Handling Check Boxes

Anon

I have a web page that has check boxes and text boxes.

The page is a form that allows users to input tax data into text boxes and to tic check boxes.

When a user enters a page a cookie is read containing a unique serial number that constitutes the name of the file for that particular page that contains tax data for that unique user. When the page opens, the text boxes display the current information in the flat file for those fields. When the user exits the page he saves the current information in the text boxes back to the file by using the submit button. Thus a user will see the current information as he flips between the pages in the web site, the current information being loaded and saved as he enters and exits the page.

My problem is that I do not know how to record the status of the check boxes when the user exits the page, and I do not know how to set the status of the check boxes when the user enters the page again.

My coding for a check box is as follows:

<input type="checkbox" name="age1" value="<?php echo $age1;?>">;

When the submit button is pressed, the script saves the data in the text boxes and should save the check box statuses.

If you go to www.terttu-wing-cpa.com you can see that the second data entry page has checkboxes, but if you tic a box, then go to the previous page, and back again to page two, the checkbox tics don't save the previous tic status.

What i would really like is for someone to look at two pages of code and help me write whatever I need to save and then redisplay the status of the checkboxes. I need to write this code for several pages, and at the moment I don't have a clue how to do it. I thought that the value of a checkbox would be saved and that by echoing the value in the input statement that I could set the tic status.

Thanks in advance.

Jerry Wing

rrijnders

Just save your checkbox data in a table. You can name the table columns the same as your checkbox names. When the next page is loaded, retrieve the data from the table and set your checkboxes accordingly:

<?
// execute sql to get checkbox data from table, read row into $data object
// then...
?>

<INPUT TYPE="CHECKBOX" NAME="age1" value="age1" <? if ($data->age1) { echo "CHECKED"; } ?> >

If there was data in table for that checkbox (you can set a '1' or 'Y' or whatever) then the 'CHECKED' attribute is set for the form field checkbox and it will show up as checked on the new page.

A more elegant solution is to normalize the checked properties into a seperate table so that you don't have to modify the table if you want to add a new checkbox to the form; but that is more work than I wanted to show in the example. The idea is still the same; check your db to see what was checked before and output the 'CHECKED' attribute accordingly.

HTH

-- Rich Rijnders
-- Irvine, CA US

Anon

Hi Richard,

Thank you very much for your reply to my question. One of the things that is a bit different about what I am doing for my wife's web site at www.terttu-wing-cpa.com is that I am recording each page's data into a separate file. I am using a flat file instead of sql.

I have been able to solve my problem - once I was able to find out how to check and uncheck check boxes in PHP I was able to write an IF statement that either checked or unchecked the box based on user input.

I am going to code my beginner 🙂 PHP tonight and hopefully I will be able to recreate my model and get the check boxes on the pages functioning properly.

I have a second web site, www.neatjobs-washdc-baltmd.com which is based on MySql which I think will be easier than doing file system programming to the point I have done it on my wife's site.

Thank you again, Richard, for taking the time to share your expertise with me _ I hope that I can borrow it again when I start working on the MySql site.

Jerry Wing