Drop Down List help needed

[ssjody]

Ok, Right off the bat. I am very new to this. I have been doing a bunch of reading on PHP and MySQL and I have managed to get my flat file read into a database table and have managed to connect to the database. This is where I'm getting stuck.. I have what I believe is a pretty simple task for an experienced PHP user but for me it's turning into quiet a task. Here is what I want to accomplish: An example that does some but not all of what I want to do can be seen here: http://qa.car-part.com/cgi-bin/jeffm.cgi

I have data in 8 different columns in my table.
1. primary
2. model_number
3. year
4. model
5. part
6. part_type
7. side
8. part_number

Step one:
I want to display one drop down box, populated from the field in my table called model_number. This field contains duplicates but I only want to display the uniques. The user would select his choice from the drop down and click on a submit query button to look up the Model Number.
Sometimes there exists more than one year for a model_number and in this case the user would be prompted with a drop down box or radio button that asks the user to select the year but only if more than one year exists for the model_number selected.

Step two:
User then selects a Part Type from a second drop down list. This could be ENG, TRA, FEN, and so on. The part_type list is populated from the part_type column which contains many duplicates but again only uniques are displayed. All are three character abbreviations like I just listed.
If the Part type is one that there is a Left side or Right side possibility like a Fender (FEN), then he gets another drop down or radio button that prompts him to choose a side.

Step three:
The user then submits this query and is returned the part_number for the part looked up with the part name displayed next to it that is retrieved from the part column of the table.
At this point I want the part_number and part that is displayed to have a submit button next to it labeled Interchange that will allow the user to submit this part_number to the database and look up all the possible model_number, year, model and part that contain this part_number.

This is interchange which is what I am trying to accomplish. One of my hobbies is old Vintage Sears Tractors and I have about 20,000 rows of part numbers that I can use to produce this interchange. This way a person can look up a part, find the part number for the part he wants then see what all year and model tractors had this part.

I honestly don't know where to start. Help!! Thanks Jody

Here is some sample data:
model_number,year,model,part,part_type,side,part_number
917.99400,1966,Sears Suburban 10,"ENGINE, 10 HP",ENG,,634A53
917.99410,1966,Sears Suburban 10,"ENGINE, 10 HP",ENG,,634A21
917.99420,1966,Sears Suburban 12,"ENGINE, 12 HP",ENG,,634A54
917.99500,1964,Sears Custom 600,"ENGINE, 6 HP",ENG,,626A70
917.99510,1964,Sears Custom 600,"ENGINE, 6 HP",ENG,,626A71
917.99520,1965,Sears Custom 600,"ENGINE, 6 HP",ENG,,N/P
917.99530,1965,Sears Custom 600,"ENGINE, 6 HP",ENG,,N/P
917.99800,1966,Sears Custom 600,"ENGINE, 6 HP",ENG,,626A103
917.99820,1967,Sears Custom 600,"ENGINE, 6 HP",ENG,,626A144
917.25400,1967,Sears Hydro Trac 12,"ENGINE, 12HP",ENG,,634A253
917.25311,1968,Sears SS 12,FENDER W/BRACE (LH),FEN,L,634A212A
917.25311,1968,Sears SS 12,FENDER W/BRACE (RH),FEN,R,634A213A
917.25010,1967,Sears Custom 6,FENDER (LH),FEN,L,7147H
917.25010,1967,Sears Custom 6,FENDER (RH),FEN,R,714811
917.25020,1967,Sears Custom 6,FENDER (LH),FEN,L,7147H
917.25020,1967,Sears Custom 6,FENDER (RH),FEN,R,714811
917.25030,1972,Sears Compact 8,FENDER (RH),FEN,R,626A177A
917.25030,1972,Sears Compact 8,FENDER W/BRACE (LH),FEN,L,626A176A
917.25040,1972,Sears Compact 8E,FENDER (RH),FEN,R,626A177A
917.25040,1972,Sears Compact 8E,FENDER W/BRACE (LH),FEN,L,626A176A
917.25060,1972,Sears Custom 10 XL,FENDER W/BRACE (RH),FEN,R,634A213A
917.25060,1972,Sears Custom 10 XL,FENDER W/BRACE (LH),FEN,L,634A212A
917.25100,1967,Sears Suburban 10,FENDER (RH),FEN,R,7185H
917.25100,1967,Sears Suburban 10,FENDER (LH),FEN,L,7186H
917.25110,1967,Sears Suburban 10,FENDER (RH),FEN,R,7185H

[mr__why]

That's a lot to cover in a single post. Why don't you email me (addorton at gmail dot com) and I'll see if I can't walk you through at least part of it.

[ssjody]

Great! I will send my request to mr why via email and I will keep the group posted on the progress.

[ssjody]

Email I sent to mr why:

Here is what I got accomplished today: http://www.searstractor.com/interchange/buildselect.php

This drop down is populated from my database using the DISTINCT function to only show my unique's. I did the happy dance when I got this to work! Here is how I accomplished it. <?php
/ Program name: buildSelect.php
Description: Program builds a selection list
from the database.
/
?>
<html>
<head><title>Model Number</title></head>
<body>
<?php
$user="**";
$host="localhost";
$password="*****";
$database = "******";

$connection = mysql_connect($host,$user,$password)
or die ("couldn't connect to server");
$db = mysql_select_db($database,$connection)
or die ("Couldn't select database");
$query = "SELECT DISTINCT model_number FROM interchange ORDER BY model_number";
$result = mysql_query($query)
or die ("Couldn't execute query.");

/ create form containing selection list /
echo "<form action='processmodelnumber.php' method='POST'>
<select name='model_number'>\n";

while ($row = mysql_fetch_array($result))
{
extract($row);
echo "<option value='$model_number'>$model_number\n";
}
echo "</select>\n";
echo "<input type='submit' value='Select Model Number'>
</form>\n";
?>
</body></html>

From this I call the script "processmodelnumber.php" with the following:

<?php
/ Script name: processform.php
Description: Script displays all the information passed
from a form.
/
echo "<html>
<head><title>Customer Address</title></head>
<body>";
foreach ($_POST as $field => $value)
{
echo "<b>$value</b><br>";
}
?>
<?php
$user="**";
$host="localhost";
$password="*****";
$database = "******";

$connection = mysql_connect($host,$user,$password)
or die ("couldn't connect to server");
$db = mysql_select_db($database,$connection)
or die ("Couldn't select database");
$query = "SELECT DISTINCT year FROM interchange WHERE model_number = $value LIMIT 0 , 30 ";
$result = mysql_query($query)
or die ("Couldn't execute query.");

/ create form containing selection list /
echo "<form action='processparttype.php' method='POST'>
<select name='model_number'>\n";

while ($row = mysql_fetch_array($result))
{
extract($row);
echo "<option value='$year'>$year\n";

}
echo "</select>\n";
echo "<input type='submit' value='Select Year'>
</form>\n";
?>

</body></html>

This gives me all the possible years for this model number. Am I going about this the correct way so far. Now this is where my problem starts.
I am able to get the year to display but I also want the part_type and side field to display with drop downs also for the selected Model number. I can't figure out how to accomplish this. How do I do it.