PHP or Java Script to tackle form problem

Chris_96_WS6

I manage my office's website on the side in addition to my normal non-computer duties.

I have built a simple set of forms and a MySQL database to help our training manager do class registrations, etc. online. Essentially there is an HTML form that posts to a PHP script that dumps the registration info into the database.

One feature of the training is that some classes have a complimentary bevarage and others do not. I need a way to display the beverage option for some courses and not display it for others.

Currently there is a drop down box of all the classes you can sign up for, that is populated from the database of classes that are added/admin'd on the back end.

I figure I will add a field beverage? Yes/No so that there is some variable to call to determine if the beverage choice should be displayed on the signup form or not.

My big problem is I don't know how to go about coding the form appropriately.

I've never used Java and I'm really just a PHP novice. Obviously right now with the HTML form there's no way for the server to know which class has been selected. So for the drink option to be displayed it would need to be able to (without submitting the form) look up that class in the database, see if beverage is set to yes or no, and then display the drink option.

Anybody have any suggestions for how to go about this? Where to get started?

hagen00

Firstly, Java is not Javscript. I know you probably mean Javascript when saying Java, but it's important that you're not too loose with your terminology.

To answer your question, you need to use PHP and not Javascript. The first thing you would need to do is rename your .html file to .php. Then you could use PHP to very easily do this:

So for the drink option to be displayed it would need to be able to (without submitting the form) look up that class in the database, see if beverage is set to yes or no, and then display the drink option.

Chris_96_WS6

Yeah, its already a .php file. Everything is .php.

I guess its time to start studying Java Script then.

hagen00

No, for your particular problem, start studying PHP. Javascript is mainly used for client side validation or fancy menus.

Chris_96_WS6

Sorry, I mis-read. Thought you said I'd need both.

OK, so using just PHP...can you give me a hint on what function(s) to call in order to query the DB based on a form click?

I just need some direction. I can figure out how to make it work once I know where to look for the answer.

hagen00

You know what...I'm thinking I might have mis read your post! You want to display different things without refreshing the page right? Sorry, I skim read.

You are right then. You need a combination of Javascript and PHP. You could use this approach:

When the page loads, query the DB using PHP and store the values in a Javascript array. Then on click, you would call a Javascript function that then populates the fields with the appropriate values that it gets from the array. Makes sense?

Chris_96_WS6

Yes, sounds right. Also sounds way over my head.

I may just re-engineer the whole system to present differently and avoid the need for Java Script all together. I'm limited to just a couple hours/week to work on this so learning Java Script from scratch isn't a very attractive option. I'd like to know how to do it, I'm just low on time.

Is there not a way to use PHP_SELF to have the user click an option from the drop down then re-load the page using the posted value from that dropdown in an IF statement which would echo another field?

hagen00

Reloading the page would be simpler. The code could be something like this:

<script>
function submit_page(val){
    window.location.href="mypage.php?selected="+val;
}
</script>

<select onChange='submit_page(this.value)'>
<option value='1'>one</option>
<option value='2'>two</option>
</select>

The above code will resubmit your page (mypage.php) passing the value of the selected option.

So you're still using javascript, but it's simpler. When the page loads again, you can get the value by doing $_GET['selected']. Then you do your if statement and get from the database depending on what is selected.

Chris_96_WS6

Awesome! Thanks so much.