Easy? Default Value for Form Menus

krotkruton

This is my first post, but by no means the first time I've been to the site, this is just the first time I haven't been able to find an answer without asking.

I'm building a page that has three list/menu form objects that all should be the same (allowing the user to select 3 options from the same list). Since the values of the menus are the same and come from my MySQL database, I needed to reset mysql_fetch_assoc with mysql_data_seek so fetch would start back at the beginning of the list... hope that's clear. The problem is that the first menu starts off with the first item in the list, but the next two start off with a blank space.

Making them all the same is most important, but what I would really like is to have them display "None" as the default and then the rest of the options. I have a feeling this is just a simple solution, but it has been driving me crazy, and I'm just stuck on it.

Here's the important part of the code:

<form action="user_bar_confirm.php" method="post">
<fieldset>
<div align="center">
<legend><strong>Bar Destination Selection </strong></legend>
<label for="first">First Bar: <? echo $first_user_bar; ?></label><br/>
<select name="first">
<?php
do {

?>
<option value="<?php echo $row_hometown_bars['bar_name']?>" >
<?php echo $row_hometown_bars['bar_name']?></option>
<?php
} while ($row_hometown_bars = mysql_fetch_assoc($hometown_bars));?>
</select><br/>
<? mysql_data_seek($hometown_bars, 0); ?>
<label for="second">Second Bar: <? echo $second_user_bar; ?> </label><br/>
<select name="second">
<?php
do {

?>
<option value="<?php echo $row_hometown_bars['bar_name']?>" >
<?php echo $row_hometown_bars['bar_name']?></option>
<?php
} while ($row_hometown_bars = mysql_fetch_assoc($hometown_bars));?>
</select><br/>
<? mysql_data_seek($hometown_bars, 0); ?>
<label for="third">Third Bar: <? echo $third_user_bar; ?></label><br/>
<select name="third">
<?php
do {

?>
<option value="<?php echo $row_hometown_bars['bar_name']?>" >
<?php echo $row_hometown_bars['bar_name']?></option>
<?php
} while ($row_hometown_bars = mysql_fetch_assoc($hometown_bars));?>
</select><br/>
<label for="submit"> </label>
<p> <input id="submit" name="submit" type="submit" value="Submit">
</p>
</div>
</fieldset>
</form>

Tried to make that as readable as possible, but it was difficult with all the tabbing that I set in it...
Any help is greatly appreciated.

raspberryh

Hey,

I think the problem may be that in the second part, you are jumping right into your 'do' without doing your

$row_hometown_bars = mysql_fetch_assoc($hometown_bars)

first.

Maybe you should change it to a while instead of a do-while. Like this:

<?php
while ($row_hometown_bars = mysql_fetch_assoc($hometown_bars)) {
	?>
	<option value="<?php echo $row_hometown_bars['bar_name']?>" >
	<?php echo $row_hometown_bars['bar_name']?></option>
	<?php
} ?>

Try that, and see what happens.

Heather

krotkruton

Works great, and if it wasn't for the fact that I used a dreamweaver provided repeating list to model my list after, I never would have used a do-while loop since all my C++ experience has leaned away from them.

For my default variable, I'm just going to add that option outside of the php loop, which for some reason didn't occur to me until just now.

An interesting (to me at least) note about your suggestion is that it works great for the second and third menus, but if I use a while loop for the first menu, the menu shows no values. I'd be interested to hear an explanation from anyone who knows more about this, but it really doesn't matter since my problem has been solved.

Thanks for the help,
Brendan

raspberryh

Hmmm... do you know if it goes into the loop at all? Does it go into the loop, and just print blank values, or does it not even go into the loop at all?
Where is the part where you query the db? Right before the code you supplied, can you supply the whole thing?
Heather

krotkruton

I tried it again after adding my default "None" option before the loop. Now when I create the first menu with a while instead of a do-while, it skips the first value and lists all of the other values in the menu if there are more than one value, or it lists none if there is only one value to list. But, after looking more carefully at the code, I call mysql_fetch_assoc($hometown_bars) once directly after connecting to the database, so my while loop is actually my second call of mysql_fetch_assoc, which completely makes sense and explains both situations (or it does as far as I can tell).

