Displaying Tables based on Dropdown menu

ijamal

Dear forum,

I am trying to create a GUI using PHP4 that contains the following dropdown multiselect comboboxes,

Project Sector (1-Education, 2-Health etc.), Sub Sector(1-Drinking Water, Irrigation Water etc.), Donor(ECHO,USAID,SIDA etc.), Province(1-DRD, 2-Sughd, 3-Khatlon), District( Dist1, Dist2, etc.), Jamoat(Jam1, Jam2 etc.)

A user can choose to search the MYSQL database by selecting one or more items in each dropdown list. Once the selection is made. The user can choose what fields are to be viewed, I will create checkboxes with the names of fields that will be visible when the request is submitted.

I have already designed and populated the database, including assignment of primary and secondary keys.

I just need some pointers about where to start. I have also learnt how to connect to an MYSQL database from PHP and am able to view tables in HTML format.

Any help on how to proceed with this project will be most appreciated.

Thanks in advance.

Irshad

bogu

ijamal wrote:
I just need some pointers about where to start. I have also learnt how to connect to an MYSQL database from PHP and am able to view tables in HTML format.

To start what? I don't understand where do u encounter problems.

ijamal

Hi Bogu,

I apologise for being vague. I would like to have a startup page that displays 6 categories. (Sector, Sub-Sector, Donor, Oblast, District, Jamoat) as dropdown lists. The user should the be able to select from one or more of the categories, including more than item in each category. For example a user may select under the "Sector" category -> Health, Education and Water, Under "Donor" Category -> USAID, CIDA and Japan Aid etc. The user then selects checkboxes representing fields (For example a checkbox to show, Sector Name, Donor Name, Beneficiaries etc.

After the user has selected the sectors and the fields s/he wants to view, the "search" button is clicked and the request is sent to .php file that contains SQl statements that execute according to the chosen parameters.

I have so far been able to show the "Sector" category as a dropdown list, but i would like to show all categories on one page and then have an SQl statement executed when a selection is made showing the chosen fields with the data filtered according to the search. I guess this involves the use of multiple arrays to store the selection(s) from each category and then assign them to a variable that can be accessed from another .php document.

I hope I have made myself clear this time.

Thanks again for taking an interest in helping me.

Best regards,

Irshad

<?php
$db = mysql_connect("localhost","root");
mysql_select_db("CP_PROJECT",$db);
$result = mysql_query("select Project_Sector_ID, Project_Sector from Project_sector_List");

if ($result) 
   {
   echo "<SELECT NAME='Project_Sector' size ='10' multiple>";
   while ($myrow = mysql_fetch_array($result))
      {
      echo "<OPTION VALUE=\"".$myrow["Project_Sector_List.Project_Sector_ID"]."\">".
           $myrow["Project_Sector"]." </OPTION> ";
      }
   echo "</SELECT>";
   }
?>

leatherback

Hi Ijamal,

At the moment i am setting up a basic website with some tutorials on how to code basic issues in php. Instead of typing the whole procedure in again, please have a look at http://www.bio-vision.nl/coding/PhP.php for an overview of how to pass variables to pages, and how to query a database.

When you are working on this, you have a crucial choice to make: Do you want to transfer all your records to the page or not. It sounds like you want to update the items showed on your page as a user check/unchecks check boxes. This requires either communication with the server (Through AJAX or submitting data and reloading the page) or parsing all combinations as javascript arrays to your pages on loading. The latter may couse a lot of loading of unneeded data to the user. The AJAX option is tricky to get supported by al clients, I think. The reloading requires reloading between pages.

I personally would load a page with the categories in a table, and checkboxes for each value underneith.

ijamal

Hi Jelle,

Thanks for your response. I did take a look at your useful tutorials.

Regards,

Irshad