select check boxes & transfer ids

dreams4000

Hey all,

I have a php page that loops through a list of names. Next to each name is a check box. On top of the page is a simple link that says Edit and another that says Delete.

What I want to happen is to be able to select check boxes then click one of those links and have the IDs that match the check boxes transfer with the links. I dont care of the Ids are transfered in the url or some other way, just need to get them to the next page for processing. Any ideas?

//Ids need to transfer from below to the links here.
echo "<a href='../userlist/edit_names.php?user_id=$checked_ids'>Edit</a> <a href='../user_list/delete_names.php?user_id=$checked_ids'>Delete</a>";

echo "<form action='user_list.php' method='post' enctype='application/x-www-form-urlencoded' name='user_list'>";

for ($h=0; $h < $nameCount; $h++) {

echo " <tr><td><input type=checkbox id=\"$h\" name=\"name_id[]\" value=\"\"></td><td>$User_name</td></tr>";

}

echo "</form>";

This probably involves some javascript or something, but if someone could offer some help, would be much much appreciated. Thanks all!

linus

If you're willing to have the "Edit" and "Delete" links be form submission buttons, it's easy and requires no Javascript. The page's HTML should look like this:


<form action="process_checkbox_action.php" method="post">
  <input type="submit" name="action" value="Edit" />
  <input type="submit" name="action" value="Delete" />

<!-- and for the loop... -->
  <input type="checkbox" name="checked[]" value="<?php echo $nameId ?>" /> <?php echo $name ?>
<!-- end loop -->
</form>

The form gets submitted to process_checkbox_action.php (or whatever you want to call it 🙂), and $POST['checked'] will be an array of all the nameIDs that were checked, making it easy to work with them. $POST['action'] will either be 'Edit' or 'Delete', depending on which button was clicked. I hope this helps. If you need the Edit/Delete options to be links and not buttons, some javascript is required, but nothing too horrendous.

kburger

You're almost there, but you need submit buttons for your form.

<input type="submit" name="edit" value="Edit"><br>
<input type="submit" name="delete" value="Delete">

In your form handler...

if (isset($_POST['edit'])) // do whatever
if (isset($_POST['submit'])) // do whatever

Just iterate through your $name_id array to get the selected values and do whatever you want with them.

edit: Looks like I was a couple of minutes late with the reply. Same idea though.

dreams4000

Thanks so much for the fast replies! This looks like it will work. Is the JavaScript method a lot more difficult to have it tack on the ids to the url?

linus

If you wanted to use text links and Javascript, the easiest way would be just to make the script submit the form. Each link would have to (1) somehow get across whether to edit or delete and (2) submit the form. The simplest way I can think of at the moment is to do the beginning of your form like this:


<form action="process_edit_del.php" method="post">
  <input type="hidden" name="action" value="" id="checkBoxAction" />
  <a href="javascript:submit('Edit');">Edit</a> |
  <a href="javascript:submit('Delete');">Delete</a>

...

...and have your script like this:


<script type="text/javascript">
function submit(action) {
  var actionRef = document.getElementById('checkBoxAction');
  actionRef.value = action;
  actionRef.form.submit();
}
</script>

I haven't tested this but I think it should work. What it does is use javascript set the value of a hidden field called 'action', and then submit the form. The contents of the $_POST array will be the same.

[edit: I don't know why there are spaces in the <a href="javascript:... part, but there shouldn't be. Forum bug.]

dreams4000

Rockin! Everything seems to work with that. I do have one last question if you have the time.. about the java setup. Is there any way to have java get rid of the link on one of the buttons mentioned here if the user has clicked more than one check box? For example with the names list... I don't want to submit multiple IDs but if the user checks a couple of boxes and then clicks edit, it will be sending a few IDs. I would like to be able to make the Edit submit button, no longer a button, if more than one is checked. Thanks for any info!