Select from existing or Add new

ATS16805

what if i want to offer a user of an input form, along with new contact information for example, the option to select from a list of existing Table entries-- maybe an existing "contact type", or even existing business name, etc-- or to enter new data along w/ the rest of the new contact person's data?

i'm picturing my form to have an <option> pull-down, w/ an <input> text field next to it for the user to choose. i realize this is "old-school", but i'm just getting started w/ this stuff (php, mysql, etc), so i am thinking basic.

thanks!!

TobyRT

Get your results from the table and put them into an array:

$dropdown=array()

Then you can use a foreach statement to iterate through them

foreach ($dropdown as $value) { echo '<option value="'.$value.'">'.$value.'</option'; }

Sxooter

It should be doable with jscript. I'd do something like have an option in your dropdown that if they select it you use javascript to open a small form in a popup (one line input thing) and when they hit enter, you submit it through the page with a setting that says to create that entry in the database and redraw the form.

Not really fleshed out, but you get the idea I hope.

wreed

Try and implement this....what it does is pull the drop down from a database and on select of the drop down it throughs a variable into the URL and refreshes the page....thus you can load the form via the variable in the URL...I yanked a lot of my stuff out of here but you will have to play around with it, but it works really well.

<?
if (isset($_GET['variable']))
	{
                                //Variable in URL.
		$variable = $_GET["variable"];
		echo "<input type=hidden value=".$variable." name=variable>";
	} 
	else  

	{ 
		//if not in URL.
	}

//set up the query
$query = "QUERY HERE";
$result=mysql_query($query);
$num=mysql_num_rows($result);

mysql_close();
	echo "<td>";
	if ($num == 0) {
			echo "No Results Found";
	}
	else{
	echo "<SELECT size='10' id=auddates name=auddates onchange=\"location.href='pagename.php?variable='+aform.auddates.options[selectedIndex].value;\"> ";
	$i=0;
	while ($i < $num) {

	$variable=mysql_result($result,$i,"variable");
	$variable2=mysql_result($result,$i,"variable2");

	if ($variableURL== $variable) {
	$checked = " SELECTED";
	} else {
	$checked = "";
	}

	echo "<option value='".$variable."' ".$checked.">".$variable2."</option>\n";
	$i++;
	}
	echo "</select>";

mysql_free_result($result);
}
?>

ATS16805

wow! i should have read this last night when i was getting into this project!

first off... tobyRT, i'm basically already doing that, but w/ a WHILE loop. yours looks cleaner, and i definitely want to try it for my next go when i need a select / option drop-down.

Sxooter, that's a really cool idea! i tend to glean concepts and "what can be done" ideas from your comments more so than stuff i run right out and try to code into my scripts, or whatever-- it's just that you seem to operate on a much higher level of thinking than as do i, or at least your suggestions come from a much, much more experienced knowledge-- so i often say to myself "wha... huh...?", yet i am very inspired by you. so, please keep at it when you can. 😉
this particular suggestion sounds like something a little closer my level. i know i'm probably making a bigger deal of the whole "too advanced for me" deal, but i hope you get the idea. i guess what i'm trying to say is please don't take offence if i don't come back saying "hey, i tried that, and it worked great!", but i do keep track of the stuff you suggest as i'm sure it will come to good use in the future.

now, Wreed, this sounds like something more my speed, and i want to give it a try. if you see this, please give me a little more to go on in terms of what you had in mind/ how exactly this will work in action. i might be able to get it from trying to code of course, but that was my first thought. i have never tried the technique that you're suggesting here, but now is a great time to start!

thanks a lot guys. there's a LOT of good info here. i will likely use ALL three comments to improve my coding. thanks again!!!

ATS16805

wreed (or anyone) can you tell me a little bit about what's supposed to happen at line 27, the

echo "<SELECT size='10' id=auddates name=auddates onchange=\"location.href='testing_4.php?variable='+aform.auddates.options[selectedIndex].value;\"> ";

i'm really quite inexperienced. i don't understand the "auddates" concept. does that mean "audit dates"? i'm quite confused as to how to move forward w/ even trying this, but i really wanted to give it a go-- and what of the "location.href". this is stuff i have seen before, perhaps, but definitely never coded. is this javascript? i'm sorry.

anyone?

wreed

Thats javascript basically when you change a selection on the drop down it will refresh the page and put the variable in the URL, so in theory you could present the page based on that variable. Let me know if I didn't explain this well enough.

I used it for this.

I had a listbox with dates in it, below this list box I had check boxes. basically I wanted to update the checkboxes each time an item was picked in the listbox. So this worked out well cause the page was refreshed each time thus allowing me to check the boxes that needed to be checked.