[Resolved] Dynamic drop downs and disappearing fields

NoBullMan

Hi,
I have a form that has two drop downs that take their values from MySQL DB. They work fine (although a bit slow).
The problem is when I select an item from one, it does a (onchange = <?php $_SERVER['PHP_SELF'] ?>) and as a result clears up all the other form fields.
Is there any way to avoid this aside from passing every form field to the resulting page?

mhalloran

I used hidden fields to hold the values of the previous entries. If user_id is the value you are selecting, for example, you could do this:

and then in the dropdown:

	
$sql = "SELECT user_id, name FROM users order by name";
$query = mysql_query($sql, $con);
while ($row=mysql_fetch_array($query)){
    if ($row["user_id"]==$user_id_post)  {
        $selected=" SELECTED";
    } else {
        $selected="";
    }
    echo "<option value=\"".$_SERVER['PHP_SELF']."?user_id=".$user_id."\"".$selected.">";
}

this is assuming that globals are off.

NoBullMan

Thanks for the reply.
The problem I have is this:

I call this form with like this: header("Location:form.php?someid=1");

and in form.php, I have something like this:

<?php
$someID = $_GET['someid'];
?>

<form name="somename" action="post">
<input type="text" name="field1" value=""><br />
<input type="text" name="field2" value=""> <br />

<select name="select1" onChange="submit()">
    <?php
        $result = mysql_query("SELECT * FROM tabel1 WHERE someid=$someid");
        if ($row = mysql_fetch_array($result)) {
           do {
              echo '<Option value="'.$row['ID1'].'"';
              if ($select1 == $row['ID1']) {
                echo " selected";
              }
              echo '>';
              echo $row['Name'];
              echo "</option>/n";
           } while ($row = mysql_fetch_array($result));
           echo "</select>";
        }
     ?>
<select name="select2">
   <?php
   if ($select1) {
     $result = mysql_query("SELECT * FROM table2 WHERE select1ID=$select1");
   }
   if ($row = mysql_fetch_array($result)) {
     do {
         echo '<Option value="';
         echo $row['ID2'];
         echo '"';
         if ($select2 == $row['ID2']) {
           echo " selected";
         }
         echo '>';
         echo $row['Name'];
         echo "</option>/n";
      } while ($row = mysql_fetch_array($result));
      echo "</select>";
    }
 ?>

The two selects work fine, the problem is as soon as I select something from select1, the text boxes "field1" and "field2" get erased.

Thanks.

mhalloran

Well, have to pass those values as well...


<?php 
$someID = $_GET['someid']; 
if ($_POST["field1"]!="") $field1= $_POST["field1"];
if ($_POST["field2"]!="") $field2= $_POST["field2"];
?> 

<form name="somename" action="post">
<input type="hidden" name="field1" value="<?=$field1?>"> 
<input type="hidden" name="field2" value="<?=$field2?>"> 
<input type="text" name="field1" value=""><br /> 
<input type="text" name="field2" value=""> <br /> 

<select name="select1" onChange="submit()"> 
    <?php 
        $result = mysql_query("SELECT * FROM tabel1 WHERE someid=$someid"); 
        if ($row = mysql_fetch_array($result)) { 
           do { 
              echo '<Option value="'.$row['ID1'].'"'; 
              if ($select1 == $row['ID1']) { 
                echo " selected"; 
              } 
              echo '>'; 
              echo $row['Name']; 
              echo "</option>/n"; 
           } while ($row = mysql_fetch_array($result)); 
           echo "</select>"; 
        } 
     ?> 
<select name="select2"> 
   <?php 
   if ($select1) { 
     $result = mysql_query("SELECT * FROM table2 WHERE select1ID=$select1"); 
   } 
   if ($row = mysql_fetch_array($result)) { 
     do { 
         echo '<Option value="'; 
         echo $row['ID2']; 
         echo '"'; 
         if ($select2 == $row['ID2']) { 
           echo " selected"; 
         } 
         echo '>'; 
         echo $row['Name']; 
         echo "</option>/n"; 
      } while ($row = mysql_fetch_array($result)); 
      echo "</select>"; 
    } 
 ?>

NoBullMan

Thanks again, but this does not seem to help. I did exactly as what you suggested, but still the text fields get erased.
The sample page is at www.sightandsoundinc.com/hostest/sassi_sc/shopping/info_form.php?builder=1

Also, php complains about <.... value = "<?php =$field1>">. I used <?php echo $field1>

Thanks.

mhalloran

sorry about that, I forgot to add that to the field1 and field2 values into the form's text fields.

Try this for the form part...

Also <?=$variable?> should work. I don't now how long PHP has had that shortcut but I've been using if forever.

not "<?php =$field1>"> like you just typed but "<?=$field1?>

<?= is a shortcut for <?PHP echo
you never need to put the PHP in there unless for some odd reason you have two languages parsing the script.

Good luck.