Repopulate a form after submission

I have been using codeigniter for a while and I am really enjoying it. However, I have faced a development learning curve because I am trying to figure out how I would go about repopulating a form after a user submitted it. For example, I currently have a form where a user enters information into the fields for a product, then clicks submit, then goes through the model and inserts into the database, then is returned back to the home page with a success message. What I would like to create is a mechanism so when the user clicks on submit they are given an option to submit a similar product then have the fields be prepopulated with the last information they inserted. How would I go about doing this or what would be the best way. Should I repopulated the fields for the last entries from the database? Could I retain the previous POST data from the last form and fill it in, I am confused on this. Any suggestions or guidance would be much appreciated.