How to clear a form which already has php variables outputted?

[sothis]

So here's my problem:

I have a voting form of sorts.. if a user hasn't voted yet, the form fields are blank. if the user has voted, the fields will be filled in by the variables (used with objects). The fields in question are 5 select boxes, and 5 textarea fields.

If the user hasn't voted, and fills out the form, hitting the "clear" button (a standard reset input field) clears the form. However, if the php variables are "filled in", the form no longer clears. I have scoured google and the only options I've seen appear to be tricky... especially since I didn't want to have to reload the page to clear the form.

Do any of you know an easy solution to this?

thanks!

Oh, here's the code for the part of the form that either has or doesnt have the variables in it:

		<FORM METHOD="POST" ACTION="vote.php?theme=<?=$theme?>">
		<INPUT TYPE="hidden" NAME="voted" VALUE="1">

		<INPUT TYPE="hidden" NAME="firstVoteName2" VALUE=<?=$firstVoteName?>>
		<?php	

		for ($j = 0; $j < 5; $j++)
		{
			$result = query();

		?>
		<TD>
		<? 
			//$name = "series".$j;

			//echo $name;
			?>
		<SELECT NAME="<?=$seriesSelected[$j] ?>">
		<OPTION> </OPTION>
		<?php				

		$myArray = arrayFill($result);

		for ($i = 0; $i < sizeof($myArray); $i++)
		{ ?>
			<OPTION <? if($series[$j])
						{
							if ($series[$j]->GetSeriesVote() == $myArray[$i]) 
								{echo "SELECTED";}
							}?>><?=$myArray[$i]?></OPTION>
	  <? } ?>

		</SELECT><BR><BR>
		<TEXTAREA NAME="<?=$textarea[$j]?>" ROWS="5" COLS="39"><?if($series[$j]){ echo $series[$j]->GetComment();}?></TEXTAREA></TD>

		<?php if (((++$j) % 2) == 0) { echo "</TR><TR><TD COLSPAN='2' HEIGHT='15'>&nbsp;</TD></TR><TR>"; } ?>
		<? $j--;} 

		?>
</TR>
<TR>
	<TD COLSPAN="2">
		<INPUT CLASS="select" TYPE="submit" VALUE="Submit"> <INPUT TYPE="reset" CLASS="select" VALUE="Clear">
		</FORM>

[nemonoman]

Reset buttons reset the form to their original state: in your case with the values already there.

You would use javascript to fix this.

First NAME the form

<form name=myform ....etc.
create a new button
<input type=button name=clear value='Clear Values' onclick='clearform()'>

then add a script like

<script>
function clearform(){
document.myform.firstVoteName2.value='';

.
. //add other variablenames.value
.
}

</script>

[sothis]

thanks for the quick reply!

i tried doing this, and it works for input fields which are explicitly named. However, for the fields whose names are php variables, nothing changes. Any ideas as to why?

example:

<TEXTAREA NAME="<?=$textarea[$j]?>" ROWS="5" COLS="39"

this autogenerates textarea1, through textarea5. Explicitly saying
document.votedForm.textarea5.value='';

where votedForm is the correct name of the form, doesn't seem to do anything.

thanks again!

[nemonoman]

Textareas are a different animal. The javascript sytntax is, I think:

document.form.textarea.innerHTML='';

innerHTML rather than VALUE for textareas