My goofy select problem

cydewaze

Hi everyone.

I'm building a shopping cart for my forthcoming online business, and one of the items I'm offering has numerous options available. I started building a <select> list for each option before I found out that the shopping cart program will only accept two options.

My solution was to use the <select> dropdowns to "append" items to a PHP $variable, kinda like this:

$option = $item1."+".$item2."+".$item3."+".$item4."+".etc

My problem is, I can't figure out how to pass the <options> in the select list to the PHP variable. Someone told me that $_POST['name'] gets the info from <select name=name> but I haven't been able to get it to work.

Any ideas? I'm quite "green" at PHP.

Pig

Not sure, but from what you are saying it might be easier to work with your $vars as an array. Just name the items you want grouped as an array, eg: <select name=name[]>

Then you can access all the items from the array, or do a foreach if you need the list split out. You can also explode your array to get a big string.

I'm not sure how the data is supposed to be formatted at the end, or I could be more specific.

cydewaze

Yeah, lemme try to be more specific here.

Basically, each "add to cart" button is a little HTML form. It has fields for item description, price, shipping, etc. Plus, you're allowed two "options" per item, like size and color. When you click the add button, these options are passed as "opt1" and "opt2". If I try to pass an "opt3", it's ignored.

Well, I'm selling biking component groups, and there are several items in each group that have size options. So, since I can't have more than two options, I've decided to try to use a PHP variable to "collect" the options from drop-down lists, like this:

And I want to be able to pass whatever size the user selected to a $var. Once I've collected all the choices from the dropdown lists, my idea was to append them all to a long string, then do this:

I hope that makes it more clear.

Blob

???
I don't quite understand what you want...

But try:

<select name=thingy>
<option value='opt1' selected>Option 1
<option value='opt2'>Option 2
<option value='opt3'>Option 3
</select>

$item = $_POST['item1'] . $_POST['thingy']

That's if you're using post as your form method obviously. 🙂

Pig

OK, I think I see what you are getting at. You are trying to make the hidden field have the combined string from the select boxes in the same form.

The basic concept would work, but you cannot have them on the same page. The hidden field will not be populated the way you expect, because a value is only assigned to the select field when you submit the page. The NEW page that is opened will be able to receive the select fields, and then get processed.

You basically have 2 options (that I can see of the top of my head anyway). You could make your select option really big, and just list all the permutations out. You could create a script to do that if you didn't want to do it by hand.

Your other option would be to edit the scripts process. You could make the form submit to a different page that lists out what they selected, and have them confirm it. That is bad design, but it could work.

You could also edit the page that the form submits to.

Name your extra fields whatever you want. Then, right at the top of your process script put a script that says,

if( isset($opt3) OR isset($opt4) )
{
$opt1 = $opt1 . $opt2 . $opt3 . $opt4;
}

something like that.

Blob

Why do you need to put it in a hidden field?
Couldn't you just take the drop down box's value, and the item selected and use that?

cydewaze

Originally posted by Pig
OK, I think I see what you are getting at. You are trying to make the hidden field have the combined string from the select boxes in the same form.

Yes!!

But what you said about it not working makes sense. I've done something like this (simplified example):

<?php $options = $_POST['cranksize'] . "+" .  $_POST['bbwidth']  . "+" .  $_POST['axledia'] ?>

But when I submit the form, I just get ++++ with the values missing.

It looks like I have a problem on my hands, because there's no practical way to list out all the possibilities. There are 8 options, and each option has between 2 and 5 selections. It would be a huge mess. I have to think of something else, hmmmm.

cydewaze

Originally posted by Blob
Why do you need to put it in a hidden field?
Couldn't you just take the drop down box's value, and the item selected and use that?

The problem with that is that the cart will only take 2 options. Anything else is ignored. That's why I was trying to string all 8 together and pass them as one option.

Pig

The fact that you are using $_POST variables means you MUST have submitted the form to even have access to them. The script I suggested will work just fine. Do whatever you were trying to do with the hidden field, only on the process page, and within an if() statement.

That's all you have to do.

Kinneh

<?php $options = ". $_POST['cranksize'] ."+" .  $_POST['bbwidth']  . "+" .  $_POST['axledia'] ."; ?>

cydewaze

Ok, looks like I have some reading to do, because we're pushing the envelope of my PHP knowledge now :p

So, what you suggested populates the $var without relying on the $_POST, correct?

Pig

I advise against the previous post. The concept of adding them is fine, but the whole idea is to feed them into the existing script.

If you do a test to see if your extra options (opt3, opt4) are set, then you can override what option 1 and 2 are, making them the combined total of 1-4. If you feed them back into option 1,2 then the script still works, even if you decide to use only 2 options elsewhere in the form.

