How to restrict my app to a single browser tab?

Question

Frankly, it\'s just causing too much hassle in in v1.0 to have a functionality which requires three form submissions, with $_SESSION session data holding all of

Answer 1

At most you can is keep a "last requested page" listing in the session file, with flags to indicate that the user shouldn't be allowed to move off it if it's one of these critical form flags. So if you're on form.php and it's a no-move-off one, then any new page loaded should present an "abort or close window" option.

You cannot prevent a user from opening up another tab/window, but you can prevent them from moving elsewhere in your site in those other windows/tabs.

However, consider that this is a very poor user experience. Imagine if Amazon trapped you in the shopping cart page and never let you on to another page without having to actually buy something. Consider updating your code to allow multiple different windows use the same form.