input text values "onBlur"

[LesSjo]

My questions are pertaining to a form I am creating that takes the client information and (hopefully) moves the text from various input fields into an iFrame or a different set of input fields.

Is it possible to grab a value from a text box in a form and input it into a mySQL database onBlur, then retrieve that information in the 2nd text field? If so, does anyone have some coding snippets doing something like this?

If not, can I echo the information from the textbox in question to a different textbox onBlur?

I don't want to submit the form until everything is complete, but I want the client to be able to see "formatted" input obtained from the various input fields.

Has anyone got a clue as to how to accomplish what I am trying to do?

Hopefully, when the form is completely filled in, there will be a second area on the form - iFrame or 2nd page or whatever - where their information will be formatted for output. By formatted for output, I mean typeface changes, size changes, etc.

Anyone help?

LS

[bastien]

AJAX is the 'hot new' tech that can do this...uses javascript and xml to request processes from the server

[justsomeone]

bastien wrote:

AJAX is the 'hot new' tech that can do this...uses javascript and xml to request processes from the server

You can use AJAX to have a client-side event (onBlur) trigger a server side action? I have got to set me aside some time to learn this thing.

[LesSjo]

I've looked over the article you pointed to. I remember reading something on XMLHTTPrequest functions just the other day, but didn't see how they would be able to do the actions that I was looking for. It looks to me that they would not be as "seamless" as I am envisioning. All the examples in the article point to an alert or popup or second page or whatever, but don't say anything about integration into an existing form in html. Even if I were to point to a new page, I still am left with a site that looks more "pieced together".

What I would prefer would be an action script that could take the information from one input field and fill in a second "formatted" field. I may have not been overly clear on that.

Say, for instance, that a client clicks a radio button on a form with a particular font, selects a font size from a list menu, and enters his name in an input text box. I would like to be able to take his name from the textfield, the font and size from the radio and list fields and show the result in a new field on the same form.

Can AJAX really do all that?

LS

[bastien]

Yes, it can. An alert in the samples are just to tell you that something is done/has happened. By using JS (DHTML) and div you can start to manipulate the html in the page, chaning the contents of a div with data received via AJAX, edit the list in a select field etc...its only limited by your imagination

[LesSjo]

Have you got any stripped down examples of something like this in action?

[bastien]

I don't, the app I work on is just starting to get with theis tech and I am not able to release the code...google maps uses this and there are lots of scripts and samples available that you can learn from.