Passing a Drop-Down box selection to another page...

lukatchikm

Hi, All. In this script, I dynamically create a drop-down box that contains a list of department employees. An administrator can select one of those employees, click 'Submit', and proceed to a page that brings up their information for editing.

Herein lies the problem: Once an employee is selected, the value will be passed to the update page, which searches a database for a record match. If the employee exists, their profile will be displayed. What will be the SQL syntax to tell the database, "Look for the value I passed from the drop-down box!!" ???? I'm a lil confused here...

The code which dynamically generates the drop-down box is as follows:

<?php
$conn = @mysql_connect("localhost","michael","pass")
or die("Could not connect to MySQL!" .mysql_error());
$rs = @mysql_select_db("county_directory",$conn) 
or die("Could not select database!" .mysql_error());

// Department is a session variable

$sql = "(SELECT id,f_name,l_name from employee_info where dept='$department' )";
$rs = mysql_query($sql,$conn) 
or die("Could not execute query!" .mysql_error()); 
while ($row= mysql_fetch_array($rs))
{ 
$id = $row['id'];
$f_name = $row['f_name']; 
$l_name = $row['l_name'];
$options .= "<option value=\'$id\'>".$f_name." ".$l_name; 
}

And then I dynamically generate a form

	 <form action='generate_profile.php' method='post' name='form1'>
       <SELECT name = 'choice'>
       <OPTION value = '0'>Select an Employee</OPTION>
	 <OPTION value = '0'>==========================</OPTION>

<?=$options?>

</SELECT>
<input type='submit' name='submit' value='Submit'>
</form>

When generate_profile.php is called from the form, I need to search the database for a matching value before I can actually post a profile to be updated...

In my table name, REGISTERED_USERS, fields are
f_name , l_name , and dept .

<?php

// Populates fields for updating
foreach($HTTP_POST_VARS as $varname => $value)
$formVars[$varname]=$value;

$db1=mysql_connect("localhost","michael","pass");
mysql_select_db("COUNTY_DIRECTORY");
$query="(SELECT * FROM EMPLOYEE_INFO WHERE f_name=\"$f_name\" AND l_name=\"$l_name\" )";
$result=mysql_query($query);
$row=mysql_fetch_array($result);
$formVars = array();
$formVars["id"]=$row["id"];
$formVars["f_name"]=$row["f_name"];
$formVars["l_name"]=$row["l_name"];
$formVars["dept"]=$row["dept"];
$formVars["title"]=$row["title"];
$formVars["phone"]=$row["phone"];
$formVars["ext"]=$row["ext"];
$formVars["fax"]=$row["fax"];
$formVars["email"]=$row["email"];
mysql_close($db1);
?>

After the employee information is extracted from the database, it gets formatted into a table, and all fields are structured like this:

<b>First Name:</b>
<td><input type="text" name="f_name"
value="<? echo $formVars["f_name"]; ?>" size=50></td>

It's not so important how I echo the profile to be edited, but my question is, how do I search my database for the employee based on the value that I sent from the drop-down box??

It's a long post, but I appreciate any and all ideas. TIA, Mike

devinemke

$result = mysql_query("SELECT * FROM EMPLOYEE_INFO WHERE id = '" . $_POST['choice'] . "'");

lukatchikm

As my post has previously explained: I am dynamically populating a drop-down selection box, which holds names of employees. A department administrator will select an employee to update, and click submit. Another page, generate_profile.php , will search for that employee in the database, and display their profile information in editing fields...

Herein STILL lies the problem: The menu gathers the correct types of employees, I can select one, and click Submit. When generate_profile.php is called, it is not grabbing the information for the employee (from the database) to be edited...

On the page that is generating the drop-down menu, my code is as follows:

<?php 
$conn = @mysql_connect("localhost","michael","pass") 
or die("Could not connect to MySQL!" .mysql_error()); 
$rs = @mysql_select_db("county_directory",$conn)  

or die("Could not select database!" .mysql_error()); 

// Department is a session variable 

$sql = "(SELECT id,f_name,l_name from employee_info where dept='$department' )"; 
$rs = mysql_query($sql,$conn)  

or die("Could not execute query!" .mysql_error());  

while ($row= mysql_fetch_array($rs)) 
{  

$id = $row['id']; 
$f_name = $row['f_name'];  

$l_name = $row['l_name']; 
$options .= "<option value='$id'>".$f_name." ".$l_name;

As you can see, id, f_name, and l_name are all used to generate this dynamic drop-down menu. Right below this script, I have a form, which allows the user to actually SELECT an option from that menu...

<form action='generate_profile.php' method='post' name='form1'>
<SELECT name='choice'>
<OPTION value = '0'>Select an Employee</OPTION>

<?=$options?>

</SELECT>
<input type='submit' name='submit' value='Submit'>
</form>

When generate_profile.php is called, the employee choice should be extracted from the database, and their profile should be displayed on the screen in editing boxes...Code is as follows...

<?

// Populates fields for updating
foreach($HTTP_POST_VARS as $varname => $value)
$formVars[$varname]=$value;

$db1=mysql_connect("localhost","michael","xcrunner");
mysql_select_db("COUNTY_DIRECTORY");
$result= mysql_query("SELECT * FROM EMPLOYEE_INFO WHERE id = '" . $_POST['choice'] . "' ");
$row=mysql_fetch_array($result);
  $formVars = array();
  $formVars["id"]=$row["id"];
  $formVars["f_name"]=$row["f_name"];
  $formVars["l_name"]=$row["l_name"];
  $formVars["dept"]=$row["dept"];
  $formVars["title"]=$row["title"];
  $formVars["phone"]=$row["phone"];
  $formVars["ext"]=$row["ext"];
  $formVars["fax"]=$row["fax"];
  $formVars["email"]=$row["email"];

?>

As the query suggests, it will look for the employee that matches 'choice', the selection previously chosen from the drop-down menu. When I format the output, I'm simply putting each item into a table row, similar to this:

<b>First Name:</b>
<input type="text" name="id"
value="<? echo $formVars["id"]; ?>" size=4>

The problem still is as it was before: I am not able to extract the employee profile from the database (based) on what the user has selected from the drop-down menu on the previous page...If anyone can help me, I would be very greatful.

Thank you all in advance, Mike