How do i keep items selected in a "<select multiple.." after posting page to itself?

TimNoob

Hi, Im putting together a page in php which populates a "<select multiple..." list box and displays data depending on what the user selects from the list box. I am posting the page back to itself using <?PHP echo $_SERVER['PHP_SELF']; ?>.

I have written the code that draws the form as a function. This function is called when the page loads and when the submit button is pressed.

This all works ok except that when the form is posted the selected list reverts back to its default values. I want the list to retain the users selections.

Stumped! 😕 ..................help ne1 (in noob language pls)?

bad76

Hi,
you must echo a SELECTED in <option> tag.

something like this:

while(bla bla) 
{
    echo "<OPTION value='bla' ";
    if($myvalue==bla) echo "SELECTED ";
    echo">my sel</OPTION>";
}

see you

elToro

Or for well-formedness (if you're using XHTML), the attribute and value would be selected="selected"

In other words, the appropriate OPTION would need to look like this:

<option value="whatever" selected="selected">Whatever</option>

TimNoob

Sorry but I am really a noob 🙂

Where is $myvalue declared?

How do i adapt this to work with the "<select multiple...." which i am using which is an array?

What is bla?

bad76

Originally posted by TimNoob
Sorry but I am really a noob 🙂

Where is $myvalue declared?

How do i adapt this to work with the "<select multiple...." which i am using which is an array?

What is bla?

ok, i'm running. go back.
Let be $myvalue the value you have to display. It's submitted from your post to PHP_SELF. It's the name of listbox.

I think in your code there is some code like this:

while("there_is_any_option")

{
echo "<OPTION value='some_value' >my sel</OPTION>";
}
to make on the fly the "<select multiple ..."

or something like

to make a static "<select multiple ..."

I'm rigth?

Well, before any close char (">") you have to check if the $myvalue is the same as current value. If is, echo SELECTED (or selected="selected" for some that work with XHTML).

example:

while("there_is_any_option")  

{ 
    echo "<OPTION value='some_value'"; 
    if($myvalue="some_value") echo " SELECTED "; //<- look beginning/ending space...
    echo ">my sel</OPTION>"; 
}
//or
<OPTION value='some_value1' <?if($myvalue="some_value1") echo " SELECTED ";?>>my sel 1</OPTION>
<OPTION value='some_value2' <?if($myvalue="some_value2") echo " SELECTED ";?>>my sel 2</OPTION>
<OPTION value='some_value3' ...

Ps:"bla" it's for any_to_do, anything... :p

TimNoob

....... can you tell me why this doesn't work? It echos the SELECTED text every time whether the list entry is selected or not.

<input type=submit value="update display">
<select multiple name=display_list[]>
<option value='option_1' <?if($display_list="option_1") print ' SELECTED ';?>>option_1</option>
<option value='option_2' <?if($display_list="option_2") print ' SELECTED ';?>>option_2</option>
<option value='option_3' <?if($display_list="option_3") print ' SELECTED ';?>>option_3</option>
</select>

</form>

I've been staring at this for a while now and just know its gonna be something simple!

bad76

<select multiple name=display_list[]>

This will make display_list an array.
Try just
<select multiple name=display_list>

TimNoob

I have just tried display_list instead of display_list[] and the result is the same 🙁

Surely i need display_list to be an array as this is a multiple select list box? If the user selects 2 of the 3 options and presses the "update display" button i need to be able to tell which 2 options were selected.

bad76

You are right.

change

if($display_list="option_1")

into soething like this:

if(in_array($display_list,"option_1"))

see you