Defining a new variable will only clutter the system and create unecessary code.

keith73

Originally posted by Kinneh

<?php $options = ". $_POST['cranksize'] ."+" .  $_POST['bbwidth']  . "+" .  $_POST['axledia'] ."; ?>

? [/B]

php will either try to add the values of those 3 vars or give you an error on that line. What you created there is a math equation adding 3 strings together, NOT concatenation.

the original line was proper syntax, the values just arent' being passed.

keith

Pig

I think we have our wires crossed a little. Let me explain the whole thing in one shot.

1) your html form has as many options as you want, named opt3, opt4, etc.

2) on the page that processes the form, BEFORE opt1 or opt2 are used at all, you put in a little script that checks to see if opt3 or opt4 are set. If they are, then you tack opt3 and opt4 onto the end of your existing variables (opt1, opt2).

the script might look like:
if( isset($opt3) OR isset($opt4) )
{
$opt1 = $opt1 . $opt2 . $opt3 . $opt4;
}

or perhpas like:
if( isset($opt3) OR isset($opt4) )
{
$opt1 = $opt1 . $opt3;
$opt2 = $opt3 . $opt4;
}

The script you use will be determined by how you want the options to be formatted.

Does that make sense?

keith73

Originally posted by cydewaze
The problem with that is that the cart will only take 2 options. Anything else is ignored. That's why I was trying to string all 8 together and pass them as one option.

is this a shopping cart you got from somewhere else, and are attempting to modify it?

Why will it take only 2 options?

Can you post the form code?

this line you posted:

<?php $options = $_POST['cranksize'] . "+" .  $_POST['bbwidth']  . "+" .  $_POST['axledia'] ?>

where does it reside. in the same page as the form or in the script the form is posting to?
What is the form's method? get or post?

the problem may not necessarily be in your code, but in your logic. You have to map it out step by step to understand the order in which things will happen.

need input

keith

cydewaze

keith:

It's actually a paypal shopping cart, and while it's been fine for everything else on the site, these big-ticket items just have too many options. The method is "post".

The two-option limit seems to be built into it.

Pig:

I think my comprehension problem lies in how the information gets passed from the <select> list to the $opt1. It almost seems like I have to use Javascript to do it or something.

Pig

When you submit a form, every name from your form is passed to the new page as a variable. So if your select's name is charley, then you can access whatever they entered in that field as $_POST['charley'], or if autoglobals are turned on, just as $charley.

However, that options is unavailable to you. The action of the form is a page at paypal.com, and you cannot modify that.

cydewaze

Yeah, I have no control over the paypal part of things.

Since it understands this:

I tried replacing "whatever" with the "<?php echo $_POST['option'] ?>" stuff, but it still passes only the things I chose as delimiters.

I think there's some big piece of the pie that I'm missing when it comes to how $POST['foo'] stuff gets passed from the <select> list. I think I either have it in the wrong place, or it's passing the "whatever" to the cgi before the $POST stuff gets picked up.

I feel like I'm trying to solve a calculus problem using addition.

Pig

When the form is submitted, everything they enter into the form is past to the receiving page/script as an array called $_POST. The only way you can mess with the output of the form is by altering the page that receives the form.

input -> form -> cgi(pay pall).

The only thing you can do is alter the form, or interpose between the form and pay pal's cgi.

input -> form - > preprocess cgi (you) -> cgi (pay pal)

The only way I can see of altering the form would be to make a huge list with all the permutations (as I suggested before).

The other option would be to create a preproccess page that converts the info for you. You would make your form with as many options as you want, AND change the action of the form to "preprocess.php" or whatever you want to call it. Then on the preprocess.php, you would have something like:

echo("
Do you want to add:
$POST['field_name1']<br>
$POST['field_name2']<br>
//etc etc
<form action=\"paypal-bs-here\" method=post>
<input type=hidden name=field_name1 value=\"$_POST['field_name1']>
<input type=hidden name=field_name2 value=\"$_POST['field_name2']>
//etc etc
");

//this is where the conversion is
if( isset($opt3) OR isset($opt4) ) 
{ 
$opt1 = $opt1 . $opt2 . $opt3 . $opt4; 
unset($opt2);
} 

echo("
<input type=submit value=submit>
");

The downfall to this is that your guests must click twice to add an item. Not the end of the world, but not the best.

Pig

crud. I messed up on the php. This should be correct:

echo("
Do you want to add:
$POST['field_name1']<br>
$POST['field_name2']<br>
//etc etc
<form action=\"paypal-bs-here\" method=post>
<input type=hidden name=field_name1 value=\"$_POST['field_name1']>
<input type=hidden name=field_name2 value=\"$_POST['field_name2']>
//etc etc
");

//this is where the conversion is
if( isset($opt3) OR isset($opt4) ) 
{ 
$opt1 = $opt1 . $opt2 . $opt3 . $opt4; 
} 
else
{
$new_opt2 = $_POST['opt2'];
}

echo("

<input type=hidden name=opt1 value=$_POST['opt1']>
<input type=hidden name=opt2 value=$new_opt2>
<input type=submit value=submit>
");