Have you tried to do it with $.ajax? You can add an foreach, or call another form on the Onsucces function. Another approach is changing all to one form with an array that points to the right "abstract" form:

Copy<form action="" method="post">
    <input type="text" name="name[]">
    <input type="text" name="example[]">

    <input type="text" name="name[]">
    <input type="text" name="example[]">

    <input type="text" name="name[]">
    <input type="text" name="example[]">

    <button id="clickAll">Submit All</button>
</form>

And in php:

Copyforeach ($_POST['name'] as $key => $value) {
    $_POST['name'][$key]; // make something with it
    $_POST['example'][$key];  // it will get the same index $key
}

Technically you are submitting all the forms, but they all have the same action and ID. Check out this question: multiple-forms-and-one-processing-page

Firstly the HTML ID attribute must be unique. Once each form has it's own ID you can then properly parse the data in the $_GET variable from within your example.php file's action.

Combine both forms into one form, and then process the submitted data in a php script, which can then do both actions needed.

Can you give a little more information about the two forms, and what is each submit supposed to do? Then I'll be able to elaborate on my answer.

You have SEVERAL issues

1. input type=image IS a submit button so you are trying to submit something from a non-existing form, likely the same page you are on

2. when you submit form1, it replaces the current page, if you manage to submit form2 as well, it is VERY likely to interfere with the submission of form1

Here is what you can TRY (plain javascript):

<script language="javascript">
function submitForms() {
  document.getElementById("firstform").submit();
  document.getElementById("secondform").submit();
 }
</script>

<form id="firstform" target="iframe1">
</form><iframe name="iframe1" style="display:none"></iframe>
<form id="secondform" target="iframe2">
</form><iframe name="iframe1" style="display:none"></iframe>
<button typ"button" onclick="submitForms()"><img src="images/order-button.png" "/></button>

Alternatively AJAX the forms one at a time (assumes jQuery loaded)

DEMO HERE

$(document).ready(function() {
  $("#subbut").click(function(e) {
    e.preventDefault(); // or make the button type=button
    $.post($("#firstform").attr("action"), $("#firstform").serialize(), function() {
      $.post($("#secondform").attr("action"), $("#secondform").serialize(),
        function() {
          alert('Both forms submitted');
        });
    });
  });
});

UPDATE: If you want two form's content to be submitted to one action, just add the serialises:

$(document).ready(function() {
  $("#subbut").click(function(e) {
    e.preventDefault(); // or make the button type=button
    $.post($("#firstform").attr("action"), $("#firstform").serialize() + $("#secondform").serialize(), function() {
      alert('Both forms submitted');
    });
  });
});

PS: The PHP in the demo is just echoing back what you post. There is no special action needed on the server.

Since is your form and you are using SQL to get and the objective is to update the data with one submit?

Why not just use one form?. I belive you can do all you need with just one and multiple input.

With jQuery, you can create one form that contains every input. Something like that :

$('#subBtn').click(function(){
    $('<form>', {
        //All your attributes
        action : 'url',
        method : 'POST'
    })
    .append($('form').children().clone(true, true))[0].submit();
});

One way you could solve this issue of seperating your data on the PHP side would be to add a name array to your inputs. For example:

<form name="form1" method="post">
    <input type="text" name="test[1]" />
    <input type="text" name="test[2]" />
    <input type="submit" value="Submit" />
</form>

Then after you submit to a PHP page you can access them by:

if($_SERVER['REQUEST_METHOD'] == 'POST'){
    echo $_POST['test'][1] . $_POST['test2'][2];
}

If you absolutely have to have separate form tags for some unknown reason, then you can also do this using AJAX. Add a class to your submit buttons and bind a click event to this using vanilla JavaScript and or jQuery, cancel the normal form action, and post to a standalone php page. AJAX will return w/e you write back. Here is an Example of the JavaScript:

jQuery('.submit-button').click(function() {

    //Find all input fields in the form and store them
    var fields = jQuery(this).parent().find(':input').serializeArray(),
        url = '/somepage/somepath/',
        returnJSON,
        ajaxRequestHandler;

    //Stop the form from submitting
    event.preventDefault(); 

    //Start AJAX request
    ajaxRequestHandler = jQuery.ajax({
        type: "POST",
        url: url,
        data: fields
    });

    //Error Hanlder
    ajaxRequestHandler.fail(function (returnData) {
        console.log('failure');
    });

    //Success Handler
    ajaxRequestHandler.done(function (returnData) {
       //Display a message to the html page.
    });


});

Here is the HTML:

<form name="form1" method="post">
    <input type="text" name="test1" class="submit-button" />

</form>

<form name="form1" method="post">
    <input type="text" name="test2" />
    <input type="submit" value="Submit" class="submit-button" />
</form>

You then need to setup a standalone PHP page or a new method in your controller if your using MVC. You also need to make sure this PHP page is secure.

Give each input a name attribute. Only the clicked input's name attribute will be sent to the server.

<input type="submit" name="publish" value="Publish">
<input type="submit" name="save" value="Save">

And then

<?php
    if (isset($_POST['publish'])) {
        # Publish-button was clicked
    }
    elseif (isset($_POST['save'])) {
        # Save-button was clicked
    }
?>

Edit: Changed value attributes to alt. Not sure this is the best approach for image buttons though, any particular reason you don't want to use input[type=image]?

Edit: Since this keeps getting upvotes I went ahead and changed the weird alt/value code to real submit inputs. I believe the original question asked for some sort of image buttons but there are so much better ways to achieve that nowadays instead of using input[type=image].

when I click on submit for any particular form, it submits all the forms.

this is not true.
Once your forms have proper formatting, your browser will submit only current one.
(and PHP has nothing to do here)

however, whole page will be reloaded, if you mean that. That is okay - when you submit a form, a page is intended to reload. If you need another behavior, you have to explain your wishes.

Also note that none of your text fields being sent to the server as they have no names.

I guess the question I should be asking is, how do I pass a particular form to php instead of writing multiple php scripts to handle each form!!!

well, it seems you want to ask how to distinguish these forms.

add a hidden field into each

<input type="hidden" name="step" value="1" />

and then in PHP

if ($_POST['step'] == 1) {
  //first form
}
if ($_POST['step'] == 2) {
  //second
}