$_SESSION and dropdown form elements?

lestat

I have a simple form, and I'm trying to save the form data throughout its edit /submission. All seems to work fine except for dropdown boxes. Is there something different I should be doing? 🙁
EG:

form.php:

<?
// [ START SESSION ]
session_start();
header("Cache-control: private"); // IE 6 Fix.
?>

<html>
<head>
<title>form.php</title>
</head>
<body>

<form method="post" action="preview.php">
First Name:<input type="text" name="First_Name" value="<? print("$_SESSION[First_Name]");?>" /><br />

Last Name:<input type="text" name="Last_Name" value="<? print("$_SESSION[Last_Name]");?>" /><br />

<select name="dropdown" value="<?print("$_POST[dropdown]");?>" >
<option ></option>
<option value="Cats">Cats</option>
<option value="Dogs">Dogs</option>
<option value="Elephants">Elephants</option>
</select>

<br /><br />
<input type="submit" value="submit">
</form>

</body>
</html>

preview.php:

<?
// [ START SESSION ]
session_start();
header("Cache-control: private"); // IE 6 Fix.

// actions to take from buttons
if (isset($_POST["goBack"])) { // Go Back and Edit
    header("Location: form.php");
} else {
    if (isset($_POST["Send"])) { // Continue & Process the form
        header("Location: process.php");
    }
}

// Dynamically Assign Key & Value to each Post
foreach($_POST as $key=>$value){
    $_SESSION[$key]=$value;
}

?>

<html>
<head>
<title>preview.php</title>
</head>
<body>

<b>Form Results:</b><br />
<?
// Echo Results
print("First Name is: $First_Name<br />");
print("Last Name is: $Last_Name<br />");
print("You selected: $dropdown<br /><br />");
?>

<form method="post" action="preview.php">
<input type="submit" name="goBack" value="Edit"><input type="submit" name="Send" value="OK">
</form>

</body>
</html>

If the browser 'back' button is used, the dropdown data is returned. However, if the 'edit'(submit) button is used, the data is NOT returned.

Thanks for looking!

devinemke

change this:

<select name="dropdown" value="<?print("$_POST[dropdown]");?>" > 
<option ></option> 
<option value="Cats">Cats</option> 
<option value="Dogs">Dogs</option> 
<option value="Elephants">Elephants</option> 
</select>

to this:

<select name="dropdown"> 
<option value=""></option>

<?php
$dropdown = array('Cats', 'Dogs', 'Elephants');
foreach ($dropdown as $value)
{
	echo '<option value="' . $value . '"';
	if (isset($_POST['dropdown']) && $_POST['dropdown'] == $value) {echo ' selected';}
	echo '>' . $value . '</option>';
}
?>

</select>

lestat

Way cool. I never thought to do that. 😉 It seems a lot of times, I make things harder than what they are.

Thanks again!

lestat

Now what about checkboxes?
Because you have

<input type="checkbox" name="checkboxname" value="This_box_is_checked">

so If i try to do a:

 value="<? echo($_SESSION['checkboxname']?>"

... then I lose "This-box_is_checked" value.

lestat

Wait I got it - "selected" etc....