# Noob question on forms

**URL:** <https://discourse.nodered.org/t/noob-question-on-forms/15325>\
**Category:** Dashboard\
**Created:** [9 September 2019 15:13 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/noob-question-on-forms/15325 "2019-09-09T15:13:19Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Loic74650](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex026/user_avatar/discourse.nodered.org/loic74650/32/18965_2.png) [@Loic74650](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/Loic74650)\
**Post date:** [9 September 2019 15:13 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/noob-question-on-forms/15325/1 "2019-09-09T15:13:19Z")

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Greetings All, new to this forum and somewhat a beginner with Node Red.

I would like to create a UI with fields that the user must fill-in, then compute a resulting value based on the filled-in fields, either automatically or after the user has pressed a "compute" button.

What I am wondering is what the proper way (and not too complex) is to store the values until the compute button is pressed? Should I use context variables or maybe a DB?

Thank you

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**Author:** ![dceejay](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex026/user_avatar/discourse.nodered.org/dceejay/32/38_2.png) [@dceejay](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/dceejay)\
**Post date:** [9 September 2019 15:17 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/noob-question-on-forms/15325/2 "2019-09-09T15:17:16Z")

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Context probably easiest, though you may be able to hold them in a join node until a complete / submit is sent - and then process them all in one go to create the result.

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**Author:** ![Loic74650](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex026/user_avatar/discourse.nodered.org/loic74650/32/18965_2.png) [@Loic74650](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/Loic74650)\
**Post date:** [9 September 2019 15:22 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/noob-question-on-forms/15325/3 "2019-09-09T15:22:30Z")

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Ah thank you, I did not know the join node. I will try it out right away

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**Author:** ![Loic74650](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex026/user_avatar/discourse.nodered.org/loic74650/32/18965_2.png) [@Loic74650](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/Loic74650)\
**Post date:** [24 September 2019 20:10 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/noob-question-on-forms/15325/4 "2019-09-24T20:10:08Z")

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Hello  
Quick feedback on how I solved my problem in the end: the join node proved unreliable (maybe I did not implement it right), some sort of timing or cash issue within the browser, not sure.  
Anyways, I eventually used the context approach as described here: [A guide to understanding 'Persistent Context'](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/a-guide-to-understanding-persistent-context/4115)

Everytime a field in my form is altered it stores the new value in a context variable which is saved on disk. At any point in time I can then use context data to compute whatever. Very handy.