So, if I go back to the beginning and delete the first fetch call, I can use a while loop and get exactly what I want; or, if I leave the first call and use a do-while loop, I get exactly what I want.

Gotta love fixing a problem and understanding it too.

Thanks again,
Brendan

krotkruton

Well I thought I was in good shape until I tried a bunch of different ways to submit the form. Problem now is that if I submit the page with the values "None" (where "None" is what the person viewing the page sees when the page first opens) for all three menus, isset($_POST[]) sees the first menu as being set while the other two are not. This happens while I have all three menus set as a "while" loop with no do-while loops at all.

Not good for me... I need all three to act the same. I could put in another option being "No Change" since the object of this is to change the users selections, but I need it to send a value every time instead of just when it is selected.

The question is, How do I garauntee that a menu will send a value to the next page if the value is the first option that appears but is not manually selected by the user?

Here's the code again with the small changes

$this_city = $_POST['cityName'];

mysql_select_db($database_connBarHopper, $connBarHopper);
$query_hometown_bars = "SELECT bar_name FROM barlist WHERE `city` = '$this_city'";
$hometown_bars = mysql_query($query_hometown_bars, $connBarHopper) or die(mysql_error());
//Left the next line out because it would require me to use a do-while loop below in the first menu
//$row_hometown_bars = mysql_fetch_assoc($hometown_bars);
$totalRows_hometown_bars = mysql_num_rows($hometown_bars);

.
.
.

<form action="user_bar_complete.php" method="post">
				<fieldset>
				<div align="center">
				  <p>
				    <legend><strong>Bar Destination Selection </strong></legend>
				  </p>
				  <p align="center">
				    <strong>Warning! </strong>Selecting a new bar from a menu will
				    replace the current bar you have set.
		          </p>
				  <label for="first">First Bar: <? echo $first_user_bar; ?></label><br/>
			              <select name="first">
						  		<option value="None">None</option>
            			    <?php 
								while ($row_hometown_bars = mysql_fetch_assoc($hometown_bars)) {  

							?>
 				               <option value="<?php echo $row_hometown_bars['bar_name']?>" ><?php echo $row_hometown_bars['bar_name']?></option>
			                <?php
								} 
							?>
    			          </select><br/>
						  <? mysql_data_seek($hometown_bars, 0); ?>
					  <label for="second">Second Bar: <? echo $second_user_bar; ?></label><br/>
			              <select name="second">
						  		<option value="None">None</option>
            			    <?php 
							while ($row_hometown_bars = mysql_fetch_assoc($hometown_bars)) {  

							?>
 				               <option value="<?php echo $row_hometown_bars['bar_name']?>" ><?php echo $row_hometown_bars['bar_name']?></option>
			                <?php } ?>
    			          </select><br/>
						  <? mysql_data_seek($hometown_bars, 0); ?>
					  <label for="third">Third Bar: <? echo $third_user_bar; ?></label><br/>
			              <select name="third">
						  		<option value="None">None</option>
            			    <?php 
								while ($row_hometown_bars = mysql_fetch_assoc($hometown_bars)) {
							?>
 				               <option value="<?php echo $row_hometown_bars['bar_name']?>" ><?php echo $row_hometown_bars['bar_name']?></option>
			                <?php } ?>
    			          </select><br/>
					  <label for="submit">&nbsp;</label>
					  <p>
						    <input id="submit" name="submit" type="submit" value="Submit">
</p>
					  <p>Bars listed above the menus are the bars you currently have set as
					    your destination</p>
					  <p>Note: You do not need to select 3 bars at this time, or ever, but you
					    have the option of doing so if you choose. There is also
					    no difference between the bars you select, so &quot;First
					    Bar&quot; is not the bar you like more than &quot;Second Bar,&quot;
					    it's just the first bar on the list.</p>
				</div>
				</fieldset>
			</form>