'      Run program
' -------------------------------------------
[doRun]
runAction$ = "maint"         ' a way to tell it what you want it to do
cls
runProg$ = "menu" ' who is running it
' ---- pass user number and name and what maint they can do, who ran it, and data to pass
UserInfo$ = userName$;" |";passWord$;" | hello program 2"

button #rtna, "Go back to prog1 (ad.bas)" ,[main]
#rtna cssclass("hide")                 ' hide the [exit app] button
#rtna setid("exitApp")

incdir$ = DefaultDir$ + "\projects\ad_project\"  ' program to include is at RP ad_project
run incdir$;prog$,#include
render #include
wait
end


---------------------------------

prog2.bas
this is saved in run basic ad project

' program2
  print
print "Hello from prog 2"
print "-----------------"
print "UrlKeys$: "; UrlKeys$
  print "UserInfo$: "; UserInfo$
userName$ = word$(UserInfo$,1,"|")
passWord$ = word$(UserInfo$,2,"|")
pass$ = word$(UserInfo$,3,"|")
print " FROM ad.bas "
print "userName$";userName$
print "passWord$";passWord$
print "pass$";pass$

pass$ = "hello prog 1" ' pass back to program 1
UserInfo$ = userName$;"|";passWord$;"|";pass
wait

  i = 1
  while word$(UrlKeys$, i, "&") <> ""
     urlKey$ = word$(UrlKeys$, i, "&")
     option$ = word$(urlKey$, 1, "=")
     value$ = word$(urlKey$, 2, "=")

     if option$ = "sid" then
        sessionID$ = value$
     end if

     i = i + 1
  wend

  print
  print "sessionID$: "; sessionID$

  open sessionID$; ".txt" for input as #txt
     while not(eof(#txt))
        line input #txt, theLine$

        option$ = word$(theLine$, 1, "=")
        value$ = word$(theLine$, 2, "=")

        select case option$
           case "userName"
              userName$ = value$

           case "passWord"
              passWord$ = value$
        end select
     wend
  close #txt

  print
  print "userName$: "; userName$
  print "passWord$: "; passWord$
end

[StefanPendl]

May 11, 2021 19:08:58 GMT -5 donnybowers said:

I enter a name and password and click "Continue". All it does is give me another link "Next" which opens a new instance of RB IDE in a new tab. Apparently the info is not being sent to program2. Since I'm not familiar with this code I have no idea how to fix it.

Have you saved the source code of program1 as program1 and the one of program2 as program2?
Have you published program2 to be able to launch it as a published application?

[donnybowers]

Yes, I saved program 1 as program 1 and program2 as program 2. I don't know what you mean by "published". I save the programs and then I run them.

[donnybowers]

So I searched the word "publish" in the RB documentation and found this, " If you decide that you want to publish your applications so that they can be used by others on a home or office network, or over the Internet you can upgrade to a server edition of Run BASIC." Apparently I've been wasting my time trying to do something I can't do in the trial version. I'll move on with the understanding that I will be able to use this feature if and when I decide to purchase the licensed server.

[meerkat]

May 9, 2021 13:59:19 GMT -5 donnybowers said:

Wow! Look how much easier it is to pass a variable in PHP!

You have to remember that PHP is stateless and that means that once PHP sends data to a user, it forgets all information. RunBasic remembers all the values of the variables. Even if they are different for each user. I converted a large application from PHP because of the problem of passing variables. In Run Basic you normally only need to know who the user is and maybe a couple other things.
And what can be easier than setting your variables in UserInfo$ in the run program, and reading UserInfo$ in you runned program. I think it's WAY easier than PHP having been there and done that..

Dan