force refresh

hwttdz

I'm working with a form, and when the user makes a selection the selection only affects the parts of the form past where they made the selection. I need to do a refresh so that the entire page will be affected, how can I force a refresh when they make a change.

leatherback

Have a look at javascript for this, search for the "OnChange()" function.

A problem however is that this will not work when users have javascript disabled. You ar ebetter of looking at redesiginging your form, so it does not require an automated refresh.

hwttdz

In my form I have a series of drop down boxes. When you make a selection from a dropdown box it does nothing immediately, which I don't think is possible to change. On pressing submit it uses the dropdown result to make an sql query. The problem is the query affects only things after it. So the first part of the form is generated using the data in the database before the query is made. If I press refresh it generates the whole page using the new data in the database. The query cannot be before the dropdown menu because then the first time the query would have no data and the drop down menu uses the original database values as defaults.

And I can't use javascript either.

Gasolene

if you can't use javascript then there is nothing you can do to refresh the page.

onchange='submit();' is the what your looking for.

php is a server side language, once the response (html code) is sent to the client (web browser), the server actually stops processing anything and just waits for a 'request'

a request can be made using an html form. and you can use javascript to submit the form is on an event such as onchange.

hwttdz

This is maybe a better description of the problem I'm having say your data was cars and colors. If I have a form that gets the information that I need for the sql query the sql query needs to be after the input which means that when the input is changed only the part of the page after the input is generated using the new values in the database and to get the change to be made everywhere I need to refresh.

I'll try to give a little example

car1 colorA [colorA] color A
say this is the first screen with the [colorA] in a dropbox

car1 colorA [colorB] colorA
now we select colorB

car1 colorA [colorB] colorB
and press submit, now the change has only affected the part after where the data was recieved, if I refresh I get

car1 colorB [colorB] colorB
which is what I need, but I need to find a way to make it affect the prior fields, or pass through a redirect site, or autorefresh. The first seems like it's impossible, the last seems like there should be a way to do it, to do the second I need to know how to pass the data on to another site.

Gasolene

ok, i get what your asking...

sounds like you didn't structure your page properly.

you should not have sql queries mixed with html

1) handle all of your requests (the vars passed by forms)

2) do you business logic, ie: add data to a database, update a record, send an email, ect...

3) now create a response (the html code)

you should have ABSOLUTELY no sql queries once you start outputting html code.

I would have to venture a guess that you do.

hwttdz

I need the html forms to get the data to do the sql querys. So then I guess I need to put them on separate pages?

Gasolene

if it makes it easier to use a seperate page, then do so. However it's not necessary.

hwttdz

Is there any way to get the response from a form before the place where the form is on the page is reached. It seems that if a selection in a form is made the data goes somewhere but the prior data is used until the place where the form modifies the data is reached at which point the data from the form is used. Is there no way to make the entire page be generated using the same data obtained by the form?

I really feel there must be some way to do this.

thorpe

the whole way through this post there have been suggestion of using javascript which you have seemingly ignored. why? javascript is run on the client, which is what you need.

Gasolene

Is there any way to get the response from a form before the place where the form is on the page is reached. It seems that if a selection in a form is made the data goes somewhere but the prior data is used until the place where the form modifies the data is reached at which point the data from the form is used. Is there no way to make the entire page be generated using the same data obtained by the form?

no, a form does not produce a response, it produces a request.

a request is basically a bunch of variables sent by the browser to the server usually from a form (but not always). The browser has NO idea what the server is going to do with those vars, nor does it care.

the server than uses those vars and performs what ever logic needs to be done. the creates a response (usually html code) and sends it back to the client. the server has no idea what the client will do with the response nor does it care.

there is absolutely no communication between the server and client between requests.

so basically you need to re-evaluate how you are creating your response.

maybe if you posted some code I could see what u r doing.